Central bank independence and a stability orientated monetary policy are crucial to retain people's trust in a currency and its purchasing power, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said on Tuesday.

In a speech peppered with literary references to the potentially perilous relationship between money creation, state financing and inflation, Weidmann said history had shown that government influence on central banks had often resulted in excessive increases in the money supply that led to inflation.

The lesson was that central banks' independence and their focus on securing monetary value were crucial, Weidmann said.

Weidmann made no direct reference to the European Central Bank's new bond-buying programme, but his comments were a thinly veiled warning that the plan - which he opposes - risks eroding the ECB's independence and fuelling inflationary pressures.

"Monetary policy independence and a well functioning monetary policymakers' compass, focused on monetary stability, are necessary - it not sufficient - conditions for retaining the purchasing power of money and thereby the trust of the people," Weidmann said in the speech at a conference in Frankfurt.

Weidmann has made several public appearances since the ECB agreed its new bond-buying programme on September 6 but has himself not commented on the plan. The Bundesbank issued a statement after the ECB agreed the programme, stressing Weidmann's criticism of it.

(Writing by Paul Carrel, editing by Maria Sheahan)