"I never thought about it," explained the nuncio in the Baltic states in an interview with the Catholic television station "K-TV".
In the video published on Monday, the archbishop, who comes from the Black Forest, explains: "That would be too big."
Asked whether, as the Pope's private secretary, he had sometimes thought that he himself would have preferred to make different decisions, Gänswein explained that he could not remember any internal conflict with Pope Benedict XVI over his decisions.
There was only a "friendly clash" on the subject of sport: "He didn't like sport," Gänswein recalls.
He himself, on the other hand, did sport as much as he could.
Benedict XVI always found it "a bit strange" to "run after a ball or race down the slopes or climb mountains".
He enjoyed going for walks or hiking, "but as soon as it got into more intense sporting activities, that was when the lights went out".
Pope's resignation on Rose Monday
Gänswein explained why his then boss announced his resignation as Pope on Shrove Monday of all days: "Shrove Monday in 2013 was 11 February - the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes."
Benedict XVI had not chosen this day for his resignation because of Shrove Monday, but because there was no work in the Vatican on this day and because a meeting of cardinals had already been scheduled for this day in Rome.
He had initially wanted to explain this important decision to the assembled cardinals.
"The fact that the same day was also Rose Monday was not on the Vatican screen," said the former papal secretary.
When he came to this realisation, it was too late to change his plans.
Gänswein commented that he could "well understand" why people in Germany initially assumed that the date of the Pope's resignation was a false report.
The former private secretary of Benedict XVI describes him as a human leader: "I never experienced him as someone who was upset or even angry or shouted, but someone who was at peace with himself, who knew what he had to do and how he had to fulfil these tasks."
He himself learnt from him how to be gentle, "which is not something that comes naturally to me".
He had seen that tasks could be accomplished with calm and a strong faith. If faith is not the driving force behind what you do, it becomes a job, "then it becomes an activity that loses a great deal of credibility".
Five years in Vilnius
According to Gänswein, a papal nuncio is usually initially appointed for five years.
He therefore expects his stay in Vilnius to last five years.
"To what extent Pope Leo XIV has a different idea of what I could do or what task I could take on, I don't know."
He is now trying to fulfil his current task wholeheartedly.
The fear of a Russian threat is palpable in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
In view of this, the spiritual presence of the Pope in the person of the nuncio on the ground is a sign of hope for the people.
"I have felt that time and again," said Gänswein. One of the people's basic hopes is that the Pope will help to find peace.
Vilnius as the "Rome of the North" is characterised by over forty churches. He deliberately takes walks through the old town to see the various churches and pray there.
The two pilgrimage churches play a special role here.
He himself feels at least "half Roman" because he has spent most of his life in Rome rather than the Black Forest.