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)
Damir Jelic: “Living in the neighbourhood” - Economic Relations between Capitalist Austria and Socialist Croatia in Historical Perspective
Damir Jelic The Danube River, or better to say the navigable part of it, had the same function for eastern Central Europe as the Mediterranean Sea for its neighbouring countries, or the Atlantic for Western Europe: it was the main factor of economic and social integration. Different states, nationalities and geographic regions were part of the transport and economic sphere of the Danube River. They were all more or less successfully integrated in one market. The Danube River connected three economically important valleys: namely Bohemia, the small Vienna Valley and large Panonia. This region, which offered good transport connections, is surrounded by mountains. The Bohemian Valley is also almost completely surrounded by high mountains, except for the low terrain towards the Vienna Valley, which is called Moravian Plate. The Bohemian Valley looks like a rhomb with raised sides, all rivers run toward its centre. There, the rivers Moldavia and Elbe absorb them, and they leave the valley towards the German town of Bodenbach. For the development of the internal market of the valley, the rivers were a crucial factor: the Elbe is navigable, starting in Pardubice; steamships could come from Melnik. The Moldavia (Vltava) is navigable from Ceské Budëjovice and for steamships from Prague. The region’s geographical position, between Germany and the Danube Valley, developed it into an economic and political centre. Transport towards the north and west as difficult to manage due to the surrounding mountains. However, the routes towards the south and east were open via the Moravian Plate. Nevertheless, the Elbe represented a good connection to the German market and made the valley a specific world “in between”. Panonia, or rather the central Danube region, was a large geographic area surrounded by the Carpathians in the north, Transylvanian Alps towards the east, the Crass and Dinaridi Mountains in the south-east and south, and the Alps towards 246 Map 1 - Geographic background of the Eastern Central European market
