After the Second World War the Western Allies demanded that all German property in the former neutral countries should become liquidated and tranferred to the victors. This study gives an account of the conflicts that existed between Sweden and the Allies during the Safe Haven negotiations, which resulted in the Washington Treaty of 1946.Furthermore it studies the process of liquidation of the German firms by the Swedish state.
The Allies insisted on a joint Swedish-Allied liquidation of the German assets. The Swedes refused to accept this and told the Allies that they regarded the demand as an illegitimate interference with the internal affairs of Sweden. The Swedes attempted to maintain their rights to sovereignty by pointing to international law. The driving force behind the demands .the USA.had no understanding for the Swedish point of view. In order to change the Swedish attitude the Americans carried through retaliatory actions such as blacklisting Swedish firms, which had had commercial connections with Germany during the war and used threats or economic sanctions.
The most important result of the treaty in Washington was that the German firms stayed in Swedish handsand that the right for the Swedes to liquidate them were acknowledged by the Western Powers. The major part of the process of liquidating and selling coincided with and was influenced by the intense political conflict in the Swedish society and parliament 1946-1948 concerning the future organisation of the economy. The Social Democrat government put forward the idea of planned economy and suggested a nationalization of the German firms. The unexpected economic problems of the early postwar years and the changed conditions of competition proved nationalization less favorable. The only German firms that became nationalized were some of the mining companies. In this situation the Social Democrat governement attempted a cooperative solution as an alternative to nationalization of some of the German firms. The majority of the German firms were however sold to public buyers.
The governement’s choice of purchasers was greatly influenced by their concerns for the maintaining of competition and for Swedish export. There was also a fear of foreign trusts and cartels trying to acquire the German firms. The elimination of the German firms can also be said to have played a part in a process aimed at building up the economy of Western Europe according to American organisational principles. Most of the prospective foreign buyers, however, withdrew considering the risk of a future nationalization. Despite different views on nationalization there was a strong accord between the Social Democrat government and most of the leaders of the Swedish industry concerning the matter of how to avoid the sale of the German firms promoting monopoly within Sweden. Many things indicate that German firms thus became pawns also in a struggle for power inside the Swedish economy.