The fall of the Berlin Wall marks one of the largest structural transformations of the 20th century. At its core, the years 1989/90 brought two new systems to Eastern Europe: capitalism and democracy. Yet, thirty years later, Eastern Europe shows feeble democratic institutions and imperfect market economies. What explains this unsuccessful transformation? This paper points to the rushed marketization of East European economies in the early 1990s as a key explanation for citizens low support for democracy and capitalism. Using micro-level data from East Germany, we find that firm privatizations led to a marked resurgence of the former Socialist Unity Party. We argue that this effect is likely due to perceived cronyism. Socialist voting thrived whenever firms were sold to Western elites. The exclusion of East Germans belied the narrative that capitalism is meritocratic, thus sowing mistrust toward the new regime at large.