It’s 1990, and the two former German states have become one – the capitalist West swallowing the communist East. In the East, people are given just six days to convert their Ostmark currency into the West’s Deutschmarks – at an unfavourable two-to-one exchange rate. On a housing estate in Halberstadt, the local factory has closed and many people have lost their jobs – including Maren and her partner Robert. Talking to an uncle, who still has his job in a warehouse where mysterious lorries call at night, they ask if he’ll show them round the place. And hey-ho – they discover the not-yet-redundant Ostmarks are being dumped in old tunnels.
What’s an honest, socially-conscious citizen to do? Appropriate it, of course – and, in socially useful ways, re-invest it. Even re-open the local factory as a cooperative. So they stuff their pockets and run. As Uncle says, ‘It’s never too late to be a revolutionary!’ Back home, they call a meeting in the community centre, and involve their neighbours. They have a nice scam – use the dumped marks to buy consumer goods from West Germany, then they re-sell them in the West at bargain prices for Deutschmarks! How could they possibly lose?
