In 1981, I began my professional career as a newly qualified engineer at a small furniture company on Sonnenberg in Karl-Marx-Stadt. The director at the time was the former owner of the company and was allowed to continue running it after nationalization. The working atmosphere was accordingly positive compared to other companies. However, in 1984, he died suddenly. The new director was not an experienced member of the highest management level with a background in the field, but rather a person from outside the industry appointed by the party. The death of the old director presented the opportunity to align the company with the party's policies! In 1990, there was a spirit of optimism. Until then, the furniture had been manufactured almost exclusively for export. Fittings and components that could not be obtained in the GDR were provided by the clients (e.g., IKEA). In the summer of 1990, shortly before monetary union, I was able to travel to North Rhine-Westphalia with a colleague. A business consultant from there had offered to help our company and provided us with business contacts for purchasing materials – we had developed new furniture (together with a young designer trained at Burg Giebichenstein). The first series was produced that same autumn. However, we then had to sell this furniture at the Chemnitz Brühl, where, during the reunification period, a huge outdoor market was held daily, whatever the weather. Our company had since been sold to an office furniture manufacturer from Worms, which continued to have some of its office furniture produced in Chemnitz for a short time, but otherwise laid off most of its workforce and tried to use the few employees who were allowed to stay on to sell its office furniture. After a few years, the Chemnitz plant was closed completely. In 2001, I needed information about this furniture company, where I had worked until the end of 1990 and was then laid off, for my pension insurance account clarification. I was quite surprised that, firstly, I was sent to an office at my former company to clarify these accounts, and secondly, that I encountered the last two remaining employees there – the director appointed by the party in 1984 and his secretary! Since then, I've been wondering what kind of networks were forged between the Treuhand and former party members back then.
