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)

Žarko Lazarević /Jože Prinčič: Slovene-Austrian Economic Relations, 1945-1991 (A View from Slovenia)

Zarko Lazarevic/Joie PrinCiC

machines and tools2, came mostly from Austria. Besides these goods, capital and technology were also transferred from Austria. Austrian businessmen were the leading foreign investors in the Slovene economy, in particular in the industrial and banking sectors. Austrian investors owned one-fifth of the Slovene textile industry.3 The share of Austria's investment was even larger if also banking is taken into account.4

Yugoslav Dimension

The changed situation after World War II was also reflected in the conditions for doing business. In the first years after the War, the Yugoslav leadership saw Austria as an enemy state which used to be “at the forefront of the German expansion to the Southeast”. The main aim was to diminish the economic power which the German minority and the German and Austrian companies had in Yugoslavia/Slovenia before the war and to recover material and other damages that the occupying government and army caused to the territory of Yugoslavia in the period 1941- 1945. Deportation of the German minority and the confiscation of “German property” were the most important economic and political measures.5 They were also a shortcut for the government to obtain material and other resources, which would otherwise depend on the outcome of long-lasting negotiations over war reparations. The Yugoslav government demanded from the Western Allies that Austria complied with the peace agreement and paid damages of 150 million dollars to Yugoslavia.

From 1945 to 1948, economic contacts were limited to the part of Austria that was under Soviet control. Yugoslavia’s conflict with the USSR in 1948 cut off collaboration with the socialist countries of Eastern Europe and put the country in great economic difficulties. Tense conditions forced the leadership to consider more favourably its policy towards its northern neighbour, and consequently, they wanted to start discussions about economic aid and encouraging trade. The federal government established contacts with the part of Austria under control of the Western Allies. In August 1948, an agreement was reached regarding the reciprocal exchange of goods. This agreement was a milestone in the development of economic relations between the neighbouring states. It ended a period of one-way and limited commercial collaboration and created a solid base for economic and technical cooperation between the states regulated by interstate agreements. In the

2 Letno poroCilo kmetijske zbornice dravske banovine. Ljubljana, 1939, p. 191-209.

3 Kresal, France: Tekstilna industrija v Sloveniji. Ljubljana, 1976, p. 155.

4 Lazarevic, Zarko: LastniSka struktura slovenskih bank do druge svetovne vojne. In: Prispevki za novejäo zgodovino, XL11, 2002, 1, p. 45-55.

5 PrinCiö, Joze: Podriavljanje nemSke imovine na slovenskem ozemlju po drugi svetovni vojni (1945-1955). In: Nemci na Slovenskem 1945-1955. Razprave Filozofske fakultete. Ljubljana 1998, p. 245-270.

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