‘Comrades and Cash’

You need money to run a country. And if you’re managed by Communist Russia, it’s just a matter of time before the you go bust. In the 80s, East Germany (or the German Democratic Republic (GDR)) faced this predicament and resorted to all possible ways to manage this crisis.

Two fascinating exports were arms and I kid you not, human blood.

First, the arms trade. Publicly, the GDR was a vocal opponent of apartheid, offering ideological and logistical support to the African National Congress (ANC) and its armed wing. East German military instructors trained ANC cadres, and the GDR provided weapons and political backing to the Marxist-Leninist MPLA in Angola, which was fighting both UNITA rebels and South African forces.

However, when the S. African regime was sanctioned, the GDR had no qualms in purchasing Western-made weapons through shell companies and exporting them to the South African government, which in turn used these against the ANC and MPLA. Outside the continenr, shipments to Iran and Iraq were ‘equally managed’ to ensure that neither side had a decisive advantage so that the war could be prolonged.

Now, coming to the most improbable export – human plasma. It was the 80s. East Germans couldn’t travel freely out of the country. With the AIDS pandemic raging across the West, the GDR was seen to be one of the few countries that had an ‘infection-free’ population. As AIDS testing was complex and cumbersome, plasma exports from the GDR, with fake attestations of being HIV-free skyrocketed. Middlemen based out of Switzerland moved these across the continent and even to the US. Donors were often prisoners. Donating blood became a duty and elaborate ceremonies to recognize prolific donors were organized.

I came across both these tidbits from the highly rated second season of Deutschland 86 and from the documentary Comrades and Cash.

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