It would be a cruel paradox if Rolf Breuer, one of Germany's most powerful financiers, was ousted as chairman of the supervisory board of Deutsche Börse, the Frankfurt-based stock exchange.

Paradoxical for a number of reasons: first, the would-be executioners include Anglo-American investors, who symbolise a form of liberal capitalism Breuer has encouraged corporate Germany to embrace. Second, after managing countless crises in his other high-profile role as head of Deutsche Bank, Germany's leading financial institution, Breuer, aged 67, is viewed as 'the great survivor'.

'To suffer a major setback now, as the sun begins to set over his 40-year career, would be a bitter pill to swallow,' says a German banking analyst.

A friend of Breuer says: 'He's up against it, but you don't get to be chairman of Deutsche Bank by being a half-wit, so don't write him off.'

But if we are witnessing the denouement of Breuer's career at Deutsche Börse, it has the added ingredient of involving one of Britain's most venerable institutions, the London Stock Exchange, headed by Clara Furse.

A shareholder revolt persuaded Deutsche Börse's chief executive, Werner Seifert, to drop a plan to take over the LSE, but this battle is far from over.

Deutsche Börse shareholders, speaking for 12 per cent of the equity, want to remove Breuer and his supervisory board for failing to consult them about the bid, which they consider a waste of money.

At Deutsche Börse's annual meeting in the third week of May, the rebels will seek support from other investors to replace Breuer. A newly constituted supervisory board would then sack Swiss-born Seifert. That is ironic, because as chairman of the supervisory board of Deutsche Bank, Breuer has often jumped to the support of another Swiss-born financier, Josef Ackermann, Deutsche Bank's chief executive. Many blamed Ackermann for the collapse of a proposed merger with Dresdner Bank in 1997 after he insisted Dresdner's investment banking arm in London be sold.

Breuer has also supported Ackermann's plans to axe thousands of jobs at Deutsche Bank - no easy task in a country where workers' councils and employee directors wield immense power.

Last year, to strengthen the bank's position, Breuer and Ackermann contemplated a merger of Deutsche Bank with a British or American rival; talks were held with Citigroup, but fizzled out, despite support from Chancellor Schröder.