61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

documentation developed out of the management and control needs of the war
economy, as well as monitoring by intelligence services in various countries.
Finally, pressure from the Allies, along with the unconditional capitulation and
occupation of Germany, triggered a wave of enquiries shortly after the end of
the war, as already mentioned at the beginning of this section. Telephone and
postal monitoring, as well as the questioning of suspects, produced extensive
material, albeit by no means easy to interpret, and this also provides some information
in cases where the archives of the companies concerned no longer hold
any information. The ICE was able to acquire extensive source material of this
type; this was used as the basis for several studies. 7 Much of it could have been
available long ago; some, such as the German booty records which went to
Moscow, or the archives of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR),
did not become accessible until the 1990s.
The following commentary begins by referring back to the 1920s, and then
focuses first on the economic camouflage activities, then the transfer of German
assets into Switzerland, taking into account the question of «perpetrator
accounts», and thirdly the movement into or through Switzerland of Germans
charged with political offences.
Exodus of capital, tax evasion, and special services in wartime and in peace
The events in which we are interested did not occur in a vacuum, nor did they
emerge out of nowhere after 1933. They were linked to a much wider time
frame, and should be seen against the backdrop of Swiss-German economic
relations in the first half of the 20 th century, embedded in the dense network of
cultural and social relationships between these unequal neighbours. 8
The First World War and the years immediately afterwards represent a central
point of reference as regards the perceptions and behaviour of the Swiss and
German players on either side of a border which was very open in economic
terms. Not only had the Swiss financial centre became considerably more
powerful during those years; Germany, cut off from world markets, was
beginning to benefit from those specific functions provided by the neutral
nations which were already criticised at the time by the Western powers. These
ranged from a multitude of services for the war economy under a neutral flag,
through to the feigned transfer of German assets held abroad to neutral owners.
The Netherlands and Switzerland were the most important providers of such
services. This situation could have been repeated in the Second World War if
the Netherlands had not dropped out of the picture following the German
occupation in May 1940. Post-war experiences after 1919 were also critical,
demonstrating to German companies the value of outsourced production or
neutral intermediaries abroad. 9 The re-establishment of German export and
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