With the collapse of the socialist regime in East Germany in late 1989 and the rising political call for unification in early 1990, a radical and abrupt change of the institutional structure became necessary. Among others, the (agricultural) administration had to be totally restructured. This referred not only to substance, functions and tasks which had to be adjusted, similar to most other transition economies, to the market-economic and pluralistic democratic system, but also the whole administrative set-up had to be re-established in line with the West German system (territorial re-organisation). Hence, a new administrative system had to be built up in the East, while simultaneously the socialist one had to be dismantled. This transformation process... |