- Treuhand
The Treuhand ("Treuhandanstalt" or Treuhand agency) was the agency that privatized the East German enterprises owned as
public property (common property). Created by theVolkskammer onJune 17 ,1990 , it oversaw the restructuring and selling of about 8,500 firms with initially over 4 million employees. At that time it was the world's largest industrial enterprise.Its operations drew heavy criticism for unnecessary closing off of profitable businesses, misuse and waste of funds and unnecessary layoffs. When its operations ended in
1994 , it had amassed 260 to 270b DM in debt. It had gained a mere 30b DM from sales of its units.The former chairman of the Treuhand,
Detlev Karsten Rohwedder was shot by an unknown assassin and succeeded byBirgit Breuel .References
Mark Cassell, "How Governments Privatize: the Politics of Divestment in the United States and Germany", Georgetown University Press, 2002.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.