With the demise of GDR parties and mass organizations, the question arose as to what would happen to their assets. The East German federal states have benefited from the money.
Erfurt (dpa/th) - After the fall of the Wall, Thuringia received many millions of euros from the assets of GDR parties and organizations - and thus invested to a considerable extent. The money went not only to sports facilities and churches, but also to memorials intended to keep the memory of the SED injustice alive. According to the Thuringian Ministry of Finance, a total of around 126 million euros from these assets have flowed into the Free State to date.
According to the Ministry, no further payments to Thuringia are currently to be expected. However, this cannot be completely ruled out in the future, it said.
"Of course, the additional income was primarily advantageous for the Free State because a large number of measures and projects could be implemented for which there would otherwise not have been sufficient funds," said Finance Minister Heike Taubert (SPD) of the German Press Agency. "I find it very satisfying that they often flowed into projects that the SED rulers could not have done anything with."
The assets - cash, real estate and works of art - belonged to the parties in the GDR, but also to the trade union umbrella organization FDGB. It is managed by the Federal Agency for Unification-Related Special Tasks and given to the eastern federal states in various tranches. According to the ministry, the countries must use the money in such a way that the general public benefits from it.
Between 1994 and 1997, research, technology, art and culture in particular were promoted. By 2010, sports facilities were then renovated with the help of the money. Since 2018, the funds have flowed into the renovation of memorials and memorials; including the Mödlareuth and Teistungen border museums, the Point Alpha memorial and the Andreasstraße educational center in the former Erfurt state security headquarters. The tranche allocated in 2021 will flow, among other things, into the renovation of the German National Theater in Weimar.
Minister of Culture Benjamin-Immanuel Hoff (left) stressed that without this source of money, a large number of commemorative culture projects in the state could not have been implemented. "From the last two tranches alone - 2018 and 2021 - around 10.5 million euros could be invested in the culture of remembrance and the processing of German history."
