Originally, Intershop was organised as a division of Mitropa, the company that provided catering services to the Deutsche Reichsbahn.
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These products could not be purchased, or could only be purchased at lower quality, using East German marks, although the majority of these goods were produced in East Germany for sale to Western companies.
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.