Tote Grenze oder lebendige Nachbarschaft?: Osterreichisch-slowakische Beziehungen 1945-1968 (Zentraleuropa-Studien) (German Edition)

This work investigates the Austro-Slovak relations between the end of World War II and the “Prague Spring.” These border regions are highlighted against the background of the communist takeover and the intensification of the Cold War, which might otherwise remain obscure on account of the fixity of the classical bilateral narrative. The historical connections, especially at the economic and familial level, were placed under considerable strain after 1945 in consequence of coercive actions that were initially nationalistically and, in later developments, ideologically motivated. Thus developed the image of a Slovakia whose political elites met the Austrian demand for the protection of their native-born citizens with kind words but at the same time accelerated the implementation of evacuation. The reduction of the trans-border exchanges is also noticeable, either in terms of travel or in cultural aspects, at the beginning of the ideological confrontation in the Cold War. There survived a surprising number of contacts, which were exchanged through the Austrian General Consulate. Since 1951, this was the only representation of a western state in Slovakia, which intensified in times of political thaw despite great reluctance of the Ballhausplatz. The technical closing of the borders at the “Green Border” into Slovakia in periods of review were closed for over five years, and offers particularly interesting insights in light of the reactions of Slovakian politics on the perforation of its monopoly on information on the side of the ORF. In the course of the political thaws of the early 1960s, multiple contacts of a personal and cultural nature went along with a changed image of Austria as a neighbor. The confrontation of the post-war years had already given way at this time to a view of Austria as political and economic role model though this development and began to decline with the military conclusion of the “Prague Spring” and the renewal of the Iron Curtain.