Genex
| Gift service and small exports GmbH (Genex) Genex gift service GmbH
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| legal form | Company with limited liability |
| founding | December 20, 1956 |
| resolution | 1992 |
| Reason for dissolution | Processing by the Treuhandanstalt |
| Seat | Berlin , Germany |
| Branch | Trading company |
The Gift Service and Small Export GmbH ( Genex for short ; later only Genex Gift Service GmbH ) was a company founded on December 20, 1956 by order of the GDR government . It was one of the most important sources of foreign exchange for the Commercial Coordination , a department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the GDR . Headquarters was in East Berlin (Mauerstrasse 86-88).
At first it was only used as a gift service for church parishes . The Federal Republic of Germany refused to extend it to private individuals so as not to give the GDR access to foreign currency .
After the Berlin Wall was built in 1961, the business was expanded further, even to Denmark (via Jauerfood AG in Copenhagen - Valby ) and Switzerland (via Palatinus GmbH in Zurich). It was not until 1989 that German citizens could send gifts in the GDR directly to GDR citizens via a West German company, Inter-Giftdienst GmbH , based in Stuttgart and with branches in West Berlin, Dortmund, Frankfurt am Main and Munich.
Catalog
The company sold a catalog entitled Presents in the GDR , from which the citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany could order goods and pay for them in D-Mark , which were sent directly to their relatives and friends in the GDR.
Were
About ninety percent of the goods in the catalog were from GDR production. In addition to food and consumer goods such as furniture, cosmetics, clothing, tools and hi-fi systems, you could also order motorcycles, cars (without the usual long waiting times), camping cars and even entire prefabricated houses, the so-called Neckermann houses .
In addition to motorcycles from MZ and Simson and z. B. 1986 a Yamaha motorcycle, there were the East German cars Trabant , Wartburg (also as a pick-up ) and Barkas as well as Eastern European vehicles from Škoda , Polski Fiat and Lada , which were considered better cars in the GDR. But you could also give away selected models from Western European automotive groups. For example, a Fiat Uno 60 Super , Renault 9 GTL , Ford Orion , VW Golf , VW Passat and the VW Transporter were offered in the 1986 catalog . The brands Mazda , BMW , Lancia and Volvo were also available from time to time. Here it had to be taken into account that with some Western European / Japanese brands the spare parts supply was only for five years against marks ; thereafter only against freely convertible currencies.
The recipient did not incur any costs, the otherwise difficult to obtain goods were delivered directly to the GDR citizens without long waiting times (for cars, for example, only four to six weeks) .
Two-class society
The fact that only GDR citizens with Western relatives could enjoy the gifts from the Genex mail order business caused displeasure in the GDR. Because these came anyway through the so-called western parcels of goods from western countries. Anyone who had access to a freely convertible currency (" Westgeld ") could also get these goods via the Intershop . All other GDR citizens could only see in Genex catalogs how much the coveted goods were worth in a freely convertible currency, for which they often had to wait ten years or more for cars, for example. In 1973 alone, 6,800 Wartburgs were bought via the Genex catalog.
The official 1: 1 exchange rate from Mark of the GDR to German Mark was not adhered to in the Genex catalogs. For example, a Trabant 601 cost around 8,000 DM, otherwise over 10,000 DM and a Wartburg 353 around 9,000 DM, otherwise 20,000 DM.
GDR employees in “socialist foreign countries” were able to pay part of their salaries or wages into a “Genex account” (for example, those involved in the construction of the Druzhba line in the Soviet Union part of the daily allowance: 3 rubles per day, corresponding to around 270 marks per day Month; they did not receive DM) and could order goods from the "Eastern Edition" of the Genex catalog. This east edition of the Genex catalog differed from the west edition in the lack of goods that were imported from western countries. Via the "Ost-Genex-Catalog" - except in the GDR or the Comecon states - but usually difficult to obtain in the free sale, such as cement, tiles, impact drills, but also cars - goods from the so-called permission production could be ordered become.
Statistical data
While the GDR received DM 12.3 million from Switzerland and Denmark via Genex in 1962, in 1963 it was already DM 16.6 million.
According to statistics from the Bundesbank , between 1967 and 1989 the Genex agencies - including purchases from GDR citizens and organizations - received DM 3.3 billion. According to the daily newspaper Neues Deutschland of June 14, 1990, GENEX's balance sheet assets on December 31, 1989 amounted to DM 44.1 million.
History after the fall of the Wall
In 1990, on October 1st, the name had to be changed because the name Genex could no longer be officially mentioned. In connection with the introduction of the Economic and Monetary Union and other state regulations, this was determined and restructuring was initiated - all employees were given notice on September 30, 1990 (letter of resignation dated June 27, 1990). New jobs were then advertised, which made new applications necessary so that from October 1, 1990, a further takeover of all former employees could be guaranteed. Certain former employees with a corresponding past ( SED party affiliation and leadership functionaries) in the former GDR were rejected. But completely new staff were also added. In the course of the dissolution of Genex, a completely new company with three areas was created; one for trade and asset management (HAVERS-Gesellschaft für Handel und Vermögensverwaltung mbH, Berlin), another for asset management (Refix Vermögensverwaltung GmbH, Bamberg) and one for the shipping service (Papillon Versand GmbH, Bamberg). It was only in the second half of 1991 that these areas of the company were transferred to the administration of the Treuhandanstalt . The companies were finally wound up by 1992.
Genex joke
The Genex mail order business was also discussed in whisper jokes among the citizens of the GDR:
“ Erich Honecker travels overland and stops in a small town at a well-preserved ensemble of houses. A little boy who doesn't recognize him asks, 'Who are you?' The President of the State Council smiles and replies: 'I am the one to whom you owe all of this!' Then the boy runs into the house and shouts: 'Mom, the man from Genex is here!' "
literature
- Christian Härtel , Petra Kabus (Ed.): The West Package. Gift shipment, no merchandise. Links, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-86153-221-2 .
- Matthias Judt: The commercial coordination area. The GDR economic empire of Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski - myth and reality. Links, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86153-724-3
- There you get everything that doesn't exist . In: Der Spiegel . No. 41 , 1985, pp. 131-140 ( online ).
- Armin Volze: The foreign exchange business of the GDR. Genex and Intershop. In: Germany Archive . Volume 24, Issue 11, 1991, pp. 1145-1159
Web links
- Christoph Gunkel: Genex luxury goods shipping - it doesn't even exist! Spiegel Online , December 20, 2016
- Various GENEX catalogs as PDF to leaf through on the concentrate mixer
- Genex shipping box ( memento from January 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
Individual evidence
- ^ Karoline Rittberger-Klas: Church partnerships in divided Germany: using the example of the regional churches of Württemberg and Thuringia. Volume 44 of works on contemporary ecclesiastical history: representations, works on contemporary ecclesiastical history. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2006, ISBN 3-525-55746-9 , p. 309.
- ^ Deutsches Ärzteblatt: Gifts to the GDR: This is how checks get over the wall. In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt . January 19, 1989, p. A-121 , accessed February 16, 2013 .
- ^ Karoline Rittberger-Klas: Church partnerships in divided Germany: using the example of the regional churches of Württemberg and Thuringia. Volume 44 of works on contemporary ecclesiastical history: representations, works on contemporary ecclesiastical history. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2006, ISBN 3-525-55746-9 , p. 65 f.
- ^ Burkhard Klier: Erdgastrasse: General. Retrieved July 31, 2010 .
- ↑ Juliane Aronia Fröhlich: Technical work by Juliane Aronia Fröhlich on the youth property Erdgastrasse. Steffen Liers, accessed July 31, 2010 .
- ↑ There you get everything that doesn't exist . In: Der Spiegel . No. 41 , 1985, pp. 131-140 ( online ).
- ^ Uwe Backes, Werner Weidenfeld, Eckhard Jesse, Peter Bender: Germany Archive. Volume 24, Verl. Wiss. u. Politics, 1991, p. 1149.
- ↑ Stefan Wolle: The ideal world of dictatorship. Econ Tb., 2001, ISBN 3-548-75067-2 , p. 121.