Ústředna obchodních a živnostenských komor, Praha

The fonds includes materials on the organization, development and personnel matters of the Headquarters, minutes from meetings, documents on its legislative work; materials on the economic development in the Czechoslovak Republic and abroad, tax and customs policies, trade fairs and congresses, pricing policy, combating usury, etc.; numerous documents on foreign trade, international trade agreements, reports of Czechoslovak embassies for the Headquarters (situation on local markets, characteristics of individual companies in individual countries). Information on Jews can be specifically found in the following materials: the operation of real estate agencies and credit bureaus by non-Aryans (in 1939), the reporting of Jewish property in Germany (in 1938); other materials after 1939 such as Jewish property, the legal status of Jews, their exclusion from economic life, forced labor, the appointment of administrators to non-Aryan enterprises, the returning of property to Jews in 1945. Materials concerning individual Jewish entrepreneurs can also be expected to be found there. Šturz J. a kol.: Ústředna obchodních a živnostenských komor (ÚOŽK) 1922-1948. Inventář, 1966, 449 s., ev. č. 497. The Headquarters of the Commerce and Trade Chambers in the Czechoslovak Republic was established in 1922. The Chambers of Commerce and Trade defended the interests of the associated entrepreneurs, issued certificates and various publications, and were used by the state administration to support the local economy. The Headquarters was created as a free association on the basis of municipal law. It was supposed to help adapt the Chambers of Commerce and Trade to the conditions of the newly established Czechoslovakia and give a solid organizational form to mutual cooperation of the Chambers. Under the Protectorate, the scope of the Headquarters and individual chambers was considerably limited. In the years of 1945-1948, the chambers resumed their activities to the original extent, but after the communist coup they were abolished. Accessible