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, [ Ссылка ]
- 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, [ Ссылка ]
- 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, [ Ссылка ]
- Lebensmittelgeschäft der HO (1950). Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-08328-0006 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, [ Ссылка ]
- Franz Josef Strauss (By: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-0226-315 / Mittelstädt, Rainer / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, [ Ссылка ])
