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2 May 2012
IKEA 'used East German political prisoners to make its furniture
Furniture giant IKEA used political prisoners arrested by the dreaded Stasi secret police of former East Germany to make its products in the 1970s and 80s, it has been alleged. Initially the company denied the reports but then said it had requested documents from the Stasi archive.
During the 1970s, Ikea developed a strong manufacturing base in East Germany with 65 factories producing parts and furniture. A 2011 doumentary in Germany cited documents claiming that IKEA had a 'thorough co-operation' with East German authorities.
Ikea's popular Klippan sofa was produced in East Germany at a plant situated next to a prison in Waldheim. A former prison chief said that prison labour was an 'expected part of furniture production'.
Read more at Daily Mail - We knew this last year… – We also knew that the founder of the Ikea furniture chain, Ingvar Kamprad is a not so nice guy…
8 Sept 2011
Ikea 'used political prisoners in GDR as slave labour'
Ikea developed strong links with the communist state in the 1970s, opening a number of manufacturing facilities, one of which, according to Stasi records discovered by German television company WDR, used political prisoners to construct sofas. The factory in Waldheim stood next to a prison, and inmates were used as unpaid labour, it is claimed. Gaols in the Democratic Republic housed significant numbers of political prisoners, with some estimates indicating they made up at least 20 per cent of the entire prison population.
Quoted in a Stasi file, Ingvar Kamprad, Ikea’s founder, said while he had no official knowledge of the use of prison labour, if it did indeed exist “in the opinion of Ikea it would be in society’s interests”. Hans Otto Klare, who had been sent to Waldheim prison for trying to escape to West Germany, described conditions in the factory as harsh.
“Our labour team lived on the upper floor of the factory with the windows covered,” he told WDR about his time making hinges and other components for Ikea furniture. “The machines were on the lower floor, and you had little rest. On the factory floor you had no proper seating, no ear protection: no gloves. Conditions were even more primitive there then in the rest of the GDR. It was slave labour.”