Kommerzielle Koordinierung ( en, Commercial Coordination) was a secret commercial enterprise in

East Germany 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 ...

, run by the Stasi officer

Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski (3 July 1932 – 21 June 2015) was a politician and trader in the German Democratic Republic. He was director of a main department ('Hauptverwaltungsleiter') in the ''Ministry for Foreign Trade and German Domestic Tra ...

and called "KoKo" (short for ''Kommerzielle Koordinierung'').

Origins and development

KoKo developed from the official smuggling operations of the 1950s. Its main goal was to bring foreign currency to the German Democratic Republic. It was officially established in 1966 and was involved in business dealings and industrial espionage in Western countries. It is estimated that between 1966 and 1989 it generated nearly 25 billion DM.

Operations

KoKo operated 180 front companies in the West and brought their hard currency profits to secret accounts in East Germany. Its operations were controlled by

Erich Honecker Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the posts ...

Erich Mielke Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (''Ministerium für Staatsicherheit'' – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 u ...

, and

Günter Mittag Günter Mittag (8 October 1926 – 18 March 1994) was a German member of parliament, secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), and a central figure in East Germany's command economy. Biography Born to a working-class family in St ...

. KoKo was involved in illegal arms deals with Iran, Third World regimes, and even the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

; "selling" East German political prisoners to

West Germany 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 ...

; purchasing of high technology products despite a Western embargo; selling antique artworks to the West; and importing luxury items for the top nomenklatura of the Socialist Unity Party.Ghost Strasse: Germany's East Trapped Between Past and Present
/ref> One of the closest Schalck's partners in the West was Bavarian Prime Minister Franz-Josef Strauss. In 1983, they negotiated an agreement under which Western banks provided a one billion DM credit to the German Democratic Republic in return for the easing of restrictions on the travel of East German citizens to the West. West German politician

Egon Bahr Egon Karl-Heinz Bahr (; 18 March 1922 – 19 August 2015) was a German SPD politician. The former journalist was the creator of the ''Ostpolitik'' promoted by West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, for whom he served as Secretary of State i ...

later said in an interview that this had "worked wonderfully." Koko was responsible, alongside IMES, for covertly acquiring gear needed for operators of

Diensteinheit IX The ''Diensteinheit IX'' ( en, Service Unit 9) was a special and covert counter-terrorism unit of the German Democratic Republic Volkspolizei. It was not the same as the ''9. Volkspolizei-Kompanie'' (English: ''9th People's Police Company'') since ...

References

{{reflist 1989 disestablishments in East Germany 1966 establishments in East Germany Economy of East Germany