Assets of parties and mass organizations of the GDR

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After the Second World War , political parties and mass organizations emerged in the Soviet occupation zone and later in the GDR , which together pervaded almost all areas of social life. They were increasingly integrated into the state system of rule and became a support for the existing order. In doing so, they accumulated large business assets in the form of cash , real estate , own operations, works of art , foreign accounts and companies abroad. The assets included 6129 properties (1677 for the SED-PDS, 1682 for the FDGB including FDGB holiday service ), some of which were owned, owned, legally owned or used by the organizations.

Most of these appropriations are considered illegal. 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 the decision of the People's Chamber

"Section 20a. (1) The Prime Minister sets up an independent commission to draw up a report on the assets of all parties and associated organizations, legal persons and mass organizations of the GDR at home and abroad.
(2) The parties and their affiliated organizations, legal persons and mass organizations shall, without prejudice to the duties set out in paragraph 1, fully account for
a) which assets have been transferred to their property or that of a predecessor or successor organization since May 8, 1945 Was acquired, expropriated or otherwise sold or sold, given away or given in any other way;
b) in particular, an overview of the assets as of October 7, 1989 as well as the changes that have taken place since then must be prepared.

- Political parties law of the GDR as amended by the Unification Treaty

Foundation of the UKPV

On June 1, 1990, the assets of five parties and 18 mass organizations existing until August 1989 went into the hands of the Independent Commission for the Review of the Assets of Parties and Mass Organizations (UKPV) for examination and fiduciary management .

In various organizations, especially in the SED , but also in the other parties as well as in the mass organizations that are partly in the process of being dissolved, functionaries at various levels attempted to "secure" the money stocks bypassing the law or to embezzle them for private purposes.

After reunification - new tasks for the UKPV

With German reunification , control of the assets passed to the Treuhandanstalt , which was also responsible for the privatization of the state- owned companies . Changes to assets - such as the sale of company shares or land - required the approval of the authorities during this period. This led some of the organizations into existential crises.

After the takeover of the main business by the Treuhandanstalt and also in cooperation with ZERV, UKPV pursued the search for embezzled and embezzled assets of the organizations. Until 1998 she had secured 2.64 billion DM (without interest) in investigations, of which the largest share was with the SED-PDS and the FDGB . In 2006 the commission presented its final report and announced its dissolution.

According to the report, DM 854.3 million of the secured assets have so far been used for cultural and research measures in the new federal states. According to the Old Debt Regulation Act , from 1998 to 2004, the available funds from the assets up to a total of 735 million DM had to be used to repay the old debts of the new federal states and a further 50 million DM for monument protection , whereby the funds were almost completely used up.

The work of the UKPV and its consequences for the GDR organizations

SED-PDS

The SED-PDS founded after the special party conference on 9 December 1989, which represented a fundamental shift in the party history, an internal group to secure the party's assets. The original assets of the SED on the reporting date were 6.2 billion GDR marks (around 2.8 of them in cash, 3.3 billion in funds).

In addition, the SED owned

In addition, there were fixed assets in the form of valuables, cars, furniture and the like. Due to massive resignations, it was no longer possible to pay the around 40,000 full-time employees from current income. The party leadership tried in various ways to withdraw state access to the party's assets: through gifts and donations to organizations, through loans to comrades to set up companies, or through financial transactions with bogus bills. Three billion marks had previously been transferred to the state budget.

One of the largest known shifts in assets of the SED / PDS was the so-called Putnik deal , in which the party wanted to withdraw a total of DM 107 million from the UKPV's access by shipments abroad .

There is still a lack of clarity about the whereabouts of some of the funds and assets that the SED had wrongly appropriated in the GDR. However, numerous searches by the UKPV and other authorities in party offices and related companies have never proven that illegal assets were brought into the operation of the post-reunification PDS.

In 1992 the PDS renounced all foreign assets of the SED in a notarial agreement with the Treuhandanstalt .

The PDS leadership around party leader Gregor Gysi and treasurer Dietmar Bartsch was subjected to strict controls from the time the GDR joined. In September 1991, after numerous restrictions on the PDS's access to its previous assets by the Treuhandanstalt Berlin, all accounts and cash balances of the PDS were confiscated by administrative decision. Despite a loan of DM 5,548,000, which the PDS regional association of Thuringia had been granted by the Treuhandanstalt Berlin until the end of the year, the financial capacity of the regional associations and the federal headquarters was seriously jeopardized. The PDS finally managed to repay these loans through special donation campaigns.

In 1994 the tax office made an additional tax claim of 67 million DM. It related to assets that were no longer under the control of the PDS, but of the Treuhandanstalt . After a hunger strike by prominent party representatives and the occupation of trustee offices, the trustee employee responsible for looking after the SED assets, Bernd Stephan, admitted concerns. It is legally disputed whether parties can owe corporation tax under the law at all. The UKPV chairman, Hans-Jürgen Papier , also advocated not enforcing the decision.

In July 1995 the final comparison between PDS and Treuhandanstalt was made . The administration of all remaining loans was transferred to the Treuhandanstalt, the PDS officially ceded all disputed assets. In return, the Treuhandanstalt assured the PDS legal certainty about its undoubtedly legal assets: a property in the Thuringian Forest , a house in Erfurt , a piece of land in Saxony-Anhalt and the party headquarters Karl-Liebknecht-Haus , which were demonstrably part of the assets of the KPD in the 1920s belonged. In addition, the Neues Deutschland publishing house and the Karl Dietz publishing house were released from the custody of the trust - with the retention of cash assets.

After the comparison, any newly found old assets go to the state. The PDS was accused of not providing sufficient support to the investigation. The party successfully took legal action against claims by Wolfgang Thierse that the Left Party continued to use SED assets for its own purposes.

The party was only able to reorganize its companies, which were unequivocally identified as legitimate, through donations from the party assets acquired after the fall of the Wall. The Left Party now owns the Karl-Liebknecht-Haus in Berlin, the newspaper Neues Deutschland, the Karl-Dietz-Verlag and the Hotel am Wald Elgersburg GmbH . The ND publishing house, which was claimed by Deutsche Bahn after the fall of the Wall , is now operated by a subsidiary of New Germany. The Linkspartei holds shares in several other companies via a holding company, such as the company BärenDruck Mediaservice .

Investigations have been ongoing since February 2008 as to whether the SED's foreign assets are still in trust accounts in Liechtenstein. In this case, the money would flow into the German federal budget due to the notarial agreement.

According to an analysis by Hubertus Knabe published as a podcast, the PDS not only transferred its money to trust accounts in Liechtenstein, but also invested it in private companies founded after the fall of the Wall. Reliable party members were appointed as shareholders of more than 100 newly founded GmbHs. The shareholders received the funds in trust from the PDS that they needed to set up a company. The companies then received loans from the PDS on favorable terms, which had to be repaid in the following years.

Eastern CDU and DBD

The main part of the assets of the CDU of the GDR consisted of the commercial enterprises which were grouped together in the Association of Organizational Enterprises (VOB) Union. The GDR CDU decided early on that it only wanted to keep property that had been acquired under the rule of law . At the beginning of 1990 the board of directors of the Eastern CDU decided to part with the assets that were not acquired under the rule of law. However, the implementation was criticized in the press. So wrote Der Spiegel :

“Formally, at the beginning of the year [1990, d. Ed.] Separated from their party assets. But 'cleaning up' (Korbella) has actually not changed anything in terms of ownership. Instead of the VOB Union (VOB = Association of Organizational Owners), a 'Union GmbH' now manages the property […] VOB General Director Wolfgang Frommhold also remained head of Union GmbH, and the main shareholder - of course - the CDU. "

The article also says:

“The SED's successor, the PDS, and the turned bloc parties have inherited so much property and other amenities that they have every reason to abandon the sensitive issue. The Bonn sisters, CDU and FDP, who would be the laughing co-heirs in a union, leave it to strong words. Only the parties that either did not yet exist in the SED state or only existed underground could benefit from the public discussion: Social Democrats, Greens, Alternative - the falling behind the leaders of the autumn revolution, who have neither land nor party houses, neither publishers nor newspapers . "

The GDR CDU initially merged with the newly founded Democratic Awakening Party (DA) and in August / September 1990 with the former block party Democratic Peasant Party of Germany (DBD) before joining the West German CDU . The newly formed party was thus financially number two in the GDR.

In November 1990, the CDU finally renounced the assets of the Eastern CDU and DBD that had not been acquired under the rule of law. This part of the property was returned to the previous owners or used for charitable purposes in the new federal states. The CDU kept other properties.

However, she was able to keep part of the party offices and infrastructure in order to conduct future election campaigns . Due to the financial situation after the property waiver, the party apparatus had to be greatly reduced in size. Instead of the previous district offices in each district , only one office per Bundestag constituency could be financed. The number of business outlets fell from around 220 to 80. Most of the more than 2000 employees of the Eastern CDU also lost their jobs.

FDP, LDPD, NDPD, BFD

During the fall of the Berlin Wall, the newly founded FDP of the GDR merged with the former Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD) and the National Democratic Party of Germany (NDPD) to form the Union of Free Democrats . This amalgamation with the bloc parties brought the Western FDP not only a tripling of its membership, but also the disposal of numerous properties. While the members in the east soon resigned in droves when the FDP merged and streamlined the structures of the bloc parties, a settlement was reached. The FDP lost a large part of the Eastern assets (book publishers and printers as well as some other commercial enterprises), but was able to get some real estate.

FDJ

After reunification, the assets of the Free German Youth (FDJ) were also placed under the administration of the Treuhandanstalt . The Treuhandanstalt took over most of the property and cash assets of the FDJ. In addition, according to the legal requirements of the trust, the FDJ should pay taxes on the interest income from the assets managed by the trust (approx. 300,000 DM). This determination threatened the existence of the FDJ. Finally a settlement was reached. The loss of the "leisure objects" and the freezing of assets accelerated the already rapid decline of the FDJ from a mass organization to a small voluntary association. Today the FDJ is insignificant in terms of assets and membership.

DFD

The Democratic Women's Federation of Germany (DFD) temporarily lost its ability to act with the blocking of a large part of its business assets and was only able to get out of the crisis gradually. Today there are five regional associations in East Germany with little socio-political impact.

Solidarity Committee of the GDR

There was a debate in the Bundestag about the assets of the GDR Solidarity Committee (as of October 6, 1990 as Solidarity Service International ), as the charitable use of the approximately 5 million DM that had been banned from the association could not be proven.

DSF

The Society for German-Soviet Friendship (DSF) lost its money in 1990. With the loss of the friendship object and the apparatus, the end of DSF as a mass club was sealed. On December 31, 1992 , DSF, which had been called Bridges to the East from March 1992 , was dissolved and the remaining assets were transferred to the “West-Eastern Encounters” foundation .

KPÖ and company NOVUM

The Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) claimed ownership of the assets of the Novum company in the three-digit million range. In court she was subject to the German authorities, who consider the company to be part of the SED's foreign assets. By the end of the 1990s, the politically insignificant KPÖ had financed a large part of its party apparatus from the Novum profits.

literature

  • Federal Agency for Unification-related Special Tasks (Ed.): "Privatize quickly, resolutely renovate, carefully shut down." A review of 13 years of work by the Treuhandanstalt and the Federal Agency for Unification-related Special Tasks. Wegweiser GmbH, Berlin 2003. ISBN 3-932661-40-0 . Final report of the Federal Agency for Unification-related Special Tasks. Table of contents (PDF file; 26 kB), Part 1, Section 3.3.4 Property of the parties and mass organizations (PMO) , pp. 60–65.
  • Hansgeorg Bräutigam: The concealment of SED assets . In: Germany Archive 4/2010, pp. 628–634.
  • Klaus Behling : Trace of Notes - How the SED's Assets Disappeared , Berlin 2019.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. 13th German Bundestag: Drucksache 13/10900, pp. 204f. Online version (PDF; 52.9 MB)
  2. ↑ UKPV final report ( Memento of November 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.1 MB), pp. 33–34
  3. ↑ UKPV final report ( Memento of 23 November 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.1 MB), p. 37
  4. ^ Higher Administrative Court Berlin OVG 3 B 22.93: Comparison of the PDS's old assets . ( Memento of July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 760 KB)
  5. ↑ UKPV final report ( Memento from November 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.1 MB), p. 29
  6. ^ Spiegel: Magazine reports trace in Liechtenstein , February 19, 2008
  7. ↑ Hubertus Knabe: The Treasure of the Working Class , December 17, 2019
  8. ↑ UKPV final report ( Memento of November 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.1 MB), p. 39
  9. ↑ a b SED assets: From the very top . In: Der Spiegel . No. 22 , 1990, pp. 98-99 ( Online - May 28, 1990 ).
  10. ↑ UKPV final report ( Memento from 23 November 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.1 MB), pp. 39–41
  11. ↑ Barbara Koelges: The Democratic Women's Association: From the GDR mass organization to the modern political women's association . Westdeutscher Verlag , Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-531-13682-0 , 6.1 Social organizations and mass organizations under trust management, p. 108 ( google.de ).
  12. ↑ Website of the foundation "West-Eastern Encounters"
  13. ↑ See Rudolfine Steindling