It was a promise made in 2012 that is only now about to be honored. On Tuesday, October 29, Ikea announced the payment of 70 million kroner (€6 million) to a national fund for victims of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which is due to be set up in Berlin in the coming weeks. With this gesture, the Swedish furniture giant has acknowledged that it used forced labor by political prisoners in the factories of its East German suppliers during the 1970s and 1980s.

The scandal broke in May 2012, following the broadcast of an investigation by Swedish channel SVT. Based on information obtained from 800 documents drawn from the archives of the Stasi (the secret police of the former GDR), the documentary revealed that the company, founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, had sourced from all the major East German furniture manufacturers, at a time when they were employing prisoners in their factories. Furthermore, it also revealed that Ikea's top management knew all about it.

An initial debate took place in Germany and Sweden in 1984, following an arson attack on one of the company's stores in Wallau, in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), likely provoked by a protest against the use of forced labor by GDR political prisoners. In an interview with the newspaper Aftonbladet, Kamprad maintained that only one of his suppliers had been involved, and that Ikea had "immediately terminated the contract" after being made aware.

But SVT's investigative program was able to demonstrate that in 1986, the Klippan sofa − an iconic piece of furniture by the brand, sold even today − was still being manufactured by prisoners at the Waldheim penitentiary. Several former inmates gave testimony. Among them was German political scientist Wolfgang Welsch: Incarcerated at Brandenburg Prison after a failed attempt to escape to West Germany, he recounted the triple-shift labor, the violence of the guards and the furniture delivery paperwork, written in Swedish.

Ikea first denied the facts, before asking the consulting firm Ernst & Young to carry out an investigation. Published in November 2012, its findings confirmed that suppliers to the Swedish giant had indeed used "political and criminal prisoners" and that "representatives of Ikea [were] aware of this at the time." The company then undertook to pay reparations to the exploited laborers.

It took 12 years for this to materialize, in the form of a €6 million contribution to the GDR Victims' Fund, which is in the process of being organized. "We deeply regret that this happened," apologized Walter Kadnar, Ikea's boss in Germany, on Tuesday, October 29.

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