Treuhand - How East Germany switched to a market economy

With the end of communism in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), a change to the (western) market economy was inevitable.
This complicated process did not go flawless and took years to complete.
This video tells the story in chronological order.
Sources:
1) BOOKS
I used the following 3 books (unfortunately only available in German):
Die Treuhand - Klaus Behling
Der deutsche Goldrausch - Dirk Laabs
Der Treuhand Komplex - Norbert Pötzl
2) FOTOGRAPHS
• Detlev Rohwedder: By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-0821-025 / Lehmann, Thomas / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• Birgit Breuel: By Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F088082-0018 / Joachim F. Thurn, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• Leuna Works; Von Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F089027-0026 / Joachim F. Thurn, CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• Multicar: By Felix O; Edited by: burts - cropped and edited version of File:IFA Multicar, Lauscha, Thueringen, August 1991.jpg (flickr), CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• Helmut Kohl: By Europäische Gemeinschaften, 1996, CC BY 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
3) STATISTICS
de.statista.com/infografik/25...

[@gregorhi2]

I started my vocational training in 1990 at a big factory for electronic components. One day in 1991, we were told to go to one of the big office rooms to help out with something. And that something was to stick stamps onto thousands of termination letters.

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

Thanks for sharing this, Greg!

[@entropy_of_principles]

Funny !!!😂

[@maxsonthonax1020]

Grim.

[@Mainyehc]

@@entropy_of_principlesyou have the empathy of a brick. Congratulations, with the amount of deranged Vatniki and MAGAts on this platform, that’s saying something.

[@kurumbaatoll9190]

I hope you got another job soon after

[@botatobias2539]

I recently found a UN pdf detailing the evolution of industrial output in transition economies. I am a total bookworm when it comes to the 1990s in transition countries, but hardly ever do I see a table including former East Germany. My face dropped when I saw it: the former DDR had lost 65.3% of its industrial output by 1992. You'd think the Western World would be a bit tamer with its own, but .. Nah. Lithuania beats that with a nearly 69% loss in output. My own Romania bottomed out at 41.4% of 1989 industrial output. And there's been talk here since forever about how the transition did us dirty, but honestly, in perspective, it seems we got quite a deal! Also less than 20% of companies privatized in East Germany were sold to actual East Germans. At least in Romania, they were sold overwhelmingly to Romanians. I am from Gorj, the most leftist county in Romania. Here the state still owns 40% of the economy (by far the highest county share in the country). If Gorj was a country, it wouldn't be allowed in the EU now let alone in 2007. Yeah... Post-Communist transition and "what remains" is a subject of great interest to me.

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

Thanks for adding this comparison.

[@botatobias2539]

Oh, I forgot to link the PDF, thought I did. Here it is, go to page 11, and witness economic genocide... unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trade/ctied9/trd_05_11e.pdf

[@bigmedge]

Can you plz provide a link to this UN pdf ?

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

@@bigmedge Somehow the link that Botatobias shared hasn't become visible. Here it is: unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trade/ctied9/trd_05_11e.pdf

[@purcitron]

Interesting! What about all of the other post-socialist countries?

[@antikoerper256]

As a bulgarian, investigating the transition from communist to free market has always been interesting to me. Great channel!

[@cv990a4]

East Germany was at once both extremely lucky and unlucky. Unlike every other Eastern European/Balkan country, East Germany had a very rich western relative that was willing to spend literally trillions of euros - and did. However, for East Germany, the die was cast the moment it unified with West Germany at a 1:1 ratio for the Ostmark/Dmark. At the time, it was politically impossible to do anything else. But at a stroke, every company in East Germany was rendered instantly uneconomic, disastrously so. And that destroyed almost all economic activity there was in East Germany that could possibly have been salvaged. So the East Germans who were the most qualified, who had the most initiative, etc - millions of such people quickly moved to West Germany, because there were never going to be enough jobs left over in East Germany once the dust settled. And that stripped East Germany of many of its best and brightest people. And there were no East Germans who were rich enough, or experienced enough, to ever take the role of entrepreneur, capitalist, owner, etc of what little was salvaged. The whole point of East Germany's economy is that there weren't owners. There were no investment bankers, there was no private equity, etc. So ownership ended up almost exclusively with West Germans. And East Germany's economy, though it was the best of all the economies of Eastern Europe, that just made it the "tallest dwarf", if you like. Still fatally stunted - for at least a decade or so before unification, it only survived by taking huge loans from the west. So a lot of money was later invested in renovating infrastructure and so forth in East Germany - there are some very nice looking, but rather empty, small cities outside of Berlin. 100 years from now, there will still be marked differences between the former West and East Germanies.

[@EElgar1857]

A wonderful, illuminating video, about a very sad situation. In the U.S., we really only saw the celebrations around the re-unification, and the down-side was never publicized!

[@nukkuminen]

Thank you for spreading the knowledge about those events, which I believe to be still relevant today, as what happened to GDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia or Hungary post-1989 clearly contributed to the rapid loss of trust in liberal politics and subsequent rise in support for extreme political movements that we now witness. If AfD wins the next election in Saxony, the old CDU guard will only have themselves to blame.

[@DiskusGames]

I grew up in a village in Saxony about a decade after unification. There were (and still are) lot’s of ruins and abandoned buildings. Same can be said for basically surrounding towns and villages. When I was young I just took those ruins as a normal part of the region. It wasn’t until like maybe 6 years ago that I asked my parents and grandparents about them. Turns out those factories, cinemas and stores all closed down within 2 years of unification. Some of them got sold off through the Treuhand and others could not compete with the new western products.

[@BB-kt5eb]

None of them were earning any profits whatsoever. They were all operating on deficits year after year.

[@jean6872]

I visited the Erzgebirge in 1972 and 1977. Everyone had work and the factories in the valleys were busy. The people were wonderful and friendly. I hated leaving when my holidays were over.

[@LastBrigadier]

who knew a State-run bureaucratic mess of an inefficient company quickly collapses under actual fair competition with its counterparts?

[@jean6872]

@@LastBrigadier Do not fool yourself into believing that there is fair competition under capitalism.

[@LastBrigadier]

@@jean6872 a 70 year old and you barely learned anything of economics, go back to class old man.

[@flitsertheo]

7:27 Pentacon somehow survived, they were taken over by the Jos. Schneider Gruppe. They continued to produce the latest model of their own Praktica SLRs, the BX20S until 2001, then sold badge-engineered Luxmedia cameras until 2015. They are still around producing optical instruments.

[@botatobias2539]

Back after half a year with new perspective. I finally got down to viewing the Netflix special about the killing of Rohweder. This reignited my interest in the matter, so I did some calculations. Speaking from Romanian perspective, it would be hard to think of anything worse than the post-Communist wringer our economy went through. That is until I read about East Germany. In terms of real GDP, the average decline in 9 years (1990-1998) was slightly worse in the former GDR. As % of 1989 GDP, the yearly average for East Germany in 1990-1998 was 81.63%. Romania's was a hair higher in this period, at 82.34%. In other words, it took a decade to even make the aggregate decline slower than in what was commonly regarded as the least reformed post-Communist economy in the EU accession states. In terms of aggregate industrial output... Oh boy. The average of 13 years - 1991 to 2003 (as far as that data table goes) - was 47.2% of 1989 industrial output for East Germany and 48.06% for Romania. And I *highly doubt* a peasant with only primary education like Ceaușescu could plan an industry more resilient than a German state. This only goes to show just how dirty the former GDR was done post-unification. In 1989, Romania had 3.8 million industrial workers and East Germany 4.1 million. By the end of 1991, East Germany had under 1 million, while it took Romania until 1999 to go below 2 million. I mean... *Dang* In conclusion, as messy as things were here, I'd still take Romania's transition over East Germany's any day. The social trauma was much less bad and at least even today almost half of the capital in Romania's economy is actually Romanian. I think Eastern Germans could only dream of owning half of their region's economy. PS: I only paid marginal attention to the rise of the AfD, but seeing what numbers it gets in Eastern Germany, and knowing all of the above, no wonder they're so angry at the establishment.

[@sumitschitoll]

I can’t imagine how much I look for this topic and research as this Teeuhnad has destroyed my in laws families and life , but as English speakers I can’t find anything, more over in Berlin many people don’t know what really went under the table , thank you once again

[@DerVersteherPlus]

The Treuhand hasn’t destroyed anything. The destruction has been made by the planned economy before.

[@Clarkchapin]

Thank you for sharing this. My one-time fiancé’s father was in the first batch of Treuhand auditors. As an American I only vaguely understood what his job entailed, but I very much understood that Treuhand ultimately was a highly corrupt vender of state’s industries to a clientele of vulture capitalist at best. Reunifiaction was such a slap-dash affair that it was clear East Germans would lose out hard in the initial melee. I worked at Flughafen Tempelhof then and the East German workers we received applications from were nearly to a man overqualified but whose careers were suddenly ended by either privatization, because their degrees or training were no longer respected in the West or because the equipment they were trained to maintain or operate were suddenly disallowed by West German regulations. While it was a pleasure having such highly qualified men as colleagues I never believed that they arrived at our arbeitsplatz because of any fair treatment, regardless their hopeful attitudes.

[@sakkra83]

One correction...... Kohl did promise "blühende Landschaften" lit: blooming landscapes. And he did deliver. All those industrial fallow areas were littered with pretty flowers, therefore he did not lie, the people just did not understand him /s (If that wasn't obvious.) I live in Saxony-Anhalt and yeah the first 20 years after the collapse were bleak.

[@wllywaliy]

Excellent video! It's terrible how the entire East German economy was sold off for next to nothing to Western investors leaving East Germans with a destroyed economy 😔

[@ravanpee1325]

Because it was worth next to nothing.. "Im Gegensatz zur Bundesrepublik war die DDR nicht in der Lage, die neue Rohstoffknappheit zu bewältigen. Ursprünglich war für die 1970er Jahre eine langfristige Modernisierung der DDR-Energieversorgung auf der Grundlage von Erdöl und Erdgas vorgesehen. Diese Planung hatte spätestens seit Mitte der 1970er Jahre keine Grundlage mehr. Die Verteuerung der Energiepreise nötigte den Staat dazu, Braunkohle als alleinige einheimische Energie- und Rohstoffquelle verstärkt zu verwenden. Infolge dessen wurden aus den 1920er und 1930er Jahren stammende Anlagen weiter genutzt, die eigentlich schon abgeschrieben und längst verschlissen waren. 1985 wurden 30 Prozent der Weltproduktion an Braunkohle in der DDR gefördert, mit steigendem Aufwand und wachsenden Umweltbelastungen. Die DDR-Wirtschaftspolitik nach 1971 zeichnete sich ausgabenseitig durch eine nicht lösbare Konkurrenz dreier Ziele aus: Beibehaltung bzw. Verbesserung des Lebensstandards der Bevölkerung, Schuldendienst insbesondere gegenüber ausländischen Gläubigern und Investitionen in die eigene Wirtschaft. In der Sicht der DDR-Wirtschaftspolitiker bestand die einzig realistische Möglichkeit für Einsparungen darin, Investitionen beispielsweise in der Energiewirtschaft oder in die Infrastruktur aufzuschieben. Das hatte jedoch negative Effekte beispielsweise auf die Arbeitsproduktivität. Zudem unterlief den Verantwortlichen bei der Verteilung der knappen Investitionsmittel ein schwerwiegender Fehler: Mit Verspätung sollte eine eigenständige Mikroelektronik aufgebaut werden, die aber zu keinem Zeitpunkt konkurrenzfähig war. Stattdessen wurden Milliardenbeträge ohne positive Effekte verschwendet. Die Vermarktung hätte den Fortbestand des sozialistischen Staatensystems vorausgesetzt, "wo die DDR ihre - nach dortigen Standards - Spitzenprodukte absetzen konnte. Mit einer zunehmenden Weltmarktorientierung der anderen Länder des sozialistischen Wirtschaftssystems (Rat für gegenseitige Wirtschaftshilfe, RGW) wurde dem die "strategische Basis entzogen" (Steiner 2007, S. 210).

[@andrewsaxon4314]

@@ravanpee1325 suchen deizen nuts🤡🤡🤡

[@gr3g0r5]

@@ravanpee1325 ah lecker, feinste Siegerpropaganda

[@Koroleva_O_A]

Имущество побежденных всегда забирает себе победитель..

[@artemmelnik7965]

Not directly related to the privatization, but nevertheless - the DDR economy was a typical Soviet-type planned economy with two types of money - the regular cash, for the population, and a purely virtual currency that was used for any state-financed activity. It was kind of a banking or even a statistics tool, for facilitation of the economic activities. It has no relation to the cash, it was not possible to cash out these money. As part of the transition to the market economy, these virtual accounts one day became DM accounts. It may sound great, but the problem was that the debt also turned from purely virtual to physically palpable, for example those who took state credits at their workplaces, assuming they will be paid as the time goes by, one night became holders of tens of thousands DM debts. The DDR economy was destroyed in one day by this decision alone.

[@user-fb9ql8bm2e]

The Ostmark was revalued by around 400-500% overnight to be on par with the Deutsch Mark - which crashed the East German economy instantly. Exports plummeted immediately, and around 1/3 of the DDR's industrial output was exported. This caused irreparable damage to the economy and set the stage for annexation by West Germany.

[@puschelhornchen9484]

The Treuhand and their company culture did so much damage to the societal side of reunification we still suffer from today. I think I remember a documentary were former Treuhand managers talked about they did everything the right way and would do everything the same way if they had to do Something similiar again. For me this seems spectaculary detached from reality

[@ravanpee1325]

Yes, because this companies were not suitable at all and prices just reflect political goals e.g. bread is cheaper than grain..

[@johnframe3440]

Really enjoy the historical perspective "East Germany Revisted" brings to those of us who grew up during its existence but only knew of it from a cold war sense. Your videos are excellent. Thank you for bringing the depth & relevance to historical events associated with this former country. (A fan from the Midwest - metro Cincinnati)

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

Thanks, that's much appreciated!

[@stephandrube8658]

This channel has to be praised, because we need the view from the outside on our complicated history. Thanks a lot for Your researches…

[@user-zf4go5yj5h]

Treuhand did not fail. It exactly did what it was supposed to do!

[@henryseidel5469]

To say it short: East Germany was sold out for a currency the native people did not have. There is nothing else to say.

[@novalier]

Hervorragende, auskunftsträchtige Reihe von Videos!

[@vinnyfanneran3116]

I think I have watched and liked all of your videos. I can't wait for more ☺️

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

Thank you!

[@joanhuffman2166]

Thank you for this series of programs and for having them in English.

[@jdhatl]

They took us Americans (25 of us) to some kind of Treuhand presentation/educational presentation/ereignis in Berlin in 1992. I wish I remembered it better and understood more at the time though it seemed absolutely f*cked then

[@HansBezemer]

I think you created a wonderful summary of what still is a murky subject. It's amazing that - despite everything - they managed to get over two-thirds of the companies a good home. On the other hand, it took a mind boggling amount of money. All in all, one would have expected better from Germans ;-)

[@poissonpuerile8897]

A clear, informative and understandable explanation of a very complicated issue! Bravo!

[@ned900]

Facinating. RIP that man. Tough gig. I'd like to hear about the east German and west German armies after the fall

[@amacca2085]

Same

[@BB-kt5eb]

East Germany still lags behind the rest of Germany and it’s taken a long time, but the average living standards there have significantly risen for most people. Many people got screwed over though and that’s unfortunate.

[@kenseitakesi4521]

Peoples lifes fould be beter if ddr stay communist

[@mtra5812]

@@kenseitakesi4521 You think its better to live in a Prison Country that cant even provide basic goods for you?

[@kenseitakesi4521]

@@mtra5812 people in ddr have all they need and even more

[@Material_Monkey]

​@@mtra5812what do you understand under basic goods?

[@BB-kt5eb]

@@kenseitakesi4521 For some that would be the case, but for most, they now have a significantly higher standard of living than they ever had under the DDR.

[@hamishmacintyre4600]

This is a fascinating channel. Thank you so much for your in depth investigation and interesting presentation. I look forward to each of your videos. I have been fascinated with German history since my first visit to west Germany in 1983. Only later did i learn what an incredibly dangerous time that was.

[@theeyeofthebeholder7099]

Thanks for the video. It seems privatisation across the whole Eastern European countries was a shame, despite choosing different models and approaches. P.S. I am happy to hear Multicar is successful case of management buy-out: I remember well those little green-cabin little lorries from my childhood).

[@tribinaaux4043]

Treuhand was a punishment/deliberate destruction similar to Morgenthau plan

[@karl104]

I had dealings with Treuhand. 3 veeeery smart men from Munich was in process of taking over a company making pumps in Hoyerswerda. For some reason the needed an international partner. We build sewage treatment plats, so we saw a market. Luckily, we got out before anything actually was built. We lost some money but not much, Treuhand lost 15 million DM, and the workers lost their jobs. As far as i know no criminal investigation.

[@russrh]

Another great video, i love this channel, im learning so much.

[@SpaceAgeMark]

Very informative video and great channel. Thank you.

[@klawlor3659]

Good channel. Subbed!

[@seeriktus]

Amazing, only just discovered this channel and I'm loving it. I was born just before the fall of the berlin wall and have wondered about these things all my life. My parents only knew what happened via the news.

[@tobiwan001]

The GDR had a special exchange rate for exports that was a fraction of the normal exchange rate.

[@meraklmuskulpesent8313]

Your videos are great. Keep up the good work.

[@efnissien]

I love you're videos and am currently bingeing on Ost-algia.

[@TheRadPlayer]

It's amazing how much a mere 45 years, not even two full generations, can make for two states comprised of the same ethnic and cultural group. I can't even imagine how a theoretical Korean unification would look like, taking this into account.

[@ernestkhalimov1007]

What deindustrialization and outright thievery does to a mf

[@algizmo7079]

I loved my Praktika camera (bought in 1982) such good value. I was sad to hear about the closure.

[@peterpeterholt]

Another interesting video. Thank you.

[@stevecole1984]

Thank you very interesting !!

[@yoda5565]

It is poetic justice, that the "Treuhand" was based in Herman Goering's old air ministry building. Beautiful building in a prestigious address, but new management.

[@Fieldoak]

More people need to know about this 😢

[@glenbetton3146]

Very interesting video. Having worked with a US MNC investing through the Treuhand at the time, however badly organized and managed the Treuhand process was and however much was subsidized by the unified German government, at least 30% of the ex-DDR businesses were successfully privatized and about 25% were transitioned into management buyouts. That's an entirely different outcome to the wholesale theft of Soviet bloc primary extraction, secondary manufacturing and tertiary financial banking & insurance services by the oligarchs.............FYI Spell check BvS ..... 15:25 should be vereinigungsbedingte

[@purcitron]

Interesting. Can you share more about the transition of other post-communist economies please?

[@kommissar.murphy]

The end effect is that of self-colonisation. Choke off all local industries, then sell the same cancelled products cheap to the people in that area. Same as in india, africa and elsewhere. It must be the first time this happened internally in a country, though?

[@ernestkhalimov1007]

Or in this case the same more expensive products

[@milovandam55]

wat een interessant kanaal. ik heb ook die gezonde obsessie met Socialisme, Communisme, Nationaal-Socialisme. jij weet echt veel!, kijk ook altijd UshankaShow met John wayne Cheeseburger. also the Series Weissensee gives a great inside of how the GDR worked! great

[@mardiffv.8775]

Goed man, ga zo door.

[@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts]

Very helpful.

[@gleb4059]

Thank you

[@Keefan1978]

Estonia also made through a quite rapid privatisation. Estonian governments also peeked in the direction of East Germany and Treuhand and although some people with Treuhand experience did assist Estonian state, mostly the expierience learned from there was negative, meaning - how NOT to do things. Yes, there were scandals and failures in Estonia as well, but I think peeking at the miserable performance of Treuhand kept some of the possible mishaps away.

[@danielp157]

Very interesting! i have read much about the history of DDR and the fall of communism, but i have never heard about Treuhand before!

[@utterlee]

Why does privatisation end up being such appalling value for money for the public everytime it happens anywhere?

[@Jakob_DK]

Because the public companies are poorly organized and lead, when there is a need to sell. - Better organization and cost cutting increases profit and value. Further the public companies in the west were local monopolies. In GDR it was shoe factories making uncomfortable shoes that were not fashionable but the leader was a good corrupt communist.

[@user-gp8oj1ci9h]

Because it successfully does what it is supposed to do: benefit the capitalist class

[@Chris.Magowan]

The economic colonisation of East Germany was a tragedy, people were robbed blind by western industrialists and the ordinary worker was thrown on the rubbish pile.

[@dalegribble1560]

The real tragedy was being forced into Socialism in the first place. Pro-tip: People don't like being bossed around and having their freedoms suppressed.

[@dalegribble1560]

@@Liberistan_Peoples_Republic Hello to what?

[@ccroy2001]

It's sad that it's just human nature that no matter the political system, some people have no problem taking what little average people have. I feel the people of the DDR should have been adequately compensated for what they went through.

[@grahamariss2111]

Did not realise Pentacon was the first company to close. I still have number of their cameras and lenses, but they were behind the curve of the Japanese manufacturers by the end of the 80s.

[@chuckrei]

Thanks for the great channel. I know the Treuhand has created a memory in the former DDR. And we know that ‚Treuhand‘ is a simple target. But they did their best to ethically handle a bankrupt and uncompetitive state in a expedient way. It could have (and indeed many expected) much much worse.

[@sillybirdy1994]

What a ridiculous comment. They were literally criminals. They cannibalized a working, functioning economy and threw out hundreds of thousands of workers.

[@karendarrenmclaren]

Every economy is market economy. The only question is what type of market is in economy.

[@amacca2085]

A perfect crime Was an amazing documentary

[@purcitron]

Serious question. If these GDR companies were not actually competitive without state protection, what was the practical alternative?

[@thejohnbeck]

It's interesting that in accounting, English speakers say the bottom line, while Germans say below the line.

[@paulwebbiweb]

An excellent explanation. The Treuhand had an extremely difficult job, perhaps an impossible one, so it's no surprise it failed. The GDR only sort-of worked as long as it was sealed off. It was like an Egyptian mummy's tomb (in stories) - OK until someone opens the door and lets fresh air in. Then everything collapses into dust. Prices in the GDR bore no relation to costs, but were set for political reasons. Some things were ridiculously cheap, others ridiculously expensive. I remember our (loyally communist) guide in 1987 explaining that GDR farmers often fed bread rolls to their chickens, because bread was cheaper to buy than grain. Once the Wall fell, the East German population demanded the introduction of the D-Mark at a 1:1 exchange rate, not realising that they were thereby killing off their companies and their jobs. (A slogan was: "Kommt die D-Mark nicht zu uns, gehen wir zu ihr" i.e. If the D-Mark doesn't come to us, we'll move to the west.)

[@Jakob_DK]

A few companies in DDR did succeed, one is Zeiss microscopes, they were already competing internationally and had investments. Other companies were simply not competitive. Not before or after. Many employees only mean high cost and were organized by other ideals than profit.

[@santiagoalcantara3806]

I think that you are naturalizing a social problem and make like it something unavailable when in reality it isn't. For example a state capitalism policy of economic aid and modernization of all state enterprise will work. Also state companies could become private cooperatives instead of be owner by capitalist. The point is that a transition to market economy is possible without damaging the workers.

[@XxLeCaptainxX]

This stuff about "competition" as if East German companies were inferior to the private market misses the mark. Treuhand's mission was to destroy socialism, they put assets under their control by force, without a democratic consensus, and sold it off. The better example would be to say East Germany was a house being stolen from and their walls gutted for scrap wire - and by this I mean to say the Treuhand were robbers fulfilling a political goal. You could not have industry in East Germany without the network of unions and the planned economy that formed the basis of logistics, management, etc of enterprise. Similarly, you could have never had capitalism in East Germany without the Treuhand selling things off to the highest bidder, mass unemployment, and individual owners and corporations taking up control of the economy with their government.

[@Jakob_DK]

@danielhalachev4714 Yes and it happened with eg VW taking over car production plant. But VW also came with a product in demand.

[@Mackerdaymia]

It's shocking how much of a bad deal former communist countries got and still get at the hands of western european capital. The "freeing" of the eastern bloc was dressed up as that out of convenience. What it really meant is letting the west confiscate their assets and keeping them as a pool of cheap labour. And to top it all off, they then get slandered for being problematic politically and having smaller economies as if it's their fault. Nowhere is this more pronouced than in Germany where those in the former west still talk of "Dunkel-Deutschland" as if the reason attitudes are different and conditions are worse is still the fault of communism, where in fact western german capital used party insiders to hollow out the country. Now in the west you hear people complaining that the fomer DDR region is a drain on resources. The understanding is that the DDR was "50 years behind the BRD" so needed investment. The truth is, the investment is necessary due to western capital ruining the country in the early 90s.

[@ernestkhalimov1007]

It was an act of revenge for delaying their profits for so long

[@maxsonthonax1020]

The anatomy of a swindle.

[@gary3561]

And a big reason why the Soli was brought in to pay these unpaid debts

[@whistlingdiesel]

Hi Olaf, I enjoyed your documentary! Great work! Are there informations of the east German housing market? I heard a story that the Italian mafia bought big parts of the Magdeburg inner city. And also a lot of west Germans bought property cheap, not to forget the Jewish claims agency. So who owns the east Germany?

[@emirvmendoza]

Hello, were you West or East German?

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

I'm from the west side. Feel free to also check the 'About' section of this channel.

[@emirvmendoza]

@@eastgermanyinvestigated Thank you

[@Koroleva_O_A]

А сколько денег получил каждый немец после того, как было продано его имущество (заводы, инфраструктура и т.д.)? Ведь это же была общенародная собственность в юридическом смысле (частная собственность группы лиц - корпорация).

[@purcitron]

Так как же как в Совке. Официально имущество народа, а на деле имущество властей

[@SirGeldi]

Als extrem Westdeutscher Baujahr 1968 am linken Niederrhein kurz vor den Niederlanden lerne ich hier hier mal die andere Sicht der Dinge kennen. Vielen Dank ! Das "extrem" bezieht sich nur auf die geographische Lage. As an extreme west German born 1968 in the left Lower Rhine region close to Nederlands i learn to see the other perspective here. Many Thanks ! The "extreme" only refers to the geographic position.

[@fredyellowsnow7492]

I heard at the time that the former GDR had become a magnet for every con-artist and thief in Europe. I didn't know any of the details though. A plunderer's paradise. Pity about Pentacon - but if they were selling under making cost, they couldn't have carried on in any market. Relatedly, I heard about Zeiss (west) taking over Zeiss (east). They turned up to the factory and just destroyed and buried everything in a wanton destructive act of sheer vandalism, driven by pure spite.

[@paulmckenna9370]

Pentacon made some quite decent photographic kit, their key problem was that that their cost base was completely out of balance. To put this into context, Pentacon employed 6,000 people to produce their products, but income from selling at way under cost meant they could actually only afford to pay the wages of a third of their employees. Their development engineers had begun work on a new autofocus SLR camera system which would have potentially been competitive in performance with what was available from the Japanese brands, but the lack of resources and ultimately the liquidation of the company meant it never came to fruition.

[@mtra5812]

well I mean the main Problem was kinda, that there was a mismanaged socialist economy for 40 years.

[@briandelaney9710]

That’s not the whole story at all

[@dalegribble1560]

An overbearing and oppressive Government alone was just as bad not even including the mismanaged economy although they tend to go hand in hand.

[@ernestkhalimov1007]

The Treuhand made no mistakes l, they fulfilled their role as planned.

[@joanhuffman2166]

😮 I had not heard of the assassination of Rohwedder! And they wounded his wife too!

[@kidmohair8151]

the transition to a market economy was achieved, as it always is in capitalism, by fleecing the working people. the people who actually create the wealth are slapped down at every opportunity by the new aristocrats.

[@kiljucook7625]

What happened to VEB Freiberger, who made quality sextants?

[@baseballfan99]

As bad in parts as what happened in Russia after the USSR fell apart.

[@ernestkhalimov1007]

Only difference was that its successor state Russia refuses to die which is why the west has remained angry at Putin today when they were content when Russia was dead under Yeltsin

[@wildsurfer12]

No wonder support for the AFD is so high in the former east german states.

[@afr11235]

It is a pity the two marks were exchanged at parity when it was obvious the eastern mark was worth far less. Of course, this was done for political reasons, but it meant that economic adjustment required substantial unemployment since the resulting wages were far above the value of productivity. The west German leaders would make the same mistake with the euro, overvaluing southern European currencies. The result was just as ugly.

[@Aercusnor]

How do investors make tons of money from companies that go bankrupt...?

[@ernestkhalimov1007]

Basically lying swindling and financial bailouts.

[@Aercusnor]

@@ernestkhalimov1007 But how, exactly, does investors make money from bankrupt companies? There is a difference between statements and proof.

[@gasmaskery]

I know about MEDI and MLW laboratories Genuinely a pair of companies that could've competed against western ones but fell due to privatisation and corruption

[@vangestelwijnen]

The 1990's were good.... when you lived West of the Oder. The former Comecon countries were all in rubble and neglect due to 'capitalism'.

[@timmyturner327]

So you're saying that most of Germany had a good 90s, particularly the western half, but the oder half of it...not so much.

[@ernestkhalimov1007]

​@danielhalachev4714except eastern Germany was in the same spot as eastern Europe They just slapped the DM then the Euro on the price tags while paying eastern germans way lower wages than the national average like how they do to migrants today. Place stayed in ruins but hey they at least had DM and Euros in pocket with overpriced porn, and bananas on sale

[@gary3561]

The RAF assassinated Rohwetter in Düsseldorf in Oberkassel.

[@TheJonathanNewton]

Looting, plain and simple.

[@kenseitakesi4521]

People even today suffer because of this. This was horrible think

[@Oscuros]

It's interesting that the BDM being introduced so rapidly produced identical problems to before the Berlin wall went up, actually problems experienced before the blockade (even) of a stronger BDM and US Dollars sort of flooding into East Berlin and the DDR, having a similar effect on the economy, although one devastated by war as well as having most of their industrial plant taken away into the Soviet Union. It wasn't accidental, it was seen as economic warfare in Washington, like with breaking the Soviet Union with an arms race, food or missiles, if you don't pay for missiles, you'll have a military putsche, exactly like in 1991. Regardless, the reaction against this economic warfare plus brain-drain of the best people for rebuilding was then used against the DDR and still is. They're just really Wall-ey like that and for no reason, because they hate freedom. This is similar to the racist policeman who insults a youth of a different ethnicity and then uses the reaction to assault and then arrest them.

[@VeryProPlayerYesSir1122]

Commies are like : "Reee, true communism has never tried."

[@ernestkhalimov1007]

Thank goodness its not the 90s anymore since China has now surpassed the entire west as the worlds richest country proving that communism works with the US so angry trying to destroy the most successful nation in the world that happens to be communist out of jealousy😊

[@Obi_Obelix]

Beutezug Ost: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6LUkoawd6qNeqM

[@kenseitakesi4521]

Rich ghouls steal all peoples money and ruin they lifes.

[@staredsky]

as usual lol

[@kenseitakesi4521]

DDR back right now!!

[@ennykraft]

German unification had catastrophic results for both East and West Germany. It never should've happened. And we're now seeing the terrible results.

[@briandelaney9710]

A great West German rip off

[@TryThinkingAboutIt]

May I suggest you consider NOT lighting your face from below. It casts an unfortunate shadow - it demonises your face.

[@cristianmicu]

russia needs this LIKE AIR TO BREATHE AFTER PUTER IS GONE

[@ernestkhalimov1007]

Nah Russia must crush the west so the entire world can breathe and prosper

[@celedoniojimenez-ww1tb]

Wieder einmal eine oberflächliche und geirrte Geschichte.