Decision no. 412/2008

The property, with an area of around 7,500m² - on which a former hunting lodge from the late 18th century that had been converted into an apartment building was located – belonged to Samuel L., proprietor of a banking and commission business in Vienna.  According to the Nuremberg Laws, Samuel L. was a Jew and in 1939, he fled to Palestine with his wife and seven children.

By the end of 1938, L. had concluded a verbal contract with Franz G., Ernst Sch. and Willibald W. concerning the sale of the property.  As the National Socialist Property Transaction Office was of the opinion that the price of just under 60,000 Reich marks was too low, the sale was initially not authorised.  However, after a lien creditor threatened a petition in bankruptcy against the banking house of L., which the National Socialist authorities intended to liquidate, and which was actually dissolved in 1942, the Property Transaction Office consented to the sale of the property for 60,000 Reich marks.

At the beginning of 1948, Samuel L., who had survived the Second World War in Palestine, applied to the Restitution Commission Vienna for the restitution of the property.   In 1951, Franz G., Ernst Sch. and Willibald W. were sentenced to return the property to L. in exchange for a repayment of around 58,000 Schillings.  In September 1951, Samuel L. sold the property for 370,000 Schillings to the City of Vienna, who consequently built a municipal apartment building on the plot of land.

The Arbitration Panel has already established in previous decisions that it cannot recommend the renewed return of a property that has already been restituted.  The purpose of the General Settlement Fund Law is to clarify all open questions regarding the compensation of the victims of National Socialism.  The claim for restitution asserted before the Arbitration Panel has however already been positively decided in earlier proceedings.  For these reasons, the application for restitution of the property was rejected.