{{Unreferenced, date=December 2009
Jauerfood was a company founded in 1956 in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
,
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
, by Gunnar Jauer. Jauerfood's primary focus was to supply
East German
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
residents with food, bought via Jauerfood and paid by friends and relatives in the West or by the East German residents'
West German
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
savings and bank accounts.
From 1959 and on East Germany did not allow its citizens to withdraw their funds put in West German banks, hence many East Germany citizens had substantial savings that they could not utilize. Jauerfood (and the Swiss, Zürich-based company Palatinus) agreed with the East German Trade association Genex to export goods into East Germany, in return for a 5% commission to Genex.
Through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the trade grew: in the last fully operative year 1988 - just before the Wall fell, Jauerfood's gross earnings was approximately US$175,000,000 .
By the end of 1989, the company's reason for being had vanished, due to the new open structure in Germany, opening East Germany up to
free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econ ...
.
Defunct companies of Denmark
Economy of East Germany