Germany's BayernLB gets 30 bln eur lifeline

* Bavaria to inject 10 billion euros in BayernLB

* Move is part of 30 billion euro aid package

* Bank to cut nearly 30 percent of staff

By Christian Kraemer and John O'Donnell

MUNICH/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany is mounting a 30 billion euro ($39 billion) rescue of stricken state lender BayernLB in one of the biggest emergency packages in Europe since the global financial crisis began.

The country has been one of the worst affected by the storm, which started when poor U.S. home owners could not pay their mortgages before it snowballed into an interbank lending freeze that is sucking the global economy into recession.

On Monday, the state of Bavaria said it would inject 10 billion euros into BayernLB, the lender it partly owns. BayernLB will get a further 20 billion euros of state guarantees that will make it easier for the bank to borrow money.

The rescue adds to the list of walking wounded in the German banking sector that includes IKB, a small-companies lender, investment bank Hypo Real Estate HRXG.DE and Commerzbank (CBKG.DE), which tapped Berlin for more than 8 billion euros.

And it makes BayernLB -- whose problems stem from losses on subprime mortgage investments, lending to borrowers in stricken Iceland and a seize-up of interbank lending -- the beneficiary of one of the biggest bank rescues in Europe.

BayernLB said more than one in four staff or 5,600 employees would lose their jobs as it restructures, pulling out of Asia, for example, and refocusing on Bavaria.

Berlin has long pressured the landesbanks, or state-owned regional lenders, like BayernLB to merge with rivals. But local politicians have been reluctant to surrender their regional status symbols.

This rescue will see the regional state becoming the dominant shareholder in BayernLB.

The landesbanks used to provide community savings banks with inexpensive finance, thanks to government guarantees that made it cheap for them to borrow. But European Commission moves to end these guarantees has squeezed profits.

(editing by John Stonestreet)