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)
L'udovit Hallon - Miroslav Londák: Sources and Possibilities of Research on Slovak-Austrian Economic Relations after the Second World War
SOURCES AND POSSIBILITIES OF RESEARCH ON SLOVAK-AUSTRIAN ECONOMIC RELATIONS AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR Eudovit HALLON - Miroslav LONDÀK Slovak foreign trade relationships and economic cooperation with foreign countries in the 20th century and particularly after 1945 belong among the least elaborated fields of Slovak economic history. This is why we welcome, on the part of Slovak historians, the possibility to take part in a project about economic relationships of Austria with foreign countries after 1945. Participation in the project will help to outline the overall image of trading and other forms of economic cooperation between Slovakia and the surrounding countries. As for Austria, particularly from existing research so far we only have general information about trade and investments before 1918 and single entries about the exchange of goods in the years between the two wars and in the years of the clerico-fascist dictatorship in the Slovak Republic. There is no knowledge about trade contacts after 1945. The economic development of Slovakia in the 20th century was in progress except for two short periods in the setting of a larger economic unit. Research on foreign trade relationships is thus very difficult and its quantification is often impossible. In spite of the said difficulties we have decided to elaborate the separate development of Slovak international economic contacts after 1945 and in its scope the cooperation with Austria. In the first phase of our work we reviewed the main archive files on the given problems in the Slovak region. A brief evaluation of the condition of these files is the content of the following study. At the same time, we are presenting general information about the starting condition of Slovak-Austrian trade relationships before the year 1945 and a basic characteristic of mutual economic cooperation in the years 1945-1950, compiled on the basis of a first probe into archive materials. The state of trade relationships between Austria and Slovakia before 1945 Limited results of research on trade relationships between Slovakia and Austria in Slovak historiography allow us to create only an approximate picture about the character and structure of the exchange of goods in the first half of the 20th century. Up to 1918 the focus of Slovak trade relationships remained on the territory of former Hungary. Exports and imports existed mainly in the southeastern direction, Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs/Sonderband 9 291
