#ddr

when the two halves of Germany decided to unify, the FRG stripped the East of public assets, in violation of the constitutions of both East and West. the majority of wealth in the East had been held in common and administered by the state, and the initial plan would have divided it up amongst the people, giving each around 40,000 Deutsch Marks. instead, the Federal Republic sold off the East's enterprises on the cheap and lost money doing so

to make matters worse, the West forced through a currency union on terrible terms for the East. overnight, exports from the East rose in price by 400-500 percent and bankrupted major industries. 39 percent of the DDR's GDP had come from exports