Magyarország mint „rosszhiszemű szerző”? A hazai osztrák (német) vagyon átadása a Szovjetuniónak
Hungary as Malicious Acquirerer? The delivery of Austrian (German) wealth in Hungary to the Soviet Union

Summary/Abstract: On 2 August 1945 at Potsdam the Allied Powers decided that all German investments and wealth abroad should be handed over to the winners as part of the war indemnities. However, since the Potsdam conference failed to define beyond doubt what was to be meant by German wealth, a debate emerged between the Western powers and the Soviet Union about the correct interpretation of the decision, which dragged on for years. Whereas the Soviet Union regarded and confiscated as German all assets which Germany had acquired in the occupied countries against payment, the Anglo-Saxon countries refused to treat as German any wealth which had been taken violently even if the Nazis had payed the market price in exchange. German wealth in Hungary was locked by the armistice which was signed on 20 January 1945. The agreement had also regarded as German all Austrian assets in Hungary, since there existed no independent Austrian state. Yet in the summer of 1945 the decision of Potsdam was interpreted in Hungary in the sense that it did not apply to the delivery of assets which had been acquired violently by the Germans in the countries which they occupied in the course of WWII. Accordingly, the Hungarian authorities asked for an immunity from the delivery as German wealth of the Hungarian assets of those countries which had previously come under Nazi occupation. But the Allied Control Commission took no account of this interpretation and demanded the transmission of the German share of property in some 50 Hungarian companies. Among these there were Austrian fi rms which had been violently taken by the Germans after March 1938. The demand was accordingly rejected by the Soviet authorities, and in 1946–1947 about 400 enterprises, hundreds of houses, real estates and a good deal of arable was handed over to the occupying forces. These involved 38 such Austrian companies which had been occupied by the Germans during WWII. From 1946 the Austrian government protested repeatedly against the transmission of Austrian assets in Hungary to the Soviet Union. In the course of the property law negotiations which started in the autumn of 1953, the Austrians demanded indemnities from Hungary for the Austrian wealth which had been handed over to the Soviet Union. The Hungarian government defended itself with the excuse that German/Austrian assets were under the disposal of the Soviet authorities. In the meantime, however, Hungary had redeemed from Soviet hands as part of the German wealth the Austrian companies as well, which meant that the indemnities to be paid for them to the Austrians would have involved double payment. The Austro-Hungarian financial talks, which went on for a whole decade, finally ended with success on 31 October 1964. Hungary undertake the payment of 22.5 million schilling as indemnities in the course of two years. Yet the agreement failed to treat either the case of Austrian assets transm

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