USIA

USIA (initially USIWA, abbreviation for "Uprawlenje Sowjetskim Imuschestwom w Awstrij" = administration of Soviet assets in Austria): On July 5, 1946 more than 300 industrial enterprises (including almost the entire petroleum industry and the DDSG, the Erste Donau-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft - "First Danube Steamship Navigation Company") and 140 agricultural and forest estates with more than 150,000 hectares of cultivated area in the Soviet occupation zone were seized as former German Assets. The USIA group of companies, with 53,000 employed persons (1955), which was also assigned numerous enterprises that had been aryanized after 1938, comprised a large part of Austria's key industries (Böhler, Voith, Enzesfelder, Leobersdorfer, Heid, etc.) and was not subject to Austrian law and the consequences of the (Nationalisation) Acts of 1946 and 1947. The mainly Communist works councils of the USIA enterprises were especially active in the October strike of 1950. Under the provisions of the Austrian State Treaty, the Soviet Union transferred the USIA assets to Austria on payment of 150 million $ within 6 years following the conclusion of the Treaty; redemption could also be effected by deliveries of goods. For the restitution of petroleum and natural gas fields Austria had to supply the Soviet Union with 10 million t of petroleum worth 200 million $.

Literature: E. Bezemek and O. Klambauer (eds.), USIA und USIA-Betriebe in Niederösterreich, 1983; DieUSIA-Betriebe in Österreich, in: Studien und Forschungen des Niederösterreichischen Inst. für Landeskunde 5, 1983; H. Steiner, Die USIA-Betriebe, Mttlg. des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 43, 1993.