Mr. Winton, then a 29-year-old arbitrager on the London Stock Exchange, fluent in German, arrived in Prague just before Christmas on a three-week vacation.
Resident in Britain, she was as comfortable in Berlin or New York as London, as fluent in German as English, passionate about literature but knowledgeable enough to be a professional film critic for The Spectator and The Sunday Telegraph.
And there were no other reasons for a young British man, fluent in German, to be in Prague in late 1938?
Mr Jain, who is currently based in London, will be the first person not fluent in German in charge at Germany's biggest bank.
But Mr. Jain, who grew up in India, is not fluent in German and would be hard-pressed to take over the political obligations that come with the job of running Deutsche Bank.
Already fluent in German and French, he also learned Czech and Slovak, spending spells in Prague during his university holidays.
My husband, an experienced mechanical engineer who is fluent in German, left his job in the United States and found a new one in Vienna.
I'm the power.' " Europeans like Ms. Brainard's sensitivity to political culture as well: she is fluent in German, and was raised in Poland and Germany, the daughter of a Foreign Service officer during the cold war.
She is friendly, accommodating, buoyant, coached by her husband, Gary Lough, fluent in German and French, a resident of Monaco.
But Mr. Jain, a native of India who is not fluent in German, was regarded as not ready to assume the statesmanlike duties expected of the head of an institution that holds a prominent place in the nation's identity.
Mr. Putin, fluent in German, became the first Soviet or Russian leader to speak to the German Parliament, and he read his speech in German.
