Authors

Discussion

The paper analyses the role of industrial (and economic) spies as actors of transnational technology transfer in Central and Eastern Europe using the example of interwar Czechoslovakia, a newly established country at the crossroads of knowledge transfer between different technology zones in Western, Eastern and South-eastern Europe. At the time, industrial espionage was a strategic political and military concern, as well as a useful tool for bridging the technological gap between Czechoslovakia and its potential political rivals, especially Germany, but also Poland, Hungary, Russia, Italy and Japan. The numerous spying activities of the country's leading industrial companies in the 1920s and 1930s show that espionage was an important modernisation strategy. Sometimes it took the form of literal espionage, such as passing plans and drawings or photographing machinery, and sometimes it was semi-legal, such as reciprocal study tours, often closely monitored by state authorities, in which the management of one industrial company voluntarily gave up certain production secrets so that its employees could later gain access to the production facilities of a competitor. The key role was played by those industrial spies whose main focus was on transnational technology flows. Their motivations, based on financial incentives, personal prestige and national affiliation, will be analysed using court and police records, security service activities and passport applications for travel abroad.