Office for Prices

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The state office for prices was an organ of the Council of Ministers to guarantee the state price policy in the German Democratic Republic .

It was founded by the Council of Ministers in December 1965 and until 1990 was responsible for adapting consumer prices for consumer goods to the ideas of the GDR planned economy through price surcharges and discounts .

The office compared the consumer prices of, for example, staple food or energy in the GDR with those in other countries. According to the government's ideas, these were then also laid down for the internal market . The problem here was the fact that the Office for Prices, as an intermediary steering body, decoupled the connection between the production costs of the manufacturer and the purchasing power of the consumer. This led to chaotic conditions, especially in areas in which prices had been heavily subsidized and frozen by the state for several decades, for example in the case of food, drinking water , utilities such as electricity and gas, craftsmen's services or fees for public transport, since households did not were encouraged to consume or to consume according to their own possibilities. This resulted in a surplus of demand, which in a market economy would result in a price premium. However, since consumer prices were fixed by the state, this often resulted in a waste of resources . For example, staple foods were thoughtlessly fed to small animals and the energy made available was used carelessly.

After the reunification, the duties of the office were carried out from April to October 1990 by the Ministry of Finance and Prices .

Head of Office

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 3.2.1.5.1. Supreme organs of government. In: argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de. Retrieved January 6, 2015 .
  2. ^ Ludz Peter Christian Johannes Kuppe: GDR manual . Ed .: Federal Ministry for Internal German Relations. 1st edition. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1979, ISBN 978-3-8046-8515-4 , p. 42 .
  3. ↑ 1.11.7. Office for Prices of the GDR (AfP). In: argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de. Retrieved January 6, 2015 .
  4. ↑ G. Fuhrmann, H. Jablonksi, H.-H. Lehnecke, J. Thiele, L.-P. Wagenführ: Material and goods testing in the GDR . Beuth, 2009, p. 45 .
  5. ^ Hannjörg F. Buck: The GDR - Analyzes of an abandoned state . Ed .: Heiner Timmermann. Duncker & Humblot , Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-10416-1 , pp. 73 .