Decision no. 2/2003

In April 1942, Josef K., the father of the claimant Brigitte K., acquired the real property in Vienna's 16th district for the sum of 31,200 Reichsmark. Since the vendor, a Jewish association, was subjected to discriminatory measures, it did not receive the proceeds from the sale. Instead the proceeds were transferred to a frozen account of the "Central Office for Jewish Emigration". In June 1943, the Wehrmacht commander's office in Vienna seized the vacant premises. However, this seizure did not result in an ownership transfer to the German Reich.

In August 1947, the previous owner, the Jewish association, applied for the restitution of the property located in Vienna, Ottakring which Josef K. had acquired earlier. In June 1948, the property was returned to the applicant for restitution. In its decision the Restitution Commission Vienna stated that the purchase price of 31,200 Reichsmark had been paid to the "Central Office for Jewish Emigration". Hence, the adverse party to the restitution proceedings, Josef K., did not receive compensation for the purchase price originally paid.

In its decision the Arbitration Panel established that the previous owner of the property, Josef K., had not been subjected to persecution during the National Socialist era and that the claimant, Brigitte K., did not assert that the property was seized during the relevant period between 1938 and 1945. According to the findings of the Arbitration Panel, the seizure of the premises in Ottakring by the Wehrmacht did not result in an ownership transfer. The fact that Josef K., the adverse party to the restitution proceedings, did not receive any compensation for the purchase price after 1945 also does not amount to a dispossession as defined in the General Settlement Fund Law. Since, on the basis of the established facts, a precondition to claim restitution was not present, the Arbitration Panel dismissed the application for restitution.