For the stick-in-the-mud traditionalists within Deutsche Bank, there was always going to be a day of reckoning. The only question was when the axe would fall. Having orchestrated a bitter civil war against the new management for almost two years, there was never any doubt among the more level-headed managers that the diehards were living on borrowed time.

But future historians of Deutsche Bank will probably have to admit that the traditionalists fought a wily campaign. On the surface, it didn't appear that their cause was strong and that they would only be taken seriously within Germany.