Chapter VI
Public Assets and Debts
Article 21
Administrative Assets
(1) The assets of the German Democratic Republic which are used directly for specific administrative purposes (administrative assets) shall become federal assets unless their designated purpose as of 1 October 1989 was primarily to meet administrative responsibilities which, under the Basic Law, are to be exercised by Länder, communes (associations of communes) or other agencies of public administration. Where administrative assets were primarily used for the purposes of the former Ministry of State Security/ Office of National Security, they shall accrue to the Trust Agency unless they have already been given over to new social or public purposes since the above-mentioned date. [ . . . ]
Article 22
Financial Assets
(1) Public assets of legal entities in the territory specified in Article 3 of this Treaty, including landed property and assets in agriculture and forestry, which do not directly serve specific administrative purposes (financial assets), with the exception of social insurance assets, shall, unless they have been handed over to the Trust Agency or will be handed over by law according to Section 1 (1), second and third sentences, of the Trusteeship Act, to communes, towns and cities or rural districts, come under federal trusteeship upon the accession taking effect. Where financial assets were primarily used for the purposes of the former Ministry of State Security/ National Security Office, they shall accrue to the Trust Agency unless they have already been given over to new social or public purposes since 1 October 1989. Financial assets shall be divided by federal law between the Federation and the Länder named in Article 1 of this Treaty in such a way that the Federation and the Länder named in Article 1 each receive one half of the total value of the assets. The communes (associations of communes) shall receive an appropriate share of the Länder portion. Assets accruing to the Federation under this provision shall be used for public purposes in the territory specified in Article 3 of this Treaty. The Länder share should in principle be distributed to the respective Länder in such a way that the relationship between the total values of the assets apportioned to the respective Länder corresponds to the relationship between the population sizes of these Länder on the date the accession takes effect, excluding the inhabitants of Berlin (West). Article 21 (3) of this Treaty shall be applied mutatis mutandis. [ . . . ]
Article 23
Debt Arrangements
(1) Upon the accession taking effect, the total debts of the central budget of the German Democratic Republic which have accumulated up to this date shall be taken over by a federal Special Fund without legal capacity, which shall meet the obligations arising from debt servicing. The Special Fund shall be empowered to raise loans:
1. to pay off debts of the Special Fund,
2. to cover due interest and loan procurement costs,
3. to purchase debt titles of the Special Fund for the purposes of market cultivation.
(2) The Federal Minister of Finance shall administer the Special Fund. The Special Fund may, in his name, conduct legal transactions, sue and be sued. The general legal domicile of the Special Fund shall be at the seat of the Federal Government. The Federation shall act as guarantor for the liabilities of the Special Fund. [ . . . ]
(5) The Special Fund shall be abolished at the end of 1993.
(6) Upon the accession taking effect, the Federal Republic of Germany shall take over the sureties, guarantees and warranties assumed by the German Democratic Republic and debited to its state budget prior to unification. The Länder named in Article 1 (1) of this Treaty and Land Berlin for that part in which the Basic Law has not been in force to date shall assume jointly and severally a counter-surety to the amount of 50 per cent of the total debt transferred in the form of sureties, guarantees and warranties to the Federal Republic of Germany. The losses shall be divided among the Länder in proportion to their number of inhabitants on the date the accession takes effect, excluding the inhabitants of Berlin (West). [ . . . ]
print version
return to list
previous document