Businessman representing West German investors

You are a successful 48-year-old businessman living in Nürnberg, Bavaria, with ties to the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party of the CDU (the ruling party of chancellor Helmuth Kohl). You and your wife are devout Catholics and have four grown children. As a Catholic, you are vehemently opposed to abortion. While the children were little, your wife did not work but stayed at home and raised the children.

Your father was a staunch anti-Communist who left East Germany with you and your mother in 1952. Your father has never gotten over the loss of his home in Jena and is ecstatic about new restitution laws. He is now able to reclaim his long lost property. He has written a letter to the families that now reside in his house, informing them of his intent to renovate and upgrade the property to prevent further decay.

You are in favor of unification. The division of Germany and the loss of your childhood home have always been a source of sadness for you. You are delighted that freedom has finally been realized for East Germans, the freedom to travel, and the freedom to decide one's own destiny. Reunification will finally rectify the historical injustice of separating one people. Of course, you also see the vast unsaturated market of consumer needs and other great business opportunities (see: economic effects of unification).

Your goal is to find solid business investments with high returns. You represent hundreds of potential investors whose goal is to buy up land and factories in the East. However, your clients are not willing to support masses of unproductive workers. You are willing to offer investment in the East, something the government desperately wants, but with a catch. To get the kind of efficiency you're after, you're only willing to retain 25% of the workers at the factories you buy, and you refuse to subsidize child care. You're confident that the infrastructure in the East will improve with time, but you're not willing to take on too much risk.

On a personal level, you want to see justice done and the lawful property in Jena returned to your father, but you also know that the resolution to the ownership question will benefit the economy.

*Additional off-site links -

Jena

• Housing in East Germany, pictures with brief descriptions
  
• Building, Housing and Work in Jena, pictures with brief descriptions
  
• The Klemms, A Family in Jena, pictures with brief descriptions
  

Restitution

• Restitution or Compensation for Expropriated Property?
• Restitution of Expropriated Property Versus Investments

The Role of Landownership

• Jewish Property Claims
• Landreform Claims

Economic effects of unification

• Economic Model for Unification
• Economic Impact, Unemployment, includes Solidarity Tax
• Economic Impact

*All off-site links will be displayed in new pages