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The End of an Era: the Rise and Fall of G.D.R. Aid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Jude Howell
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Extract

The reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990 marked the end not only of a socialist experiment but also of an alternative source of aid to developing countries as far apart as Vietnam, Cuba, and Mozambique. Whilst the Soviet Union was the major socialist provider of assistance, the former German Democratic Republic (G.D.R.) played a not insignificant rôle. Yet how great was the loss to the developing world when the G.D.R. rapidly disintegrated? What was distinctive about its aid compared with that of capitalist donors? What happened to the projects, experts, overseas students, and foreign workers once Germany reunified?

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 305 - 328
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

1 See, for example, Schulz, Brigitte and Hansen, William, ‘Aid or Imperialism? West Germany in Sub-Saharan Africa’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 22, 2, 06 1984, pp. 287–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 The category of ‘countries with a socialist orientation’ has been fluid. Whilst in the 1960s there was only a handful which earned this title, by the 1980s they numbered around 20. Similarly, the G.D.R.'s conceptualisation of national liberation movements changed over time. See Spanger, Hans-Joachim and Brock, Lothar, Die beiden deutschen Staaten in der dritten Welt–die Entwicklungspolitik der DDR –eine Herausforderung für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland? (Opladen, 1987), pp. 130–2 and 187–90.Google Scholar

3 For example, the G.D.R. cut aid to Ghana when Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966 and to Chile after the Allende coup in 1973. See Göschel, Hans ‘Was kann die DDR in die entwicklungspolitische Diskussion in Deutschland einbringen?’, in Engels, Benno (ed.), ‘Das vereinte Deutschland in der Weltwirtschaft: Beiträge zu einer deutsch-deutsch Aussenwirtschaft-stagung des Deutschen Übersee-Institut’, in Schriften des Deutschen-Übersee-Instituts, II (Hamburg), 10, 1991, pp. 167–86.Google Scholar

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6 Following entry into the United Nations in 1973, the G.D.R. came under constant pressure to disclose and present information in terms of the conventional categories. It was only in 1982 that it provided its first set of figures to the U.N.Google Scholar

7 The foreign-exchange component of the G.D.R.'s aid was calculated in ‘Valuta Marks’. One VM corresponded to the amount of G.D.R.Marks (M) that would be needed to obtain one unit of convertible currency through the export of G.D.R. goods.Google Scholar

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21 For example, between 1978 and 1984 around 3,200 light lorries were delivered to Mozambique. From then on, deliveries were made through the Ministry for State Security and the People's Army, which did not publish their statistics.

22 See Rothensee, loc. cit. p. 280, and Spanger and Brock, op. cit. pp. 194–9, for a discussion of military aid.

23 September 1991 interview with a senior official in the F.R.G.'s Ministry of Economic Co-operation (B.M.Z.), previously employed in the G.D.R.'s interim Ministry of Economic Co-operation (M.W.Z.) that had been established in March 1990. Hereinafter referred to as September 1991 B.M.Z. interview.Google Scholar

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47 Thus, instead of a monthly M300, residents now had to pay DM250. Rücker, Birgit and Tump, Rainer, ‘Ghetto oder Lager’, in Informationsdienst südliches Afrika (Bonn), 1, 01–02 1991, pp. 32–3.Google Scholar

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51 As an adaptation of the term ‘ma-Joni’, used to describe Mozambicans who worked in the South African mines, ‘ma-German’ has negative overtones. Other terms used to describe the returnees were ‘os molwenes da zona’ (the marginals of the neighbourhood) and ‘ninjas’. Mulder, op. cit. p. 18.

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54 See Rechenschaftsbericht der Länderabteilung, p. 11.

55 Ibid. p. 107.

56 September 1991 B.M.Z. interview.

57 ‘Die Altprojekte der DDR sollen keine Ruinen werden’, in Handelsblatt (Düsseldorf), 25 10 1990, p. 13.Google Scholar

58 September 1991 B.M.Z. interview.

59 Interview in Berlin, September 1991.

60 Another example of ‘bad aid’ concerned a proposed phosphate and bauxite site in Guinea-Bissau, where the G.D.R. sent experts despite the fact that this project had already been rejected by other international agencies. September 1991 B.M.Z. interview.

61 Interview, Humboldt University, September 1991.

62 September 1991 B.M.Z. interview.

63 Claus and Taake, op. cit. p. 12.

64 So, for example, all the equipment and furnishings in the hospital in Managua, even the electricity system, had been imported from the G.D.R.

65 For a critical discussion of the rôle of international agencies in Mozambique and the latter's dependence on aid, see Hanlon, op. cit.; Bowen, Merle L., ‘Beyond Reform: adjustment and political power in contemporary Mozambique’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, 30, 2, 06 1992, pp. 255–79;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and David N. Plank, ‘Aid, Debt, and the End of Sovereignty: Mozambique and its donors’, in ibid. 31, 3, September 1993, pp. 407–30.