East Germany’s secret businesses: Commercial Coordination

Although East Germany was a communist country, it earned billions on the capitalistic market. For this purpose. secret division Commercial Coordination (‘Kommerzielle Koordinierung’) had been established in the sixties. This video tells you all about the division’s main activities, which were sometimes far from honest and morally acceptable.
Note: For the sake of simplicity, in the video I mention amounts in Deutsche Mark (D-Mark or DM), which is not completely correct. I should have said ‘Valutamark’ (VM), which was the convertible currency on the international trade market (1 DM = 1 VM). And 1 DM = 1 VM = 4,4 M the local GDR currency in 1989)
By the way: Keep in mind that due to inflation the amounts today would be at least five times as high.
And for the sake of completeness: 1 USD was roughly worth about 2 DM. And 1 GBP was worth roughly 4 DM.
Used abbreviation: GDR - German Democratic Republic (DDR in German)
Books used for preparing this video (unfortunately only available in German):
- Der Bereich Kommerzielle Koordinierung - M. Just
- Die Schalck Papiere - W. Seiffert & N. Treutwein
- Wer verkaufte die DDR - Klaus Blessing
Sources and credits of the pictures:
- Schalck-Golodkowski photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1988-0317-312 / Brüggmann, Eva / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Chruschtschow auf dem V. Parteitag der SED in der Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle in Berlin, 1958. By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-57000-0139 / Horst Sturm / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Das Eisenhüttenkombinat Ost in Stalinstadt. Aufnahme vom 10. November 1952. By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-17138-0003 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Lebensmittelgeschäft der HO (1950). Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-08328-0006 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Franz Josef Strauss (By: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-0226-315 / Mittelstädt, Rainer / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...)

[@chromelemon]

I’m so happy that a channel like this exists. There is so much material out there on the DDR but it’s all in German. Thanks for putting in the effort!

[@NandiCollector]

*So true. Being from an ex-communist country like Albania, it always fascinated me to learn more about the East Bloc countries, especially the DDR.*

[@scfan7231]

German here. Learned about all these things on KZbin some 3-4 years ago. It's great that there is now an English-language channel, and my feeling is that you cover things with just the right depth.

[@DiegoSilva_88]

I’ve discovered this channel in the last few days! Having a lot of curiosity about GDR, your videos are very helpful. Thank you

[@Love.life.ashigzoya]

Thank you very educative and refreshing . Times have changed since then but Germany is still not a free country This holds Germans hostage to economic forces in service of Washington .The energy crisis is hostage to this. Time Germans take to deciding about their destiny on own not by Atlanticists. Maj gen IA veteran

[@KomradZX1989]

This story is ABSOLUTELY INSANE!!! CoCo sounds more like a state-sanctioned mafia than a “commercial coordination committee” 😂🤯

[@EuropeanQoheleth]

Prisoners donated blood in the 80s...ugh this reminds me of the tainted blood scandal in the 1980s (which in Ireland was the SECOND tainted blood scandal; the first one was about hepatitis from the 1950s).

[@cv990a4]

Literally squeezing blood from its population to sell. The system was rotten to the core.

[@buckwylde7965]

Thanks! You are right, there are no in-depth channels exploring the DDR in English. I 've been fascinated with this country since when it still was a country. The more I know about the DDR the stranger it seems. Mach weiter so!

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

Thank you!

[@oldmanc2]

Absolutely fascinating. I met a former DDR Political prisoner on a tour of Hochenhausen Prison in Berlin. She had been sold to West Germany in the early 80s.

[@Hongaars1969]

Once more…most detailed and probably the only English language channel specialising in all matters DDR related. Fascinating insights abound not least of all, the hypocrisy inherent within the deeply flawed system with blatant corruption, nepotism, and downright lies.

[@memesthatmakeyouwannadie3133]

The GDR did not do a single bad thing besides things every other state does. “Ohhh they spied on people. They tortured people.” NSA wiretapping and Guantanamo Bay also exist.

[@santiagoarestegui]

Speeaking of the GDR arms deals, there was a political scandal in Peru for the purchasing of assault rifles in the late 1980s. I remember it every time I see them still being used by police.

[@A_10_PaAng_111]

In the East it was called CoCo, in the West they called it Mafia. Loan sharking, money laundering etc.

[@lunabouch]

Thanks again for the continued interesting history of the DDR. I appreciate your direct and thoughtful facts and best of all in English! Danke

[@DevynCairns]

I was most surprised by the fact that they were lending money to the state for high interest rates. That just sounds like an unnecessary level of corruption that I can't really fathom why the state would accept that

[@donquixote3927]

I imagine the Directors became so wealthy from these activities they began to dictate or bribe policy to their liking.

[@agy234]

As an American I am very excited about this channel. There are not very many English sources about the GDR

[@edwardgaeth4399]

Thanks for your channel and good work. Incredibly interesting to me. Spent 6 weeks traveling throughout East Germany in early 2001. I had a personal tour guide. My x wife who was from the Saxony area. If I only had a fraction of the information I’ve learned from your channel back then. I was the first American/foreigner in the village she grew up in she said. Thank you again.

[@MlleLolaBelle]

What a great idea to create content in english about DDR👏👏. Love your videos

[@PascalGienger]

West Berliners had an easy access to an Intershop to buy their alcohol and tobacco: S-Bahn Station Alexanderplatz. It was in Eastern Berlin but trains to and from West Berlin called there, too - so an Intershop was on a platform in the tightly controlled "West Berlin" section.

[@Sierra-Whisky]

Not so long ago I saw a Dutch documentary about the history of Alpenkreuzer, a Dutch brand of popup campers produced in the DDR. Unfortunately I cannot find it again :(

[@MetalMouse67]

There is a German mini series made on the subject called “Preis der Freiheid”. It’s worth a peep.

[@supergilliar]

Great video. Super production, information and engaging.

[@HansBezemer]

Als landgenoot was ik blij je kanaal ondekt te hebben. Ik heb heel wat tijd in de DDR doorgebracht in mijn tijd (met name "Die Hauptstadt der DDR") en je videos zijn een feest van herkenning! Ik kan alleen maar stellen, dat waar andere kanalen regelmatig de fout ingaan, ik je nog niet heb kunnen betrappen op een foutje ;-) Klasse!

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

Dankjewel voor je reactie, Hans. En mocht je me op een fout betrappen, dan hoor ik het uiteraard graag.

[@markotango54]

Your channel is truly fascinating, thank you so much for taking the time and efforts for your channel

[@GrahamJonesJr]

Fabulous. There is a German limited series called “BERLIN WALL” in the US with English subtitles that deals with KoKo on human level. It, too, is excellent; I found it on one of the major streaming services. And if that isn’t enough for your DDR habit, there’s “LINES OF SEPARATION” also available for streaming with subtitles. Both are very well-written and have absolutely fantastic acting. Enjoy.

[@1joshjosh1]

I need to centrally planned economy for myself

[@oesypum]

You mention the appropriation of valuables from private ownership, and museums, subsequently sold in the west, but make no mention of the forgery that was undertaken by the state, this primarily affects philatelic material.

[@tmsrrr]

Great videos, really happy I found your channel!

[@displacedyankee7819]

I believe I got to visit an Intershop in 1987 when my high school exchange group took a bus from Hamburg to Berlin. I bought a big Toblerone

[@MikeJT62]

Very informative, love your videos, thank you!

[@fratercontenduntocculta8161]

I do know that one of East Germany's last commercial enterprises was a division of their firearms manufacturing and were planning on selling guns to American Civilians. They were AK clones given the trade name "Weiger". Would you do a feature on the Kampfgruppen der arbeitsklasse? I can't find any reliable info on them in English. Thank you!

[@XxLIVRAxX]

Talking about socialism and hostage taking, the chavista regime in Venezuela also uses political prisioners as trading chips for negotiations with the USA.

[@cactussauce3452]

Another great video. Extremely interesting!

[@markavons3400]

Very well researched video and very interesting

[@danielp157]

Very interesting! i did not know about this! Thanks!

[@urtreehugginghippies]

Great video! Love the economic stuff

[@MichaelK.-xl2qk]

The toxic waste/trash dumping business sounds like a classic organized crime networking affair. How many bodies ended up under tons of industrial waste?

[@2broketim479]

excellent work! keep the videos coming...

[@cunningplan9049]

I suppose you have seen the fantastic TV Series Deutschland 83/86/89 ? In the 86 Series the scandalous affairs of KoKo were also mentioned.

[@arthurroberts4504]

Very interesting KZbin channel - I lived through years of the cold war but only had a sketchy knowledge of what was going on in East Germany.

[@chadwahl9085]

In the Deutschland TV series they had touched on this subject.

[@simonstergaard]

Nice. I have never heard of CoCo, and i have seen ALL the available DDR docus from ZDF, RBB etc. etc.

[@joyce120860]

Goede docu’s, interessant, bedankt. Groet, Matty

[@mariacuachon3906]

Very interesting, thank you😮

[@aidankerr1125]

There’s so few sources about Koko in English - both academic and commercial history - it is really bizarre.

[@marcheprovencal592]

learnt a lot. thank u very much!!

[@mrgarypettit]

American here. I lived in the DDR from late summer 1989-July 1990, after the “Wende”. I received an official response from the German Government a couple of years ago that my Stasi file had been destroyed a long time ago, and cannot be sent to me. Were many people successfully able to get theirs, or did most get destroyed? Thanks in advance for any knowledge on the matter.

[@abookmaker6344]

Excellent channel.

[@jean-pierrehugotin]

Excellent! Great job!

[@flowersofthefield340]

Always follow the money in an organisation .....

[@baihui7349]

Similar things happened in Bulgaria

[@hazchemel]

Many thanks. What was DDR government's attitude towards religious institutions, including the neighbourhood parish church?

[@give_me_my_nick_back]

As a kid i used to have a 10-12m high by 3-4m wide DDR flag, we used to make a tent using it and it eventually got all ripped apart. I have no idea where it came from but I'm so sad it got wasted...

[@petersandberg1061]

Interesting. I was involved in a project via RFT in 1989, which I suspect was intended to generate foreign currency...

[@chrism1102]

Does anyone know if East Germans could purchase items at the Intershops if they had foreign currency? If so, would they have to explain how they received it?

[@poissonpuerile8897]

The GDR's dire economic situation at the time was also due to (a) World War II, (b) the Soviet Union extracting unfathomably massive reparations from the GDR (which included disassembling almost every vaguely usable factory in the country and shipping it to Russia), and (c) the Soviet Union forcing the GDR to spend about 10% of its GDP on defense. I also believe the GDR had to finance its own occupation by the Soviet Union.

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

There definitely is a lot more to tell about the economy of the GDR. The topic is on my list of future videos.

[@BB-kt5eb]

Those are all contributing factors, but problems were bound to arise either way. It probably could’ve lasted another decade or so without those problems, but even then, I’m not sure they could’ve held on in the face of all the other Soviet bloc nations turning away from communism.

[@caezar55]

The main economic problem was a little thing called communism.

[@jean6872]

@@BB-kt5eb Once Gorbachev took over the Soviet Union and introduced glasnost and perestroika and jettisoning the Warsaw Pact, the DDR was doomed.

[@user-ft9ul5ul5v]

The reparations claim and deindustrialization program was dropped almost immediately after DDR's formal inception, since the DDR was formally a friendly socialist state. But the claim about defence budget quotas is probably valid. I think that Soviet union did not claim any money for the defence of East Germany (unlike the US does), but of course Soviet forces were stationed there for free.

[@hantykje3005]

Great content! Im Norwegian, and I have found a set of dinner plates produced in East Germany.

[@benediktmorak4409]

maybe a secret for you. but not for - us - . Politics was one thing. Business was another. - Messe Leipzig - was the best example for it...

[@sophiawisdom3429]

When you talk about CoCo loans you say they set up a lending business in the west, but typically that would mean a business lending money *to* the west, not a business borrowing money *from* the west.

[@wertywerrtyson5529]

I’ve had some products made in East Germany. I always thought it was strange for a socialist country to sell products to capitalist countries.

[@alepaz1099]

totally insane!🤯🤯

[@theMOCmaster]

Can you cover the bloc parteis, and what motivation citizens would have to join parties other than the SED? Did they really believe they could make the country more nationalist by joining the NDPD, or more liberal by joining the JDPD, or more Christian by joining the East German CDU?

[@blackthirt33n]

Could you have or do you have in German

[@simonf8902]

Maximal hypocrisy department. 😂

[@RoniiNN]

Reminds me of North Korea and there office 7 or whatever is called. probably more beneficial for the NK regime than the GDR koko.

[@160rpm]

Ok, they were the DDR Treuhand haha

[@AIEnhanced-ts5ko]

All socialist countries had more or less similar undercover buisneses.

[@andred7684]

Yup. Even the USSR had kinda sorta undercover businesses prompted by the very own populace

[@sidm479]

My favorite channel. I'm fascinated with the DDR. I don't really know why lol.