Kwestia własności niemieckiej w Austrii jako problem międzynarodowy w latach 1945–1949
The question of German property in Austria as an international problem in the years 1945-1949

Summary/Abstract: The problem of German assets in Austria after 1945 was an important element of the debate on the economic condition of the state and its political emancipation. German assets left in Austria after 1945 were under the control of the occupying powers and later the Austrian Government. This problem intertwined after the war with three key issues of an economic nature: 1.Food supply and regulation of the economic situation during the period May 1945 - July 1946; 2. Nationalization Act of July 1946; 3. International debate on the State Treaty. Postwar Austria was completely dependent economically on the decision of the occupying powers and cooperated with them successfully in overcoming the economic crisis. Austrian political elites used the supporting attitude of the United States and Great Britain to convince the international public opinion that a nation of six million people was unable to pay reparations worth hundreds of millions. By means of legal tools in the form of resolutions adopted at the Moscow Conference in 1943 Austrian authorities prepared and introduced a Nationalization Act to protect state assets, also those left behind by Germans, from an expansive Soviet policy. Prolonged work on a State Treaty ultimately resulted in a reduction of the amount of claims on the part of the Soviet Union. In turn the Western powers not only relinquished all claims but even returned the costs of their occupation of Austria. The basic sources which provide an insight into the assessment of the powers’ motivation are documents on Foreign Relations of the United States Policy from the Department of State Collections and Archives of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1947-1949.

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