'Hidden Integration' - RGW-Wirtschaftsexperten in europäischen Netzwerken.

This paper concentrates on economic actors and their networks, exploring the process of integration and disintegration of East Central Europe through the example of Comecon international industrial organizations. Intermetal and Agromash both acted under the radar of upper-level politics. This paper is important due to the specificity of East Central Europe, where over the course of nineteenth century industrialization, numerous transnational networks of economic experts emerged in the then still nonexistent nation-states. Historians of technology Tom Misa and Johan Schot call this form of interdependence "hidden integration," a term which can be widely applied to East Central Europe in the era of state socialism. In contrast to politicians, economic experts maintained active pan-European networks during the Cold War, and that, despite the existence of the Iron Curtain. Here, I reveal how industrial experts were able to foster contacts and build networks beyond their political camp to solve urgent, systemic problems of the socialist economy (such as the poor quality of production and the low level of technological development). Thus, Comecon branch organizations can be considered (in the words of Friederike Sattler) "compensatory networks." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]