Its task was to privatize, reorganize or - if necessary - wind up the former state assets of the GDR. An analysis of the companies in the east revealed that only eight percent of the jobs there were profitable and that productivity of labor in the GDR had been less than 30 percent of the level in western Germany. Nevertheless, by the time the Trust Agency ceased its operations at the end of 1994, about 20,000 predominantly industrial firms had been privatized or returned to their original owners. Contractual commitments had been made for roughly 1.5 million jobs and investments totaling DM 210 billion. Ongoing review of the entrepreneurs’ commitments indicates that on average more jobs have been created and investment volumes have been higher than agreed under the contracts.

At the beginning of 1995, several organizations were founded as successors to the Trust Agency in order to handle the remaining tasks connected with the privatization of the few industrial firms which were still state-owned and to monitor investors’ compliance with contracts. It also became necessary to help firms which ran into difficulties after their privatization; through joint endeavors on the part of the Federation, the states and the private investors, many of these firms could be turned around again. With just a very few exceptions, privatization of the industrial sector in eastern Germany has now been completed. There is still an extensive portfolio of publicly owned real estate, however, which will gradually be sold over the course of the next few years.