ABSTRACT
The economic reforms of the 1960s are currently viewed by German Democratic Republic (GDR) specialists as an unfortunate mistake. Since the termination of the reform movement at the end of 1970, some Western specialists have looked back with fond nostalgia upon the reform period, but the East Germans have never again shown interest in renewing the effort. The energy crisis, adverse terms of trade, an international credit crisis, an ageing capital stock, and the usual menu of planning problems have together merely encouraged the GDR to pursue enhanced economic performance through industrial reorganisation via combine formation and through the introduction of a 'flood' of new planning coefficients, directives and improved management techniques. Later, it became the central objective of GDR economic reorganisation to transform the relatively independent associations of nationally owned enterprises Vereinigungen Volkseigener Betriebe (VVB), which had simply served as an intermediate administrative link between the enterprises and industrial ministries, into today's Kombinate.
