Although the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR were not yet legally a unified state, the Federal Republic of Germany could not wait to reach out to the other side of the Berlin Wall.
Not long after Honecker's ouster, the Berlin Wall still exists, and there are still troops guarding the border checkpoints.
But the East Germans no longer had to risk their lives to run to the other side of the wall.
Now the troops garrisoning the Berlin Wall do not even bother to check the exit and entry documents.
Countless East Germans rushed to West Germany in their own smoky Sputnik cars.
Many people who come to West Germany for the first time are not familiar with the local traffic rules and will inevitably be punished by the West German police, but once they encounter such a situation, the generous West Germans will always say: "Don't bully our East German brothers." ” Although the people of the two Germans seemed to be at peace and ready to become a family, the capitalists of West Germany were not so kind, and they had already prepared the funds to attack the enterprises of the people of East Germany.
As a showcase for socialism, East Germany's industrial level and people's living standards have always been among the best in the socialist camp.
The East Germans have created a large number of world-renowned East German brands under this system for decades.
For example, the famous East German Sputnik car, the Seagull license plate camera, Carl Zeiss Jena optical instruments, DKK refrigerators, the East German State Shipyard, and the internationally renowned manufacturer of boilers and heating equipment ETA.
There are more than 100 state-owned enterprises in East Germany with such excellent technology and good reputation.
However, after the East and West German governments agreed to a currency swap, these companies fell into serious losses overnight.
On July 1, the West German government began issuing West German marks to the East German region, with an exchange ratio of up to 1:1.
The Bank of Colombia's early move to exchange a large number of dollars for the East German mark from the black market made the Gorky Group make a lot of money in this currency exchange process.
Earlier, 20 billion West German marks were invested, and the rate of return was as high as 120 billion West German marks.
That's a sixfold increase.
The people of East Germany thanked the Kohl government for its generosity, which allowed them to multiply their assets a full sixfold.
East German society as a whole was confident about the future after the merger.
But is it really that good, and those East German state-owned enterprises don't think so.
The currency suddenly increased sixfold, which means that the original loan of 1 million East German marks will have to be repaid by 1 million West German marks, which means that the production costs of East German state-owned enterprises have increased sixfold.
Under these circumstances, most of the East German state-owned enterprises became insolvent almost overnight.
Most of the East German companies are now starting to lose money under the impact of the West German mark.
One of the core competencies of East German companies is no longer there.
The capitalists in West Germany began to take advantage of this opportunity to embezzle East German state assets.
Among them, the most ugly is the Bank of Colombia.
They bought the East German Mark long before the West German Mark was issued, and after making a huge profit six times, they in turn embezzled the famous East German companies, such as the East German State Shipyard, Satellite Automobile, Carl Zeiss Jena and other famous state-owned enterprises, and then the East German State Shipyard was sold to the Swiss Mediterranean Shipping Group.
Satellite cars were acquired by Volkswagen, and Carl Zeiss Jena was sold by Blackstone to the Carl Zeiss plant in West Germany, and Blackstone took the opportunity to acquire about 40 percent of the newly merged Carl Zeiss Optical Instruments, completely controlling the long-established optical company.
In fact, in Seryosha's view, West Germany's move to issue West German marks to East Germany at a ratio of 1:1 seems generous, but in fact it is an outright scam.
In the past, the East Germans had the best welfare in the socialist camp, and although consumer goods such as coffee may have faced a single variety and insufficient supply, the East Germans did not have to worry about unemployment, housing, etc.
Probably the largest expense for every East German family is the purchase of a satellite car.
Because the production capacity of satellite cars is limited, they can only be supplied by ticket.
The average household in East Germany saved around 7,000 marks, while a satellite car cost about 3,000 marks.
Almost every family can afford this cost.
But when the two Germans merged, the East Germans slowly discovered that although they had nominally more money, prices had risen much more than sixfold.
The real purchasing power of money has decreased.
DM 7,000 was a lot of money for both East and West Germans, but if you spend it on shopping, you may not even be able to afford a Golf car.
In West Germany, although people seem to be rich, in fact, most West Germans are negative equity, they spend through overdraft credit, and then use the money earned to return to the bank, although West Germans look glamorous, but in fact far less independent than East Germans.
Seryosha still understands this simple truth, and at the same time he is also brewing an even bigger plan, that is, to repeat the old tricks used to puncture the bubble economy in Japan after the merger of the two Germanys, and to knock him on the head of Germany, the richest country in Europe.
Seryosha didn't have that opportunity in the first place, but Kohl's currency exchange program gave Seryosha a chance.
The 1:1 exchange between the East German mark and the West German mark inflated, and the size of East Germany's assets increased sixfold overnight.
This is not a serious over-issuance of currency, and what is inflation, and the West German mark issued to East Germany is supported by foreign exchange, of course not, the wealth created by the money printing machine, without the support of foreign exchange, sooner or later will be suppressed by the market to its true value.
Seryosha was completely sure of this plan, but he could not be too scheming, because the Central Committee of the CPSU had already entrusted him with the work of negotiating the merger of the two Germanys, and he wanted to let the Soviet Union withdraw from East Germany first, and at the same time knock the last protection money from the West German government, at least to forgive the foreign debt that the Soviet Union had borrowed from the West German government for so many years.
Although this condition was harsh, the West German government had no way not to agree.
Because the division of Germany was a joint decision of the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union in accordance with the agreement, without the approval of the Soviet Union, the merger of the two countries would be tantamount to denying the achievements of the Second World War.
Whether the West German government wanted it or not, the Soviet Union's bamboo pole was finalized, and of course there was Seryosha's bigger bamboo pole, Seryosha felt that if the plan to loot Germany went well, the Gorky group would become the world's number one consortium indisputably.
Because the Gorky Brotherhood is the only consortium in the world that has successively looted Japan, the world's second-largest economy, and Germany, which ranks third in terms of economic aggregate. t1706231537: