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Austria's “Ostpolitik” in the 1950s and 1960s: Honest Broker or Double Agent?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2009

Oliver Rathkolb
Oliver Rathkolb
Affiliation:
Research Director of the Bruno Kreisky Archives Foundation, Rechte Wienzeile 97, A-1050 Vienna, Austria. He is also Research Coordinator of the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue, Codirector of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for History and Society, and Universitätsdozent in History at the University of Vienna.
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Extract

In literature on diplomacy, the term Ostpolitik refers to the new foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany introduced in 1966. The policy, was initiated by the grand coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democratic party (SPD) and was continued after 1969 by the SPD and Free Democratic party (FDP) coalition. The policy aimed at reconciling Germany with Poland and the Soviet Union. Willy Brandt, the SPD foreign minister from 1966 to 1969 and chancellor from 1969 until 1974, and Walter Scheel, FDP foreign minister from 1969 to 1974, were the architects of this new “selective Détente.” From the beginning, Brandt's Ostpolitik was “controlled” by the Nixon administration, especially by Kissinger. The United States feared that Brandt and Scheel would go too far without taking account of Washington's geo-political point of view.

Type
Articles
Information
Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 26 , January 1995 , pp. 129 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 1995

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References

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39 The Soviet Military Bank had administered the finances of the USIA (Administration of Soviet Property in Austria, that is, seized former German property) industries, the Soviet Oil Administration, and the Danube Steamship Company.

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57 Ibid., 2.

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71 Rathkolb, “Austria and European Integration,” 51.

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