Germany's Bundestag parliament and Ikea Deutschland on Tuesday announced that the furniture colossus would contribute €6 million (roughly $6.5 million) to a new German government fund designed to compensate victims of the former East German dictatorship. 

The parliament's special representative for helping victims of the former East Germany (or GDR, for "German Democratic Republic"), Evelyn Zupke, said on Tuesday that the company had confirmed its intention to pay into the mechanism. The fund has yet to be approved by the German parliament, but this is seen as a formality. 

"For me Ikea's pledge to support the hardship fund is an expression of a conscientious approach also to darker chapters of the company history," Zupke said. "We can't undo what prisoners had to suffer in GDR prisons. But we can offer them respect today and support them if they face particular hardships. Ikea has decided to take precisely this path and I am distinctly grateful."

Ikea's contribution is voluntary, there is no legal obligation for it to act in this case.

What is the case about? 

Ikea was one of several Western companies that subcontracted some production to the former East Germany during the Cold War.

In some cases, East Germany would force prisoners to work on the production. Evidence tying this phenomenon to Ikea began to emerge around 2011 and 2012.

The company quickly commissioned an investigation by auditors Ernst & Young, which found both that the allegations had merit and that parts of Ikea's management at the time was aware of prisoners' involvement.

Ikea's German chairman says fulfilling promise to victims

"We deeply regret that this took place," Ikea Germany's CEO and CSO Walter Kadnar said on Tuesday. "Since it became known, that Ikea products were also made by political prisoners in the GDR, Ikea has consistently worked towards a resolution."

He noted Ikea's modern commitments to "one of the most progressive and recognized supplier codes of conduct," referring to the company's IWAY policy, and said it was self-evident that the company would want to take steps to minimize damages of past transgressions against human rights or the environment.

"We gave our word to those affected that we would contribute to their support. Therefore, we welcome the implementation of the hardship fund and are happy to be able to keep our promise," Kadnar said. 

Former prison laborer lauds move

Dieter Dombrowski, the chairman of the UOKG, whose name in English roughly translates to the Union of Victims' Associations of Communist Dictatorship, praised Ikea for its approach in recent years. 

"Ikea accepted our invitation for talks after it became known that the company was involved in forced prison labor. Together, we charted the path of resolution and Ikea met directly with those affected. Today's decision is groundbreaking. We hope that other companies will follow Ikea's example," Dombrowski said. 

Dombrowski was a political prisoner in the former East Germany, jailed for illegally entering West Germany. He became a Christian Democrat (CDU) politician after moving to West Berlin in the 1970s.

He then became a Bundestag member in 1994, after reunification, for a district in the former East in Brandenburg. He also actively campaigned on the issue of forced labor for many years. 

"My three sisters were in the women's prison in Hoheneck [in Saxony]," Dombrowski said in an interview with mass-circulation newspaper Bild in 2012. "They made bed linens for Quelle and other delivery companies. I myself was bought free in 1976 and then saw all the things we'd been making in jail in the West." 

Dombrowski said that during his 20 months in a jail in Cottbus, he had made camera housings.

He said prisoners would work six-day weeks in three shifts, and be paid in the region of 18 to 25 East German Marks each week — a paltry sum even by East German standards.

"For the companies in the West, the profit margins must have been higher than they are today in China," he said.

msh/dj (AFP, dpa, KNA)

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.