Decision no. 483/2008

In 1938, the Hungarian national Elsa M. was the owner of the F. estate and of further areas used for agriculture and forestry in the municipal area of Obergrafendorf, Lower Austria. After the “Anschluss” of Austria to the German Reich, the German Armed Forces commenced with the creation of a military training area for the garrison post St. Pölten. This military training area comprised a total area of 500 hectares.

Elsa M. had contributed around 74 hectares of her property to this area. After she had already been threatened with expropriation, she finally sold the property in January 1940 for around 190,000 Reichsmark to the German Reich. Elsa M. had also genuinely received this sum.

In 1948, Elsa M claimed for the restitution of these properties at the Restitution Commission St. Pölten. As this asset constituted “German Property”, negotiations regarding the restitution claim were, in the view of the Supreme Restitution Commission Vienna, initially only possible with the consent of the four allied occupying powers, as they were in a position to lay claim to the properties as spoils of war. It was, however, not possible to gain this consent at that time.  

The proceedings could only be resumed with the transferral of “German Property” to the Republic of Austria in 1955. In 1956, the case was assigned by the initially competent Restitution Commissions to the Financial Directorate Vienna. The claim for restitution was then only examined in accordance with the Third State Treaty Implementation Act in order to ascertain whether the sale to the German Armed Forces had taken place on the basis of the “improper application of the law” or “solely on the basis of the political persecution” of the affected parties. After the implementation of a comprehensive evidence taking procedure in March 1959, the Financial Directorate Vienna denied the presence of these prerequisites and rejected the claim for restitution. Elsa M. lodged an appeal against this decision and then withdrew it in 1964, after she had purchased back the total area of 74 hectares which she had sold in 1940 and around 43.4 hectares from the Republic of Austria.

Both applicants in the proceedings before the Arbitration Panel, heirs of Elsa M., requested the restitution of those remaining areas (23 hectares), which were publicly-owned on the cut off day, 17 January 2001. However, the Arbitration Panel was unable to recognize any connection between the political persecution of Elsa M. alleged by the applicants and the creation of the military training area, particularly as the location of the requested areas do not indicate a random requisitioning of these properties by the German Armed Forces. Therefore, the existence of a property seizure in accordance with the General Settlement Fund Law was absent.