X-Nico

Staatsbank

In order to overcome this obvious disincentive to compliance with the internal foreign exchange rate regime, the State Bank allowed hard currency to be exchanged for Forum checks – a form of internal currency that (crucially) could be spent at an Intershop.

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These were a chain of special shops that offered high quality East German goods (that were otherwise difficult to obtain without joining a long waiting list) at reasonable prices and otherwise unobtainable Western consumer goods (usually at near Duty free price levels) – they were accessible only to foreign tourists with hard currency and East German citizens with Forum checks.

see also