European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 17, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Currency countdown Germany poised to merge economies by Serge Schmemann new York times the currency Union planned by the two Germany for july 2 would seem the stuff of an East european s fantasy to Wake up one morning with sheaves of real Western Money to spend on Kiwi fruit a Mercedes or a weekend in Paris. Indeed when the East germans Wake up that Day their old East German Marks once As spurned abroad As polish zlotys or soviet rubles will become real West German Marks Welcome everywhere. The vast currency Exchange ranks among the More extraordinary economic experiments in history. Is the first major step toward German unification. Speculation has been widespread among economists politicians and Ordinary people that so abrupt an introduction of Cash and free Market forces will feed everything from a wild spending Binge to Large scale unemployment As East German firms go bust. The Promise and the danger of the project that the two Germany Are determined to Complete seem reflected there in Weissenfels an old Saxon manufacturing town of 38,000. But As far As Ingeborg Thau is concerned by the time it happens it will not be anything so special. Mrs. Thau and her husband have been Selling Kiwi fruit and All sorts of other West German delicacies supplied by a grocer from Stuttgart for More than two months from their Small shop in the pedestrian zone under the Shadow of the old Castle. And used Mercedes sedans can be found there too. Quot As far As we re concerned currency Union has already happened a the matronly shopkeeper declared As customers ambled in just As they would in any town. Quot people come in All the time now. They have a Marks they can buy All these things. Why should there be an onslaught on july 2?&Quot not everyone agrees. Franz Endt the director of the local Weissenfels savings Bank looks to july 2 with trepidation. Quot i fear the worst. I know How people think a what s in the pocket is in the pocket. If we open at 7, people will be lining up at 5,&Quot he said. But most folks seem to agree with mrs. Thau that there probably will not be a big shopping spree and the reason is that currency Union really began to happen from the moment it was debated. Under the agreement reached Between Bonn and East Berlin on May 19, As of july 2, each East German will be Able to Exchange 4,000 Marks at a rate of 1-to-1 and the rest of their Money at 2-to-1. Once germans Learned that they would be Able to Exchange Eastern Marks for Deutsche Marks at a rate of 2-to-1, the deed was effectively done. Knowing that it was Only a question of time before East germans had hard currency West German salesmen creditors and distributors swarmed through the Countryside offering everything from exotic produce to vacations Home improvement Loans and cars. In fact to wander through the pedestrian shopping zone is to wonder whether anything East German will be left by july shop windows alternate Between announcements of drastic discounts on East German goods and colourful displays of West German food clothing cameras and watches. East German shoes which used to sell for 110 Marks a pair Are on Sale for 34, East German trabant cars for which the wailing list was 15 years Long Only six months ago Are now being offered with rebates of 3,000 Marks. Nobody will touch them. But on Zimmer Street a Salesman will let you drive off in a used Volkswagen with payments to Start in july. Store shelves throughout the German democratic Republic Are being swept by shoppers As the country s monetary merger with the Federal Republic of Germany nears in some ways it has happened already. On Marx Square a soon to be Market Square again As people always called it anyway a West German salesmen Hawk carpets to shirts videocassettes bananas and leather purses. From the Back of a rented Van men snap up color Cata logs from the Beate Uhse sex shops offering wares that were strictly forbidden in the East just a few months ago. There Are 20 such vans cruising East Germany explained Gunther Reimers a 26-year-old student doing this for a summer Job. Quot we want to remind people what they want to buy after july 2,�?� he says with a Grin. The scenes Are repeated in every East German City and town and therein lie both the Promise and the danger of the extraordinary Experiment on which the two Germany Are about to embark. Seldom if Ever has a country been offered so abrupt an injection of Cash and goods. The Hope is in the Speed with which the streets of towns like Weissenfels have already reacted to the Promise of economic Union demonstrating the fundamental flexibility and efficiency of Market forces. The danger is in the wholesale rejection of everything East German a trend that weighs heavily Over a town whose biggest employer the Banner of peace shoe factory intends to Lay off 1,000 of its 3,700 workers in july and May not Long survive beyond that. One tenth of the town works at the shoe factory and Many others at a nearby chemical Plant whose Fate is also unsure. Nobody knows what will happen a workers at the shoe factory have already held three warning strikes marching on the town Hall and nobody can say How people will react once Large scale unemployment sets in. The Banner of peace shoe factory could Well serve As a memorial to communism from its stalinist like name and antiquated workshops of crumbling red Brick and rusted Metal to its unwieldy production. The production lines have slowed to a crawl and the anxiety is tangible. Quot everyone Here is afraid Quot said Hannelore Zoller a 56-year-old administrative worker who has been with the factory for 38 years and who had come by with three colleagues for a clearance Sale. Quot you May find us All on the streets by Quot but it would not have been any different without currency Union Quot interjected Siegried Friedrich a colleague of 18. Quot it would have broken Down anyway. It was a breakdown of an economic up through last year the factory was producing 11 million pairs of shoes a year. But then in March the cancellations began coming in. A major distributor sent a telex april 11 cancelling All orders As of april 12 Czechoslovakia and Poland cancelled contracts. A fall in All 60 percent of our contracts have been cancelled Quot said Elke Merkel the company spokesman Quot we re sitting on 10 million pairs of shoes Quot she said even if the shoes could compete with Western footwear in Price Quality or Appeal he said there was still a problem. After 40 years of looking at Western goods Only through barbed wire East europeans Are not looking Back. Quot what we have to fight is the psychological phenomenon that the East German citizen buys Only Western goods even if East German goods have the same Quality Quot Seitz said. Out in the Street the uncertainty was evident in widespread hoarding of Basic goods. Quot nobody knows what the prices will be next month now they re Low and so people buy whatever they can store a sugar flour chocolate spices canned goods this is where we usually keep sausages Quot said Sylvia Herlong a store manager pointing to an empty refrigerated counter. For All the buying and anxiety the mood in town seemed curiously sedate. Again and again people said that things could not go on As before that a fresh Start was the Only Way that West Germany had the wealth and know How to make things work. Many took Comfort in the Money they were about to receive. But nobody talked of going on a Binge. At the gothic town Hall mayor Martin Neumann seemed As befuddled As anyone else. Perhaps More so a he was 36, an electrician by Trade and he had been in office Only a week. In his own Case Neumann with a wife and three children stood to Exchange 14, xxx Marks at a rate of 1-to-1 a 4,000 for each adult and 2,000 per child. Quot i know that personally i must not go on a spending spree Quot he said. Quot i already have a car a Nice then after a pause he added Quot i guess i would like to see the Alps in the Quot for years for decades we led a life far from these things and we have to make up for it now Quot the mayor said. Quot we have to catch up with 40 years of lacking things but i think things will Calm Down after currency Union. It will level out and then maybe the salesmen on the Market Square will disappear one by Page 16 a the stars and stripes
