Lizenz- und Gestattungsproduktion westdeutscher Unternehmen in der CSSR und der DDR

Abstract

The article deals with economic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany, German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia during the Cold War. Its goal is to prove on the example of licensed production that in spite of ideological boundaries, the business relations between West and East flourished in the period of the 1970s and 1980s. The author characterizes institutional conditions for this cooperation, names individual cooperation attempts, and uses the example of the well-known German brand Nivea as a symbol of the West and an example of a successful cooperation. The article proves an intensive penetration of West German companies and their investments in the GDR and Czechoslovakia long before 1989 and shows the potentials of analyzing the German-German and the European transformation after 1989 more under the perspective of continuities and discontinuities.