Austrias Eastern Trade from Cold War Détente to EU Accession

The division of Europe during the Cold War changed Austrias traditionally good economic relations with Central and Eastern Europe. Austrias trade shifted to the West. However, trade with the countries of the Eastern Bloc remained important for neutral Austria. In 1963, its exports to the European COMECON ranked sixth among 18 European market economies. In 1968, just days after the suppression of the Prague Spring, Austria was the first Western European country to import Soviet natural gas. In the 1980s, when the communist Central and Eastern European states got into financial difficulties, Austrian banks financed part of their debt burden. At the same time, Austrias nationalised industries also ran into serious problems due to losses. Did Osthandel become the last hope for these companies? After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Austrian companies benefited greatly from the transition of the Central and Eastern European countries from planned to market economies. This study analyzes neutral Austrias Osthandel during the Cold War and answers the question to which extent it had a bridging function between East and West. For the first time, the interplay between diplomatic, economic and business history is explored in relation to Austrias eastern trade. The interconnections of diplomacy and trade between Austria and Czechoslovakia (from 1993: Czechia and Slovakia), Hungary and Poland are researched during the Cold War détente, the crisis-ridden 1980s (Soviet war in Afghanistan, US Star Wars programme) and the period after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The timeframe starts in 1963 with the beginning of détente and ends with Austrias accession to the EU in 1995. Archival material and oral history interviews will be used to provide a multi-perspective view of Austrian trade with communist Central and Eastern Europe. The study will examine the historical background of Austrian companies expanding into Central and Eastern Europe faster than other Western European countries. The project is directed by Walter M. Iber, Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Graz. Anna Graf-Steiner (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on Consequences of War, BIK) and Christoph Huber (University of Graz) are part of the project team. Peter Ruggenthaler (BIK) supports the project as associate partner. International research partners in the project are based in Poland (Polish Academy of Sciences), Slovakia (stav pamäti nroda) and the USA (Indiana University Bloomington).