 All factories in Elsterberg were expropriated, industrial plants and large estates were sometimes even violently confiscated, the machinery was dismantled and carried off to the Soviet Union and companies were forced to nationalization.Nevertheless, the production of spinnable fiber, leather and stoves could gear up slowly and under many difficulties.In 195 Elsterberg was integrated into the new district of Gera, Thuringia, within the administrative reform in Saxony.