On the instructions of State Security Minister Erich Mielke, the Stasi economics department, "Hauptabteilung XVIII", presents a strictly confidential analysis on the state of the GDR’s economy.
The study, which also gleans the opinions of leading GDR economics officials, concludes that the GDR "is no longer in a position to bring about a fundamental change in the current situation or to permanently solve the problems of the balance of payments with the non-socialist economic territory under its own power by economic means."
The Stasi economics experts therefore put forward a proposal to ask the Soviet Union to take over two thirds of the GDR’s Western debt (ca. 20 billion DM). In return, the GDR is to largely cease trade relations with the West, while the goods that have up to now been exported to the West are to be delivered to the Soviet Union, which can pay the GDR debts by saving on Western imports.less
