Since the ongoing transition from socialist to democratic and market societies differs considerably from country to country it is not easy to identify the actual or even possible contribution of neoliberal Ordnungstheorie and its concept of a market order to transformation policy. Common to all countries is only the experience that transformation has proved much harder and more costly than most economists and politicians expected in 1990. The initial political euphoria was matched by overoptimism about the economic prospects, in Eastern Germany and Eastern Europe alike. Eastern Germany is a special case because it experienced, with currency unification and political reunification, a radical and specific "shock therapy". The transplantation of the West German order was motivated by political considerations.