Last month the housing crunch in Berlin led to an initiative to expropriate properties owned by large landlords:
Organizers have started collecting signatures for a referendum to push the city to expropriate apartments from large landlords -- companies that own more than 3,000 units like Deutsche Wohnen SE and Vonovia SE. The activists need to collect 20,000 within six months and another 170,000 by February. While pushing the state to buy apartments won’t increase supply, campaigners argue that the measure would send a signal to landlords that they need to play fair or risk losing their assets.
The idea of nationalization (Verstaatlichung) of private property and enterprises seems to have caught on with many on the left in Germany. Kevin Kühnert, leader theSocial Democrats' (SPD) youth wing (Jusos) was born just months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, seems to have some nostalgia for the old German Democratic Republic (DDR), for he voiced support for transforming automaker BMW into a Volkseigener Betrieb (VEB) - a form of state-owned enterprise common in the DDR:
"The distribution of profits must be democratically controlled. That rules out a capitalist owner of this company. Without collectivisation, overcoming capitalism is not thinkable," Kuehnert told Die Zeit weekly.
"For me it isn't so important if there is "state car company" or "cooperative car company" on the BMW name plate or if the collective decides that it does not need BMW in this form," Kuehnert told Die Zeit weekly.
Furthermore, with respect to the housing crunch in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany, Kühnert went beyond the expropriation referendum in Berlin, stating that investing in residential housing should be prohibited full stop:
"Kuehnert also sought to tap a growing anti-gentrification movement which has led to demonstrations against surging rents and big property developers in Berlin and other cities. Some activists have even demanded expropriation from some private landlords, including Deutsche Wohnen."At most, everyone should own the living space in which he lives," said Kuehnert, who has had a strong following on the SPD's left since leading a campaign opposing the party's participation in Merkel's coalition last year."
Needless to say, Kühnert's collectivization fantasies have sparked outrage across the political spectrum - even from members of his own parties.
Still, there have been voices of support here and there.
Ein Juso-Chef darf diese Dinge nicht nur fordern, er muss!
— Margot Honecker (@HoneckerMargot) May 2, 2019
In diesem Sinne: Sozialistische Grüße an @KuehniKev!
Unser VEB Druckkombinat lässt großformatige Poster drucken, die von unseren IMs in Westdeutschland flächendeckend wild plakatiert werden! #Kühnert pic.twitter.com/TEzIAHzSBy
— Erich Honecker (@DerWahreErich) May 2, 2019
Jusos isn't short for 'Junge Sozialdemokraten', but for 'Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Jungsozialistinnen und Jungsozialisten in der SPD'. General routine: Every now and the Jusos make a proposal, then both Jusos and SPD laugh about it, and then the SPD decides. In other words: The Jusos are the youth organization that nobody takes serious of the Social Democratic Party that nobody takes serious.
Kühnert might as well have dreamed of monarchy - it doesn't matter at all.
Posted by: Koogleschreiber | May 06, 2019 at 11:01 AM
"it doesn't matter at all."
Da bin ich nicht so sicher....
https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article193002689/Forsa-Umfrage-Nach-der-Kuehnert-Debatte-steht-die-SPD-nur-noch-bei-15-Prozent.html
Posted by: David | May 06, 2019 at 04:09 PM