Was Privatization in Eastern Germany a Special Case? Some Lessons from the Treuhand

Abstract

Eastern German privatization and restructuring of firms is seen as a special case because of the peculiarities of reunification and the large transfers from western Germany to finance it. Although this is right, the government faced the same problems as other countries in transition when privatizing and restructuring firms: It had to decide about the aims, methods and organization, the extent and the speed of privatization, it had to take into account politico-economic repercussions and traditions, and it had to find a general economic policy toward restructuring. I argue that eastern German privatization is only in a limited way a special case and therefore some lessons can be drawn for other transition countries.