This joke is well-known in Germany (http://www.bankmitarbeiter.de/html/bankerwitze.html http://www.bankmitarbeiter.de/html/bankerwitze.html at the bottom) - you

This joke is well-known in Germany (http://www.bankmitarbeiter.de/html/bankerwitze.html http://www.bankmitarbeiter.de/html/bankerwitze.html at the bottom) - you have to know that in Germany jokes about the politicians (in particular the Federal Government, but increasingly commonly also the EU) are what jokes about lawyers are in the US: > [E]ine ältere Dame in einer Bank [will] ein Sparbuch eröffnen und 1.000,- EUR einzahlen. Dame: "Ist mein Geld bei ihnen auch sicher ? Banker: "Klar doch !" Dame: "Und was ist, wenn Sie Pleite machen ?" Banker: "Dann kommt die Landeszentralbank auf !" Dame: "Und was, wenn die Pleite macht ?" Banker: "Dann kommt die Bundesbank auf !" Dame: "Und wenn auch die Pleite macht ?" Banker: "Dann tritt die Bundesregierung zurück, und das sollte Ihnen nun wirklich die 1.000,- EUR wert sein. My rough not word-for-word translation: An old lady goes to a bank to open a savings book in which she wants to deposit EUR 1,000. Lay: "My money is really safe at you". Banker: "Of course!". Lady: "And what if you go bust?". Banker: "Then the Federal State Central Bank accounts for it!". Lady: "And what if the Federal State Central Bank goes bust?". Banker: "Then the German Central Bank accounts for it.". Lady: "And when it goes bust, too?". Banker: "Then the Federal Government has to recede - and this is surely worth EUR 1,000.". Nowadays there also exists a variant of the joke where Angela Merkel is explicitly mentioned in the final line. :-) Also note in the German version the word "Banker" is used (pronounced the same as in English) - in opposite to its English analogue in German this word has a derogatory connotation (though not as much as in former days). The polite (though a little outdated) German word for "banker" is "Bankier" (though spelled rather similarly as "Banker", it is pronounced differently). I could say that there are reasons why it has become a little uncommon (making it a little outdated) to use the polite German word "Bankier" anymore. ;-)