Party operation (SED)

As a party company of the SED one referred to economic companies and companies in which the party itself acted as owner , owner , operator and / or employer .

Despite close ties in the GDR , party companies as organization-owned companies (OEB) are not to be equated with state- owned companies (VEB) , companies and assets of the GDR state apparatus, the area of commercial coordination (KoKo), the Ministry of Foreign Trade (MHA) and the Ministry of State Security (MfS) or the armed organs .

Task, function

The party operations in the narrower sense secured the activities of the party, the economic functioning of the party apparatus and its media. They formed and administered the material and financial party assets including real estate.

In addition to the party companies in the narrower sense, this also included companies, ownership or participation in other domestic and foreign companies. Until 1989, these were primarily used to procure foreign currency and import goods from the non-socialist economic area (NSW), i.e. from all states in the western and third world that did not belong to the Council for Mutual Economic Aid (Comecon in the east, Comecon in the west). Ultimately, they served the realization of profits that u. a. were used to finance the DKP . The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) estimated that the DKP was financed with well over 60 million DM annually in the 1970s.

Furthermore, such companies and holdings served the legal and illegal financial transfer transactions , especially during the turning point of the cover-up of assets and in connection with the formation of the successor parties SED-PDS, PDS , Die Linkspartei.PDS and, after the merger with the WASG, today's party Die Left the associated asset transfers.

history

After the " Third Reich " was smashed, the Allies took over administrative sovereignty in post-war Germany . They let u. a. political parties and confirmed old or new legal norms and organs. Even after the expropriations of the "Third Reich", property that could be unequivocally assigned to the parties, unions etc. a. Organizations are transferred back, so also the SPD and KPD , which united in the Soviet occupation zone in 1946 to the SED.

The Gentz ​​law firm was of central importance to the party and later also to the government of the GDR. The attorney Ingeburg Gentz, who was admitted as a notary in 1945 , notarized the founding meetings of all party operations including the Zentrag

The party factories were subordinate to the Central Committee . Central Committee representatives for finances and party operations were u. a .:

• in the 1970s until May 1982 Karl Raab ,
• until December 1989 Heinz Wildenhain and
• until October 1990 Wolfgang Langnitschke.

In the KoKo area, Waltraud Lisowski was head of the AG party companies until the end of the 1980s.

Long-time trustee Werner Girke held capital shares in foreign companies for the SED .

To turn times were party companies and firms entrusted by party funds or misused to asset concealment for the legitimate safety and the legitimate and illegitimate but also transfer.

Party operations and holdings

In the Soviet occupation zone and in the GDR, the SED temporarily or permanently owned or operated various commercial operations or holdings, guest houses and holiday properties. The network of all businesses in the assets of the SED became public with the investigation of the party assets after 1989.

At the end of 1989 the SED employed 40,000 full-time and other employees.

The party also founded or ran foreign companies, assets and holdings.

In 1982 the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) also listed 15 letterbox companies and foreign GDR companies and holdings in Switzerland , Luxembourg , Liechtenstein , the Netherlands and Curaçao ( Netherlands Antilles ).

In a letter to the General Secretary of the SED Erich Honecker in 1988, Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski , head of the KoKo division, listed fifteen companies that were owned by the SED under the administration of the KoKo division.

In the years after the reunification, the SED and the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) founded new companies until §§ 20a and 20b of the GDR Party Law came into force. As a private enterprise, mostly GmbH, they should secure their assets and jobs under the emerging new social conditions.

Former party schools and educational institutions were continued as congress centers, meeting and event facilities by new operating companies. Previous SED guest houses as well as recreational and holiday properties became hotels and restaurants. The driving forces of the former SED district management were reorganized into car dealerships and repair shops, driving schools, freight forwarders, tourism companies and travel agencies. Former telecommunications departments were re-established in the legal form of a GmbH as a communications and security technology company and in the audio and video sector.

Fiduciary administration from 1990 to 1995

See also : Assets of the SED-PDS

According to the testimony of Wolfgang Langnitschke before the committee of inquiry on October 17, 1996, 45 to 50 percent of the SED's wealth creation came from party contributions (around 710 million GDR marks at the end of the 1980s ), and another part from economic activity Party companies and only about 100 million GDR marks from the state budget.

A close interweaving existed within the scope of the Commercial Coordination (KoKo) of the government of the GDR between the party assets and the enterprises and assets of the Ministries for Foreign Trade (MAH) and State Security (MfS). The KoKo division was dissolved in March 1990 by a Council of Ministers decision. The companies assigned to the area went to the Treuhandanstalt (THA).

A large part of the party assets belonging to the reference date in August 1989 were determined to have been illegally acquired. With the turning point, the dispute over the continued existence of these assets and organizations began. Even before German reunification, the People's Chamber passed a law that placed the assets of parties and mass organizations of the GDR (PMO) under the administration of an authority until the final decision on their use.

From June 1, 1990, the assets of five parties and 18 mass organizations existing until August 1989 came into the hands of the Independent Commission for the Review of the Assets of Parties and Mass Organizations (UKPV) for examination and fiduciary management . With German reunification , control of the assets was transferred to the Treuhandanstalt (THA), which was also tasked with the privatization of the state- owned companies and party companies . Property that undoubtedly rightfully belonged to the party was released from the custody of the trust in 1995 in the final settlement between the PDS and the Treuhand. The THA was continued as the Federal Agency for Unification-Related Special Tasks (BvS) from 1995.

Companies of the successor party "Die Linke"

→ Main article : The Left

The predecessor parties were able to get their companies back, which were unequivocally identified as legitimate, but could only restore them through donations from the party assets acquired after the fall of the Wall. The Left Party now has the assets of the former WASG and Linkspartei.PDS.

See also

Putnik deal

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Schalck-Golodkowski on interpool online (PDF), accessed January 21, 2019.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} | Recommendation for a resolution and report to the Bundestag 13th electoral period, printed matter 13/10900 , Bonn May 28, 1998, accessed January 21, 2019
3. ↑ ^{a b} Information from the Federal Government to the 13th Bundestag , printed matter 13/11353 of August 24, 1998, pp. 151–224
4. ↑ Wolfgang Hoffmann: A mole in the trust on | Zeit online No. 31/1992 , accessed January 21, 2019
5. ^ Information from the President of the 18th German Bundestag , printed matter 18/4300 of March 11, 2015, p. 178ff, accessed January 24, 2019