West Berlin and Vienna functioned as informal business hubs between the East and West before and after the break-up of the state socialist regimes in 1989.
Both cities shared several important characteristics that predestinated them for that role: As a result of their partition into four occupation zones after 1945, they became natural areas of interaction between the emerging adversary blocs, where espionage as well as black market activities were thriving. At the same time, both cities became increasingly landlocked and deprived of their traditional hinterlands due to their position at the edge of the Iron Curtain – in West Berlin ultimately after the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, and in Vienna after the withdrawal of the Allied troops from Austria in 1955.

With the arrival of the first gastarbeiter in the early 1960s (predominately from Yugoslavia and Turkey), the labor market became progressively transnationalized, and both cities became magnets for migrants from the Eastern Bloc.

It was the informal sphere – defined as an area not or not completely controlled by the nation states – that functioned directly as well as indirectly as a catalyst for transnationalization processes. The value of goods and services varied highly due to the different political and economic systems involved. Transnational contacts were a precious asset and offered a clear advantage over those whose outreach remained local or regional. The profound economic, political, social, and cultural transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989 also affected the nature of informal business. Some branches, such as informal currency transactions, ceased to be attractive, and new areas, such as a burgeoning informal car market, emerged. The most visible signs of the transnational informal market were the so-called "Polish Markets" at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin (previously divided by the Berlin Wall) and Mexiko Platz in Vienna, which caused the municipal and national governments to curb those activities by different means.

While the barriers prohibiting people from leaving were lifted, temporary restrictions hindering migrants from entering or fully accessing the labor market or the social welfare system emerged in the destination areas. Economic inequality along the former political bloc lines endured. All these factors were a major stimulus for informal businesses for years to come.

It was mainly representatives of state institutions, whether German and Austrian officials or foreign citizens involved with the security services of state socialist countries, who had the task of curbing informal business activities. However, their position was all but unequivocal: First, they often had to stick to informal practices themselves in order to substitute the missing structures of transnational cooperation. Second, many of them were pursuing different agencies and were participating in informal businesses themselves in various ways. In general, we argue that the transnational nature of informal businesses accelerated the transnationalization of state institutions.

The transnationalization of the informal also brought about wide-ranging political ramifications. A discourse on "Ausländerkriminalität" (crimes committed by foreigners) emerged, depicting migration primarily as a threat to national security. Although this discourse was not restricted to the right-wing political spectrum, it paved the way for anti-immigration parties such as the FPÖ in Austria.

Finally, we tackle the question of sources. Informal businesses are documented predominantly by the police or prosecution organs. In Germany and Austria, the records of criminal justice are volatile, as many of them are deemed "archivunwürdig" (not worthy of being preserved in an archive). This starkly contrasts with the significance ascribed to files of the security services in post-socialist countries. While they have been made accessible primarily for the study of political repression in a national context, they also chronicle informal business activities outside the given country. Furthermore, there is a large variety of contemporary criminological, sociological, and anthropological literature that can be also scrutinized as a historical source.

Issues discussed at the workshop may include:

- methodological questions on informality, crime, black/grey/color markets
- informal and official migration
- informal practices connected to the labor market
- informal practices and "organized crime"
- transnationalization of police and criminal justice
- the interplay between local, regional and transnational actors
- sources and the history of study of informality
- other cities that share several of the characteristics described for West Berlin and Vienna

All proposal should be sent to:

matthias.kaltenbrunner@univie.ac.at

claudia.kraft@univie.ac.at

Deadline is June 20, 2019.