German issuers adapted quickly to the post Lehman crisis environment. RWE was among the very first to reopen the market in early November 2008 with Calyon as a joint bookrunner on their dual tranche benchmark. Clearly, the better rated companies with a less cyclical business profile were the first ones to tap the market again in late 2008. As there are quite a lot of frequent corporate issuers based in Germany (most importantly in the utility and automotive sectors) issuers and intermediaries had to find new pockets of demand in order to raise the amounts needed. Strong name recognition of German corporates and EUR 1,000 denomination paved the way for unprecedented retail&private bank participation in new issues from January 2009 onwards. Deals performed well in the secondary market and issuers were able to come to the market numerous times in Q1 2009. Even lower rated companies with more cyclical business profiles succeeded in placing large dual tranche benchmark bonds in these difficult times.