The clumsy compromise by EU leaders to end a row over the running of the European Central Bank (ECB) brought wide condemnation in Germany despite attempts by Chancellor Helmut Kohl to defend the deal.
With a majority of Germans already deeply worried about surrendering their trusty deutschmark to the untested euro, business leaders, the media and opposition politicians feared public mistrust of currency union could now reach new heights.
Even the euro's traditional backers were dismayed at an arrangement under which Mr Wim Duisenberg, the first president of the European Central Bank, will serve only a truncated term to make way for French central bank governor Mr Jean-Claude Trichet.
"It is extremely regrettable that the dispute over the presidency of the European Central Bank could only be resolved with a lazy compromise," said Mr Hans-Olaf Henkel, chief of the powerful Federation of German Industry.
"The envisaged `term-splitting' casts a shadow over the central bank's much-prized autonomy," said Mr Henkel, whose federation normally highlights the advantages of currency union.
The statement by Mr Henkel pointedly failed to mention Mr Kohl's part in the euro project. Instead, he praised the Bundesbank and German Finance Minister Mr Theo Waigel for making sure the euro "bore the hallmark of German stability".
Immediately after the deal was announced in Brussels yesterday morning, Kohl, who should have been basking in glory as his pet project was given the green light, raced round giving interviews with German TV stations to defend the compromise.
He insisted above all that Duisenberg's pledge to step down in 2002 had been made voluntarily - thus not breaking terms of the treaty governing Europe's monetary union stipulating an eight-year term for the ECB chief.
But the opposition Social Democrats (SPD), ahead in opinion polls before September's general election, led a chorus of disbelieving voices.
"The people at the top have allowed themselves something they wouldn't let the national parliaments do - break the Maastricht Treaty," said SPD general manager Mr Franz Muentefering.
"It's bad for all those of us who have to defend the euro to people across the country," Mr Muentefering, whose party is broadly in favour of the euro, said.
Economists had on Saturday warned that any impression that the terms of Maastricht Treaty were being watered down could lead to a loss of confidence in the euro on financial markets and possibly to higher interest rates in Europe.
But the pact gained surprise backing from one of four professors who made an unsuccessful legal challenge against monetary union in Germany's highest court.
Mr Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider, a Nuremberg law professor, said there was "no chance" of a German court blocking the deal. "It's not a good style but it's still just about in line with the Treaty from a legal point of view," he said.