Inherited Debt Redemption Fund

In 1995, the German Erblastentilgungsfonds , as a special fund of the federal government , brought together the debts of the Treuhandanstalt and the loan settlement fund as well as parts of the old debts of the municipal housing industry (see also costs of German unity ). It was dissolved on December 31, 2015.

Facility

The fund was 1 January 1995 with an initial debt of 336 billion DM (converted 171790000000 euro built) and by the federal government interest and repaid. The establishment took place within the framework of the solidarity pact .

Repayment and continuation

The Bundesbank's surpluses in excess of EUR 3.5 billion flowed directly into the fund in accordance with Section 6 of the Act on the Establishment of an Inherited Debt Repayment Fund (ELFG). The UMTS proceeds repaid 50.8 billion euros.

The characterization “hereditary burden” was intended to express, among other things, that a special burden must be borne here, which was not caused by the politics of the Federal Government, but by forty years of activity by the GDR. By redeeming old fund units and at the same time replacing them with new debt securities, the Inherited Debt Redemption Fund lost this claim, but the name was retained. It was therefore true in an accounting sense when Chancellor Merkel claimed in 2009 that the Inherited Debt Repayment Fund had been repaid, while in the fiscal sense of the word, 100 billion had to be paid off.

“At the end of 2010, the liabilities of the investment fund still amounted to EUR 52.6 million. This was offset by receivables of EUR 35.6 million. "

As of December 31, 2015, the Inherited Debt Redemption Fund was liquidated. The federal government entered into the rights and obligations of the fund. The refinancing was made possible by the “Debt Integration Act”, which came into force on July 1, 1999 and which also affects the two “side pots” of the federal railroad assets and the hard coal fund .

See also

• Federal budget
• National debt of Germany

Web links

• Text of the Inherited Debt Repayment Fund Act
• Lorenz Maroldt: “Debt without atonement. How West German banks enriched themselves with fictitious GDR loans at our expense ” , in: Tagesspiegel , July 1, 2005.
• Spiegel Online: “Rain of money for Peer Steinbrück: For the first time in years, the finance minister can collect almost the entire billion-dollar profit from the Bundesbank for the budget. According to a newspaper report, the dismantling of the remaining GDR debt is almost complete. "
• FAZ graphic repaid at the expense of the federal debt

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Law on the establishment of an inheritance repayment fund of December 22, 2014 ( memo of September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Hartmut Tofaute: Special funds as instruments to finance the costs of German unification (PDF; 148 kB), Friederich Ebert Foundation, 1993
3. ↑ Manfred Schäfers, FAZ.de: Debt trap inherited funds - little repaid, many new loans
4. ↑ Comments of the Federal Audit Office 2011 (PDF; 3.6 MB).
5. ↑ Law amending laws on federal special funds of December 22, 2014 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2431 ).