Research advisory board for questions about the reunification of Germany

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The research advisory board for questions relating to the reunification of Germany was a body that existed from 1952 to 1975 to develop measures to be used in the event of the GDR's integration into the Federal Republic .

History and structure

The establishment of the Research Advisory Board was initiated by the Federal Ministry for All-German Issues under Jakob Kaiser . It was formed on March 24, 1952. Its foundation is to be seen as the answer to the Stalin Note on questions of reunification of March 10th of the same year. The aim of the advisory board was to create a catalog of measures in the event of the reunification of the GDR with the Federal Republic. To this end, four committees were formed between June and September 1952, which dealt with the various aspects of the integration of the GDR economy into the West German system: an accounting committee for the preparation of the GDR's national accounts, an agriculture committee, a finance committee and a committee for special issues of the commercial economy. In addition, from June 1954, a "Small Working Group for Advising on Currency Issues" prepared to extend the area of ​​application of the D-Mark to the GDR.

The eleven members of the advisory board included Bruno Gleitze , who until his resignation at the end of 1948 was head of the German Central Administration for Statistics in the Soviet Zone of Occupation (Central Administration for Statistics for short). Werner Bosch, who has worked at the Research Institute for Economic Policy in Mainz since 1951, carried out a comparative study of income trends in the two German states, which was important for the monetary policy aspects of integrating the GDR. The chairmen of the advisory board were the CDU politicians Friedrich Ernst (1952 to 1958) and Johann Baptist Gradl (1958 to 1975).

In 1975, Willy Brandt's new Ostpolitik led to the reduction of the Research Advisory Board to a " research center for pan-German economic and social issues ".

Developed measures

The advisory board defined the reprivatisation of state- owned enterprises as a primary goal of GDR integration . This should be done by way of return or sale, whereby the companies should be temporarily placed under trust management, in particular in order to be able to check the company rights of previous owners. From the beginning, however, the company's accounting should be converted to market economy principles.

In contrast, there was initially disagreement in the Research Advisory Board about the appropriate time for a monetary union . After the majority of the members initially endorsed a currency and economic reform at the beginning of the unification process, it was ultimately concluded that an immediate currency conversion was impossible and that the GDR currency would have to be stabilized in a transition period .

With regard to the treatment of the existing administrative and business elite in the GDR, the advisory board supported the view of various federal ministries, which assumed that up to 90 percent of the public employees in the GDR should be dismissed. The Research Advisory Board itself recommended that in the event of a reunification, most of the management teams should be replaced immediately, whereby these should primarily be replaced by former East German economic and administrative employees based in the Federal Republic of Germany.

The historical development of Germany shows that these measures could not be implemented while the advisory board was in existence. However, it can be assumed that some of the measures developed were used during reunification in 1990. Some researchers also point out that the work of the advisory board served as a template for the accession of the Saarland to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957, which is indicated, among other things, by personal connections. In addition to his work on the advisory board, Werner Bosch also published an "Expert Report on the Economic Structure and National Income of the Saarland" and a publication entitled "The Saar Question. An Economic Analysis".

literature

  • Karl Heinz Roth u. a .: GDR invasion target. Konkret-Buchverlag, Hamburg 1971.
  • Markus Gloe: Planning for German Unity. The research advisory board for questions relating to reunification 1952 to 1975. Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-531-14435-9 .
  • Karl Heinz Roth: Connect, align, process. The West German plans for the takeover of the GDR 1952 to 1990. Konkret Literatur Verlag, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-930786-27-3 ( review ).
  • Roland Wöller : The research advisory board for questions about the reunification of Germany 1952-75. For the political and scientific discussion of economic reunification , Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5258-7 .

swell

  1. ^ Junge Welt, December 29, 2006