ABSTRACT
The privatization of state-owned enterprises in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) is presumably the most crucial and difficult part of the transformation of the East German economy. In Germany the necessity and importance of a private enterprise system was hardly called in question during the turbulent months between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification. The rather unanimous affirmation of private ownership in the GDR differs from the lengthy and controversial debates in several East European economies. The decision for a sweeping privatization in East Germany resumed the spirit of the Federal Republic of Germany's (FRG's) economic policies after the Second World War which continuously had assigned high importance to private ownership. In contrast to other European countries there were no nationalizations of sectors or enterprises in the post-war FRG.
