Intershop
Intershop was a chain of government-owned and operated retail stores in the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) in which only hard currencies (and later Forum checks) could be used to purchase high-quality goods, usually from or associated with Western countries.
Intershop was originally oriented towards visitors from Western countries, and later became an outlet where East Germans could purchase goods they could not otherwise obtain.
An unintended consequence was that ordinary East Germans had some insight into the selection of goods available in the West, which they could then compare with the rather limited offerings available in their own country.
Purchases could be paid for with any fully convertible currency, such as US dollars, Pounds Sterling, Swiss francs, and especially West German marks.
By decree of the Council of Ministers of the GDR (Ministerrat der DDR), this ban was relaxed in that year, and East Germans were then allowed to shop in most Intershops.
Additionally, certain duty-free items such as tobacco, spirits, coffee, perfume, brand name clothing, watches and jewellery required a foreign passport.
The only legal ways for East Germans to acquire hard currency were either as gifts from relatives living in the West or wages earned for work in Western countries.
These shops were intended to give East Germans access to high-quality goods and to absorb surplus purchasing power.
He said, "Naturally, we haven't overlooked the fact that the citizens of the German Democratic Republic who have no such funds are at a disadvantage, in a certain sense, compared to those who have such currency at their disposal."
[citation needed] Beginning in the 1980s, a portion of the salary of Intershop workers was paid in hard currency and additionally employees had to surrender their tips, according to regulations, in order to curb these problems.
A West German photographer, Günter Schneider, collected numerous photos of Intershops while working on a larger report about the transit corridors in East Germany.
