The period between the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 and reunification on October 3, 1990 were the last months of the DDR. State authority was crumbling rapidly. Offices and authorities were overwhelmed by the rapid change. Everyone finally seemed to be able to do what they had always wanted: Legal, illegal, don’t give a shit, the old Sponti slogan of the West – it was now becoming a reality in the East.

Because many citizens only wanted Western products, a gold-rush period began for many West German companies. Supermarkets, car dealers and insurance agents set up shop in the future “new states”. Many East Germans were sold contracts that they didn’t even need. Rip-off artists, fraudsters and soldiers of fortune took advantage of the “anarchy” of the transition period in their own way.