Load balancing (Finland)
During and after the Second World War , there was extensive redistribution of wealth in Finland between the population of the heartland and the displaced people to balance the burden . The German model of load balancing later followed the Finnish model in many respects.
background
Similar to Germany , Finland had to accept assignments of territory as a result of the war, and here too the Finnish population of the assigned territories fell victim to flight and displacement. About 450,000 Finns were expelled from Karelia , which was ceded to the Soviet Union . This was about 10% of the total population of Finland. With the expulsion, the expellees lost their property (this was mostly land in the agrarian economy of Karelia) almost completely, whereas the property of the other Finns was not affected.
The 1940 Load Balancing Regulations
After Finland had rejected Soviet territorial claims in the Karelian Isthmus immediately after the Hitler-Stalin Pact , the Red Army attacked the neighboring country on November 30, 1939 and defeated it in the following winter war of 1940. Karelia was occupied by the Soviet Union under the Treaty of Moscow and expelled the Finnish population from the newly created Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic . With the Immediate Settlement Act of June 28, 1940, the Compensation Act and the Act on Property Taxes of August 9, 1940, the Finnish Parliament implemented the burden sharing. Half of the displaced were farmers. In order to provide them with agricultural land, it was possible, on the one hand, to clear forest areas. On the other hand, the Property Tax Act regulated that landowners had to make the property tax in the country. The other assets were covered with a property tax, which had to be paid in cash in 5 equal annual installments. 9 billion Finnmarks were distributed to 158,000 beneficiaries . After the invasion of the Soviet Union by National Socialist Germany, Finland also rejoined the war and recaptured the lost provinces in the Continuation War . The displaced returned and the Emergency Settlement Act was repealed. The property levy was retained; the proceeds should now be used to repair the war damage. The Compensation Act was adapted accordingly.
Another expulsion in 1944
The war ended with the victory of the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the German Eastern Front, the Finnish government decided to conclude a separate peace with the Soviet Union. As a result, the Soviet Union again annexed Karelia and the Finnish inhabitants were again expelled. Compared to the expulsion of the Germans from the former German eastern territories, however, the resettlement took place according to plan. On May 5, 1945, Parliament passed a new Compensation Act and a Property Tax Act. These corresponded roughly to the previous regulations from 1940. A land procurement law was new. In addition to supplying the displaced peasants with land, this should also serve to supply those who participated in the war and those who were injured in the war. The compensation was paid in three stages. The first 20,000 Finnmarks (20,000 Finnmarks corresponded to the equivalent of 1,700 DM in 1950 (in today's purchasing power 4,776 euros)) were paid in cash. For the next 200,000 Finnmarks, the payment was made in floating bonds of the Finnish state. These were repayable over 10 years and had an index-independent interest rate. Due to the high inflation in Finland during this period, this property of the bonds was extremely important. Even higher compensation payments were paid half in floating bonds and the other half in share certificates of a special fund. This special fund was out of bonus shares has been formed, the Finnish public companies had to spend.
The economic upswing in the post-war years meant that both floating bonds and shares were soon quoted above par on the stock exchange and even reached three times their nominal value in 1951. To 145,000 beneficiaries (mostly the same ones who were affected in 1940), 33 billion Finnmarks were distributed, which in 1950 amounted to around 1.2 billion DM (in today's purchasing power 3 billion euros).
swell
- Rüdiger Wenzel: The big shift: The struggle to balance the burden in post-war Germany from the first preparatory work to the enactment of the 1952 law, 2008, ISBN 978-3-515-09218-0 , pages 241-242