ABSTRACT
The opening years of the Swiss franc's solitary freedom were marred by compromising relations to the Third Reich. Later come concessions under duress to the USA. The USA agreed to the opening up of direct negotiations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland over the question of blocked German assets and their liquidation. Switzerland would liquidate the property of Germans resident in Germany, and these should be compensated in German money 'calculated at a uniform rate of exchange'. In Switzerland, banks dealt only in the official market, but brokers dealt in 'financial dollars' at rates that were closely related to those in the free franc market in New York. Quotations in the Zurich and Geneva banknote markets were often the only source of information on the underlying value of currencies for which official quotations had long since lost meaning.
