!!!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 (Boehler, 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 Niederoesterreich, 1983; DieUSIA-Betriebe in Oesterreich, in: 
Studien und Forschungen des Niederoesterreichischen Inst. fuer 
Landeskunde 5, 1983; H. Steiner, Die USIA-Betriebe, Mttlg. des 
Oesterreichischen Staatsarchivs 43, 1993.


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