Decision no. 88a/2006

In its decision No. 88/2006 of 20 March 2006, the Arbitration Panel had already granted a restitution claim regarding one quarter of a real estate in Vienna, Innere Stadt, owned by the Republic of Austria.

The real estate had previously been owned by the Jewish industrial magnate Ferdinand B.-B, who was forced to sell all his properties after the Nazi regime had attained power in Austria in March 1938. Thus the real estate was sold to the German Reich. A restitution procedure initiated 1947 by the heirs of Ferdinand B.-B. was closed in 1956 through a settlement with the Republic of Austria, successor in ownership. The Arbitration Panel, after examination of that prior settlement, came to the conclusion that it constituted an "extreme injustice" within the meaning of the General Settlement Fund Law. Among other things the Arbitration Panel stated that in the course of the prior settlement procedure the Republic of Austria took advantage of its superior position and pressured the claimants.

After the Arbitration Panel's decision No. 88/2006, two further applications, each for one-quarter portion of the same real estate, were filed within the deadline of 31 December 2006. As both applications were based on the same historical facts that had been crucial for the previous decision, the Arbitration Panel only had to examine whether the applicants could be considered heirs to Ferdinand B.-B., the former owner of the real estate, and thus would be entitled to apply. The Arbitration Panel confirmed this entitlement and recommended the restitution of another two one-quarter portions of the real estate.