Eine Behörde als simuliertes Unternehmen: Die Treuhandanstalt in der Unschärferelation zwischen Transformationspolitik, Wirtschaftsumbau und Umbruchsgesellschaft

After the fall of socialism in East Germany, a special organization known as the “Treuhandanstalt” organized the crisis-ridden transformation of about 8,000 formerly state-owned corporations from the planned to the market economy. Most of the time, this organization operated under much criticism and pressure from outside, but internal operations were also characterized by conflicts about “corporate identity”. While some saw the “Treuhand” as a politically dependent state bureaucracy, others regarded it as an autonomous corporation. This article examines this conflict zone between internal as well as external perceptions of the “nature” of the Treuhandanstalt. It concludes that this was a state organization, set up in exceptional times, as an administration simulating a corporation.