Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a majority of voters in Berlin are enjoying the expropriation of the economy again.
That should not go under in the turmoil after the general election.
Because the loosely won referendum to socialize the large private housing construction groups in the capital breaks with what makes Germany strong: the social market economy.
The GDR with its state-planned economy was shattered by the superiority of this system, which, with its strong protection of private property, is a guarantee of freedom and prosperity. Now, a surprising number of people believe that at least in the housing market we can afford socialism again. But the market is not leveraged with impunity. In the previous year, the Berlin rent freeze (now collected by the Constitutional Court) had measurably reduced the offer and thus favored those tenants who were already sitting in the warm. The red-red-green Senate referred the others to patience, luck, relationships and financial tricks.
For market economists, it is little consolation that the SPD has the nose in the election for the Berlin House of Representatives and Franziska Giffey could become the governing mayor.
It had made it clear early on that it would not implement the non-binding referendum.
Their victory explains why housing company stocks rose slightly.
However, the Greens, who are more eager to dispossess, are the second force, and the left also did well.
The expropriation initiative will not let up.
Even if Giffey should not continue the left alliance but seek partners from the center: Your government will force the housing companies to make expensive concessions in order to calm the situation politically.
The corporations have signaled their willingness to partially forego returns, but are demanding stable framework conditions in return.
Such a guarantee will hardly endure in left-wing Berlin.
Without a solid calculation basis, private companies will invest less than necessary in the interests of the tenants.
The rest of the republic is likely to continue to receive visual instruction from the Berlin laboratory as to which experiments it is better not to imitate.