German reunification was based on complex interactions between processes of institutional transfer and post-communist transformation. This paper proposes an analysis of this process for former GDR municipalities. It first focuses on the process of exporting the policies of Western institutions implemented under the leadership of the federal authorities. It then considers the debates raised by this policy. Finally, it offers an observation of the concrete modalities for importing and implementing West German organizational and professional rationales in two "model socialist cities"–“Eisenhüttenstadt (Brandenburg) and Hoyerswerda (Saxony).