ABSTRACT
The concept of the Marshall Plan aid influenced the political debate in Austria in many ways. Bruno Kreisky, Austria’s Federal Chancellor from 1970 to 1983, proposed a Marshall Plan for the developing countries as early as 1958. One of the aims of the New Orleans Conference on Austria and the Marshall Plan was to gather and disseminate information on the impact the Marshall Plan of on the economic, social and political performance of Austria, a topic hitherto rather neglected by historians. Initially in 1948/49 the Marshall Plan offered direct aid; almost half of the deliveries in the first year consisted of food, a quarter was raw materials. There is almost no sector of the Austrian economy which has not been positively affected by Marshall Plan aid. The Marshall Plan played a certain role in the discussion of the transition from centrally planned to market economies.
