Seeing Like a Market: to the Question of the Ethical Assessment of the Privatization of East German Companies in 1990

The article deals with the problem of ethical assessment of the liquidation of the GDR as a state structure and its integration into the political and economic space of the FRG. According to a number of historical and sociological sources, “reunification” was not the reason for the search and finding of a common language between West and East Germans, but, on the contrary, the reasons for discord and deep mutual distrust and rejection. On this basis, the work analyzes the views of both sides, and also conducts a philosophical reflection on the value bases (ethical axioms) of the key evaluative positions of both East and West Germans regarding the actions of the West German government, the conditions for concluding a monetary union of the two Germanys, as well as in relation to privatizations East German companies.

Authors: Vasiliy A. Mironov

Direction: Philosophy

Keywords: privatization, East Germany, GDR, DDR, German unification, Wiedervereinigung, Treuhand, Treuhandanstalt, planned economy, market economy, ethics, morality, ethical axioms

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Seeing Like a Market: to the Question of the Ethical Assessment of the Privatization of East German Companies in 1990–1994