Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)
‘FABULOUS’ IN HUNGARY - The powerhouse of industrial espionage
FABULOUS SPY GAMES The Comecon-related information passed on by Hoffmann probably played an important role in making the countries of the Eastern Bloc popular with western firms. More on that in the next chapter, but the role of the manipulative leaks that influenced the competition of the industrial companies probably went hand in hand with an intention to cause financial damage. The Siemens-AEG conflict mentioned earlier, not unlike the competition that also later intensified against IBM, may not have always ended without harm to the interests of the Hungarian economy. In 1961, before the OMFB was officially established, the general manager of AEG, Klaus Lieske, publicly stated that their offer was much more favourable than the deal one of Hungary’s industrial companies eventually concluded with Siemens. With this in mind, they will do everything they can next time around to expose János Sebestyén, who they believed to have been behind the manipulations, by offering even bigger discounts to the Hungarian partner.339 We do not know if they indeed tried to set a trap for him, but we know for certain that they failed to achieve overwhelming success and were unable to make significant inroads into Siemens’ monopoly. A report from two years later shows that the representatives of AEG managed to find an internal source who shared some information with them that was considered to be commercial secrets, and they learned that their original offer was cheaper than the one by Siemens even to begin with. After this, they refused to offer further discounts to the Hungarian party,340 and even had to come to terms with the fact that stricter requirements were set for them than their rivals in certain cases.341 339 ÁBTL 3.1.5. 0-12344/8, p. 172 Report, 8 June 1961 340 ÁBTL 3.1.5. 0-12344/7 p. 232 Report, 30 July 1963 341 ÁBTL 3.1.5. O-12344/7-a p. 136 Report, 10 July 1963 126
