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TwitterDecision no. 444/2008
Application
Applicant, Status
Hubert W., Rejection
Public owner
Republik Österreich
Type of property
immovable
Real estate in
KG Mayrlambach (51118), Edt bei Lambach, Oberösterreich | show on map
Decision
Number
444/2008
Date
23 Jun 2008
Reason
No seizure as defined by the GSF Law
Type
substantive
Decision in anonymous form
Press release
Press Release Decision No. 444/2008
Upper Austria, Mayrlambach
On 23 June 2008, the Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution rejected an application for restitution of a property in Edt/Lambach, Upper Austria, which was owned by Lagereibetriebe GmbH on the cut off day 17 January 2001. There were no indications that there was a connection between the transfer of property, which took place in the National Socialist era and the political persecution of the former property owner asserted by the applicant.
In 1938, Josef E. was the owner of a 30 hectare farm in Edt bei Lambach in Upper Austria. After his death in 1929, his sister Maria A. was the heir to the farm. The local leader of the district farmers demanded that the Court for matters relating to the inheritance of farming estates in Lambach find Maria A. not capable of running the farm in accordance with the provisions of the Reich Hereditary Farm Law, which was by then also valid in Austria. A positive decision regarding this claim would have meant that Maria A. would have lost the farm.
After the interrogation of 6 witnesses and of Maria A. herself, the Court for matters relating to the inheritance of farming estates came to the conclusion that Maria A. was entirely capable of running the inherited farm. The application of the leader of district farmers was rejected.
In early 1939, the Reich Nourishment Board of Food Producers, the union of all people active in the agricultural sector, approached Maria A. and her neighbours, the spouses P. in order to negotiate with them an assignment of their land for the erection of a grain warehouse in the immediate vicinity of the Westbahn route. The possibility of using a legal dispossession was also available to the German Reich for these purposes. On 31 August 1939, Maria A. and the spouses P. sold 4,039 m² and 1,476 m² of their property respectively to the German Reich at a price of 1,20 Reichsmark per square metre. By 1942, the German Reich had built a grain warehouse on this newly acquired land.
After the collapse of the National Socialist Regime, neither Maria A. nor the spouses P. initiated proceedings for the restitution of the sold areas of property. The property passed over to the Republic of Austria with the State Treaty of 1955. The Republic sold the property in 1968 to the Lagereibetriebe GmbH, a 100% subsidiary company of the Republic of Austria.
In the proceedings before the Arbitration Panel, the applicant, heir of Maria A. claimed for the restitution of the property area of 4,039 m² sold in 1939. Maria A. had been persecuted by the National Socialists for her Christian-Socialist views; the proceedings initiated by the leader of district farmers for the denial of her farming capability only served to exert political pressure on Maria A.
However, the Arbitration Panel was unable to establish a connection between these proceedings and the acquisition of the petitioned area of property by the German Reich, particularly because the neighbours of Maria A. had also sold areas of property to the German Reich under the same conditions. As the area of property was therefore not confiscated for any of the reasons named in the General Settlement Fund Law, the application had to be rejected.
After the interrogation of 6 witnesses and of Maria A. herself, the Court for matters relating to the inheritance of farming estates came to the conclusion that Maria A. was entirely capable of running the inherited farm. The application of the leader of district farmers was rejected.
In early 1939, the Reich Nourishment Board of Food Producers, the union of all people active in the agricultural sector, approached Maria A. and her neighbours, the spouses P. in order to negotiate with them an assignment of their land for the erection of a grain warehouse in the immediate vicinity of the Westbahn route. The possibility of using a legal dispossession was also available to the German Reich for these purposes. On 31 August 1939, Maria A. and the spouses P. sold 4,039 m² and 1,476 m² of their property respectively to the German Reich at a price of 1,20 Reichsmark per square metre. By 1942, the German Reich had built a grain warehouse on this newly acquired land.
After the collapse of the National Socialist Regime, neither Maria A. nor the spouses P. initiated proceedings for the restitution of the sold areas of property. The property passed over to the Republic of Austria with the State Treaty of 1955. The Republic sold the property in 1968 to the Lagereibetriebe GmbH, a 100% subsidiary company of the Republic of Austria.
In the proceedings before the Arbitration Panel, the applicant, heir of Maria A. claimed for the restitution of the property area of 4,039 m² sold in 1939. Maria A. had been persecuted by the National Socialists for her Christian-Socialist views; the proceedings initiated by the leader of district farmers for the denial of her farming capability only served to exert political pressure on Maria A.
However, the Arbitration Panel was unable to establish a connection between these proceedings and the acquisition of the petitioned area of property by the German Reich, particularly because the neighbours of Maria A. had also sold areas of property to the German Reich under the same conditions. As the area of property was therefore not confiscated for any of the reasons named in the General Settlement Fund Law, the application had to be rejected.
For use by media; not legally binding upon the Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution.
For further inquiries contact: presse@nationalfonds.org
For further inquiries contact: presse@nationalfonds.org