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)
Eduard Kubů: Restoration and Régularisation of Economie Cooperation under the Circumstances of Accelerating Cold War
Eduard Kubû and subsequently it asserted its claims against Austria. However, Vienna considered the problem to have been solved because these securities held by their owners had been converted by the Nazi regime into German Reich’s securities. In other words, the problem was referred to Germany. However, Czechoslovakia declared the property-related legal acts performed under the coercion and imposed guardianship of the Third Reich to be invalid. Extensive migration after World War II brought new problems. On the one side, there was the expulsion and transfer of Czech Germans, while on the other side there was re-emigration of Austrian Czechs back to their homeland. Czechoslovak nationalisation became a source of disputes, which were difficult to settle. Some problems extensively blended into each other. For example, the nationalised enterprises requested compensation for deliveries carried out during the world war but the Austrian courts did not recognise them as the owners. In addition to this set of problems mostly of bilateral kind, a set of problems in a broader context soon came into being. I am referring to the different roles of the Czechoslovak Republic and Austria in the bipolar world, splitting up both politically and economically. Nevertheless, the outlined gigantic complex of problems did not completely eliminate the opportunities for restoring and developing Czechoslovak-Austrian business relations. The relations could be implemented thanks to a silent agreement, which enabled both parties to conserve bilateral problems, to postpone their final resolution and to concentrate on mutually beneficial traditional cooperation under the unfavourable circumstances of the accelerating cold war. A prerequisite for restoration of economic relations was consolidation of the Czechoslovak economy and primarily the Austrian economy as well as the political consolidation and reconstruction of the Austrian state. Until the State Treaty was signed, the Republic of Austria had been a state with limited sovereignty, which was not fully recognised internationally. This fact precluded Austria from establishing regular diplomatic relations and entering into regular trade and payment agreements. As an occupied country, it was subject to the military occupation administration, and the fact that the country was occupied by four powers affected the country’s economic situation in an especially adverse manner. The country was divided into four autonomous occupation zones, which were, to a certain degree, self-contained in economic terms. The Austrian authorities had limited terms of reference because they were subordinated to the occupation powers. The division of Austria impeded free development of trade. According to a report by Frantiäek Bofek-Dohalsky, the Czechoslovak representative in Vienna, the demarcation lines were often greater obstacles to trade than state borders and the individual Austrian lands often concluded “compensatory transactions of international nature” between themselves.2 Compensations became the main method 2 National archives in Prague (hereinafter referred to as NAP), Ministry of Foreign Trade (hereinafter referred to as MFT), ROE 1946, dossier Hospodàrské informace [Economic reports], Zpràva Üfadu zmocnènce k hâjeni êeskoslovenskÿch zàjmû v Rakousku adresovanâ Ministerstvu 198
