Gastkommentar: Enteignung ist keine Wohnungspolitik
Die linken Enteignungsfantasien sind eine Art politisch Untoter der deutschen Politik. Dabei wäre das Ende sozialistischer Ideen der Anfang der Lösung des Problems, schreibt Wolfgang Kubicki.
On December 14, 1972, the Politburo of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), led by Erich Honecker, made a fateful decision: 11,000 private and semi-state enterprises in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) were expropriated. This marked the final blow to the remnants of the middle class in East Germany, which had not been dismantled and expropriated earlier and had been facing suppression and denigration by the ruling officials for decades.
It was the last major wave of expropriations in German history. Honecker and his government are, of course, long gone, but they have heirs – and not only in an abstract sense. "His" party, which today operates under the name "Die Linke," aims to bring the issue of expropriations back to the forefront of the political agenda. These leftist expropriation fantasies are a kind of politically undead element of German politics.
So it was also in the GDR, which fell apart 18 years after the last major wave of expropriations and left behind a completely deteriorated economy. Along with ruined inner cities and a population decimated by years of stress, whose diligence and willingness to work were exploited and plundered in a self-destructive economic experiment. There really is nothing to suggest that such experiments should be repeated.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
