Overview

1990. As part of the reunification process, the West takes charge of the harmonization project between the two territories. From the outset, all of East Germany's industrial assets were transferred to a public company, the "Treuhand," which operated for four years. This marked the beginning of a rapid privatization of the entire economy of the former GDR, comprising some 8,000 public companies employing around 4 million people who needed to be offered a new future. At the head of this gigantic public holding company, Birgit Breuel, a member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), was the subject of both praise and criticism.