Abstract
The structure of the German banking system, involving private, public and cooperative banks, has not changed significantly in recent years, despite some pressure for liberalisation and privatisation. In other sectors of the economy, however, privatisation has had an impact. In quantitative terms, the post-unification wave of privatisations in East Germany was the most important. It was organised by the federal agency Treuhandanstalt, whose aims were to save as much as possible of East German industry. Whether planned or not, in practice, the Treuhandanstalt’s activity resulted largely in the takeover of East German enterprises by West German companies. Because of the Treuhandanstalt’s extensive role, that of financial institutions was quite limited. Another important field for privatisation concerned public utilities. This was in part motivated by a desire to either raise revenue or to sell off loss-making units, and in part a response to European Commission directives. Privatisation has affected former state monopolies such as the postal, telecommunications and, to some extent, transport sectors. The healthcare sector was never a state monopoly, but public hospitals have been increasingly privatised since the early 1990s and private hospitals are now a dominant form of healthcare provision. In the course of the crisis several privately-owned financial institutions were either partly (Commerzbank) or completely (Hypo Real Estate Holding AG) nationalised. On the other hand, the German Industriebank, IKB—up until the crisis in majority ownership of the government—was privatised after German government had taken over all of its debts.
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Notes
- 1.
This government was formed by a coalition between the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and the FDP (Free Democratic Party).
- 2.
Vouchers were given for free or almost free to each adult. The vouchers then could be used to become a share owner of one of the companies which were privatised via this method. Besides vouchers, auctions and other instruments were also used, especially for smaller companies. Poland was an exception as voucher privatisation did not play a big role in the country (see Herr et al. 1994).
- 3.
Bundesanstalt für vereinigungsbedingte Sonderaufgaben.
- 4.
Other property, like houses, was unconditionally given back to the offspring of former owners. This created a lot of frustration in the former GDR. In other former centrally-planned economies this type of privatisation did not take place.
- 5.
Renamed in 1993 to ‘European Commission ’.
- 6.
Poststrukturgesetz or Postreform I.
- 7.
Postreform II.
- 8.
Postgesetz or Postreform III.
- 9.
Bahnstrukturreform.
- 10.
Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin).
- 11.
Finanzmarktstabilisierungsgesetz.
- 12.
Bundesanstalt für Finanzmarktstabilisierung.
- 13.
Sonderfonds Finanzmarktstabilisierung.
- 14.
Finanzmarktstabilisierungsergänzungsgesetz (FMStErgG).
- 15.
Gesetz zur Fortentwicklung der Finanzmarktstabilisierung.
- 16.
This was the first bank nationalisation in Germany in the post-war period.
- 17.
Restrukturierungsgesetz.
- 18.
Kreditwesengesetz (KWG).
- 19.
Erste Abwicklungsanstalt.
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Detzer, D., Dodig, N., Evans, T., Hein, E., Herr, H., Prante, F.J. (2017). Privatisation and Nationalisation Policies and the Financial Sector. In: The German Financial System and the Financial and Economic Crisis. Financial and Monetary Policy Studies, vol 45. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56799-0_12
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