The
Treuhand (
Treuhandanstalt or
Treuhand agency) was the agency that privatized the
East GermanThe German Democratic Republic was a Communist state that originated from the Soviet Zone of occupied Germany and the Soviet sector of occupied Berlin...
enterprises,
Volkseigener BetriebThe Volkseigener Betrieb was the legal form of industrial enterprise in East Germany...
(VEBs), owned as
public propertyPublic property is property which is jointly owned by a whole community of individuals or by a non-communistic, dictatorial, or totalitarian government, as opposed to private property, which is owned exclusively by an individual or individuals jointly that do not constitute the whole community.In...
. Created by the
VolkskammerThe People's Chamber was the unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic . From its founding in 1949 until the first free elections on 18 March 1990, all members of the Volkskammer were elected on a slate controlled by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , called the National Front...
on June 17, 1990, it oversaw the restructuring and selling of about 8,500 firms with initially over 4 million employees. At that time it was the world's largest industrial enterprise, controlling everything from steel works to the
Babelsberg StudiosThe Studio Babelsberg, located in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany, is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. Founded in 1911, it covers an area of about . Hundreds of films, including Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel were filmed there.Today, Studio Babelsberg...
.
The Treuhand was responsible for more than just the 8500 state-owned enterprises (
Volkseigener BetriebThe Volkseigener Betrieb was the legal form of industrial enterprise in East Germany...
e or VEBs).
The
Treuhand (
Treuhandanstalt or
Treuhand agency) was the agency that privatized the
East GermanThe German Democratic Republic was a Communist state that originated from the Soviet Zone of occupied Germany and the Soviet sector of occupied Berlin...
enterprises,
Volkseigener BetriebThe Volkseigener Betrieb was the legal form of industrial enterprise in East Germany...
(VEBs), owned as
public propertyPublic property is property which is jointly owned by a whole community of individuals or by a non-communistic, dictatorial, or totalitarian government, as opposed to private property, which is owned exclusively by an individual or individuals jointly that do not constitute the whole community.In...
. Created by the
VolkskammerThe People's Chamber was the unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic . From its founding in 1949 until the first free elections on 18 March 1990, all members of the Volkskammer were elected on a slate controlled by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , called the National Front...
on June 17, 1990, it oversaw the restructuring and selling of about 8,500 firms with initially over 4 million employees. At that time it was the world's largest industrial enterprise, controlling everything from steel works to the
Babelsberg StudiosThe Studio Babelsberg, located in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany, is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. Founded in 1911, it covers an area of about . Hundreds of films, including Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel were filmed there.Today, Studio Babelsberg...
.
Responsibilities
The Treuhand was responsible for more than just the 8500 state-owned enterprises (
Volkseigener BetriebThe Volkseigener Betrieb was the legal form of industrial enterprise in East Germany...
e or VEBs). It also took over around 2.4m
hectareA hectare is a unit of area equal to , or one square hectometre , and commonly used for measuring land area....
s of agricultural land and forests; the property of the former
StasiThe Ministry for State Security, The Ministry for State Security, The Ministry for State Security, (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, commonly known as the Stasi [ˈʃtazi] (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official secret police of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered in...
; large parts of the property of the former
National People's ArmyThe National People’s Army was the military of the German Democratic Republic. Since East Germany was at the frontline of the Cold War, the GDR's military was considered to be the most advanced in the whole Warsaw Pact, excluding the Soviet Union...
, largescale public housing property as well as the property of the state pharmacy network. At
reunificationGerman reunification is the process in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and Berlin was united into a single city-state. The start of this process is commonly referred to by former citizens of the GDR as die Wende...
on 3 October 1990 it also took over the property of the political parties and mass organisations of the German Democratic Republic.
Opposition
Its operations drew criticism from some quarters for unnecessarily closing of profitable businesses, misuse and waste of funds and unnecessary layoffs. It also drew substantial protests from the workforces affected, as 2.5m employees in state-owned enterprises (out of 4m in total) were laid off in the early 1990s. The then chairman of the Treuhand,
Detlev Karsten RohwedderDetlev Karsten Rohwedder was a German manager and politician, as member of the Social Democratic Party. He was manager of Treuhandanstalt.Rohwedder was born in Gotha...
was shot on 1 April 1991 by an unknown assassin (possibly the
Red Army FactionThe Red Army Faction , shortened to RAF and in its early stages commonly known as Baader-Meinhof Group or Gang, was one of postwar West Germany's most violent and prominent groups who advocated communist-inspired terrorism...
). He was succeeded by Birgit Breuel.
When its operations ended in 1994, it had amassed 260 to 270b DM in debt. Supporters argued that without placing the former state-owned enterprises into private hands, job losses would have been much higher, and economic recovery slower.
Successors
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Although the Treuhand closed operations in 1994, it still retained much property and some other legal responsibilities. These were transferred to 3 successor agencies:
- the Bundesanstalt für vereinigungsbedingte Sonderaufgaben, BvS (Federal Agency for Unification-derived Special Tasks), which managed remaining state-owned enterprises;
- the Treuhandliegenschaftsgesellschaft (now TLG Immobilien GmbH), which manages the remaining state-owned urban and industrial real estate;
- the Bodenverwertungs- und -verwaltungs GmbH (BVVG), a subsidiary of the Treuhand created in 1992, which manages the state-owned agricultural land, forest lands, and related real estate.
The BvS ceased operations at the end of 2000; although it remains legally in existence, its remaining tasks are all delegated to other bodies. TLG and BVVG remain the largest real estate owners in the
new federal statesThe new federal states of Germany are the five reestablished states in the former German Democratic Republic that acceded to the Federal Republic of Germany upon German reunification on 3 October 1990....
. In 2000 TLG was reoriented from focussing on privatisation of its assets to "active portfolio management" with a view to making profits for the German federal government. By 2007, having sold 45,000 properties in 6 years and reinvested EUR1.5bn, it was managing 1500 properties worth EUR1.4bn. The planned privatisation of TLG itself was put on hold in July 2008, due to adverse economic conditions.
In July 2008 the BVVG announced total privatization receipts of EUR3.5bn since its establishment in 1992, which it had gained through the sale of around 525,000 hectares of agricultural land, with a similar amount of forest land and a small amount of other land. Total land sales amounted to around half the area of the state of
Saxony-AnhaltSaxony-Anhalt is one of the sixteen Bundesländer that make up the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of , and a population of 2.45 million...
. At the end of 2007 it still owned over 500,000 hectares of agricultural land, and just under 100,000 of forest land.