ABSTRACT
After the opening of the borders of the German Democratic Republic (the former East Germany, GDR), due to the pressure of an enormous wave of would-be emigres on November 9, 1989, and after the reunification of the two German states, which hardly anyone would have deemed possible, even in Germany, only 1 year earlier, a completely new economic development along the lines of the market economy began in the east German states, massively supported with financial aid from the Western states.
