Mr. Weber, in turn, followed in the footsteps of guardians of fiscal and monetary probity like Otmar Issing, a former official at the Bundesbank and E.C.B. who remains a towering figure in German economics. On Friday, the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper devoted a full broadsheet page to an essay by Mr. Issing calling for rigid fiscal discipline to restore confidence in the euro.

It is possible that Mr. Weidmann, in office less than a year, could prove to be less dogmatic on the governing council of the E.C.B. than his predecessors, even though he has adopted their rhetoric. The same is true of Mr. Asmussen.

Mr. Asmussen, who started at the E.C.B. on Jan. 1, has said little about his views on monetary policy. But he proved his flexibility at the Finance Ministry. He first served under a Social Democrat and then survived a change of government to become a top aide to Wolfgang Schäuble, the current finance minister in Mrs. Merkel’s more conservative coalition.

One theory, as yet unproved, is that Mr. Weidmann’s stern public statements are intended to assuage fears about inflation as the E.C.B. floods the banking system with low-cost loans.

“He has a certain role the German public expects him to play,” said Clemens Fuest, a professor at Oxford University who has studied the relationship between public spending and growth. “These measures can only be successful if inflation expectations remain stable.”

The German economic establishment’s attachment to austerity goes back at least to the 1970s, when the country was suffering from high unemployment and slow growth despite expansive government spending. Later, there were questions whether German taxpayers got an adequate return from the more than €1 trillion that flowed to East Germany after reunification. Countries like Poland or the Czech Republic arguably developed faster after the fall of their communist regimes, even though they had to rely mostly on their own resources. From this experience, the idea took hold that the key to more growth was not more spending, but a more prudent government.

Proponents of this view provide an intellectual basis for Germany’s insistence that countries like Greece and Spain should cut government spending even though they already face mass unemployment. A similar debate rages in Britain, where Prime Minister David Cameron is leading an austerity drive even though the country faces far less pressure from financial markets.