Gertrude Enderle-Burcel, Dieter Stiefel, Alice Teichova (Hrsg.): Sonderband 9. „Zarte Bande” – Österreich und die europäischen planwirtschaftlichen Länder / „Delicate Relationships” – Austria and Europe’s Planned Economies (2006)

Introduction

Introduction

entrepreneurship developed in Austria of which very little is generally known. Thus favourable conditions for East-West trade links, on the one hand, and the enhanced post-war role of the Austrian Communist Party (K.PÖ), on the other hand, facilitated the rise of Austrian enterprises - cloaked companies - run by members of the KPÖ. While this led to remarkable earnings from profitable East-West trade for the Austrian Communist Party, it was accompanied by the decline of the KPÖ to insignificance in Austrian politics. Some features of this largely unknown history are exemplified by Maren Seliger who was able somewhat to lift the veil covering the activities of these cloaked companies. In general, representatives of Austrian trading enterprises and state-run industries were interested in developing business links with their eastern neighbours. This is shown by Gertrude Enderle-Burcel who analyses the actions of Josef Dobretsberger, a prominent exponent of Austrian politics and business. He was ideologically untypical of the Austrian business community, because he favoured relations with the East. Indeed, he succeeded in building up a network of relationships between public and private Austrian business and socialist industry and trade. Roman Stolzlechner discerns in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) an exceptionally great interest in East-West trade through Austria’s mediation. Economic relations between the Soviet Occupation Zone (SOZ) of Germany and Austria had been dormant in the post-war years. However, they rose relatively steeply after Austria’s official recognition of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Charting the involvement of Austrian companies in East-German trade, Stolzlechner emphasizes the GDR’s vulnerability due to the specific West and East German as well as the general East-West antagonism. These facts, he argues, made the GDR more readily turn to neutral Austria and to firms in the hands of the KPÖ. Doubtlessly, in order to circumvent the barriers of the Cold War, trade found an East-West route from Austria with the assistance of cloaked companies. However, the bulk of Austrian relations with its Eastern neighbours went through official financial, trading and business channels.

Authors further explore and identify the possibilities and limits of Austria’s East- West economic relations with the European socialist states. Christoph Boyer surveys connections between East Germany and Austria for the entire period of the Cold War. He finds that, although the economic level of both countries was similar, neither historical nor geographical ties could have formed a basis for closer relationships. In addition, Austria’s official and political preferences were for West- rather than East Germany. The way to normalization and greater economic cooperation took off after the GDR became internationally recognized and Austria’s neutrality and sovereignty was established. GDR-Austrian trade reached its greatest volume just before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Quite the opposite is found by Piotr Franaszek who identifies Poland as an exceptional case because of the country’s relatively important role for Austria as a

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