Mr Hellwig, director of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, backed the idea of using taxpayers’ money to fund public sector investment.
He said: “Turning banks into community property through public funds is not only possible but also necessary.
“If a bank is no longer able to help itself, the federal government should take on shares and exercise the related control functions.”
The comments come after last month struggling Deutsche Bank closed down almost 200 branches and is set to cut almost 3,000 jobs.
Financial expert Max Keiser recently claimed Germany’s largest bank is “technically insolvent” and runs a “ponzi scheme”.
He said: “The bank needs to go out of business, because they are not solvent. But politicians, including Schaeuble, allow for financial engineering products to come onto the market that mask insolvency.
“It’s dead, it’s insolvent, the bank is dead... This is a dead bank walking.”
Think soros shorted it
Whoa! That man is serious.