The Germanys No Fools in Furstenwalde

By James O. Jackson/Berlin

Germans fear nothing more than inflation, and for months political leaders had worried about a buying binge when East Germans got their hands on hard currency. After 40 years of communism, the country's 16 million citizens had piled up a mountain of unspendable savings. They also yearned for the good things so long denied them: cars, stereos, foreign travel. But when currency union finally came last week, East Germans turned out to be surprisingly tightfisted. If it is true that a fool is soon parted from his money, then East Germany has mighty few fools.

"They just come in, look around and walk out," observes Ingrid Mundel, a clerk at AMA, the main clothing store in Furstenwalde, a tire-making town of 35,000 citizens located 22 miles from the Polish border. "People are checking prices before they buy. Right now business is very slow."

Elsewhere in Furstenwalde it was much the same: plenty of looking, little buying. "I have 5,000 marks (($3,000)) in my bank account, and I'm thinking about a stereo set," said Dirk Juttner, 21, an unmarried construction worker who stood outside the show window of a newly opened electronics store jammed with Sony TV sets, Toshiba CD players and Grundig stereos. "But I'll shop around for a good price."

That kind of caution was not what politicians feared when they agreed to merge the German economies. East Germans had squirreled away some 180 billion ostmarks, which came to roughly $70 billion in new spending power when converted into deutsche marks. To cope with the switch, the Bundesbank shipped 600 tons of crisp new bills -- $15 billion in all -- to 10,000 banks, police stations, post offices and temporary disbursement points.

But almost nothing happened. "A few people came and made small withdrawals, and lines formed at the teller windows after breakfast," said Ingo Fahlisch, manager of the savings bank where most of the townsfolk had their accounts. "But then it returned to normal." In the first week of monetary union, East Germans withdrew only $2.7 billion, well below the $3.5 billion minimum forecast by the Bundesbank.

For thousands of East German enterprises, that careful spending pattern was not such good news. "People aren't interested in East German products," said AMA sales clerk Mundel, indicating racks of dresses priced at a giveaway 5 marks ($3) each. "They only want Western goods."

In a nearby pharmacy, manager Martin Lombardt offered East German soap and cosmetics, despite the fascination for things Western. Most stores have sold off nearly all their old goods and restocked the empty shelves almost exclusively with Western-made products. "It is the customer who decides now," said Lombardt. "If he wants it, we will sell it. These are new times."