Decision no. 532/2009

Application

 

Applicant, Status

Gertraud H., Dismissal
Heinz Wilhelm S., Dismissal

Public owner

Stadt Wien

Type of property

immovable

Real estate in

KG Währing (01514), Wien, Wien | show on map

Decision

 

Number

532/2009

Date

03 Mar 2009

Reason

No legal succession

Type

substantive

Decision in anonymous form

Press release

Press Release Decision No. 532/2009

Vienna, Währing
On 3 March 2009, the Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution dismissed an application for restitution of 2/3 shares of two properties owned by the City of Vienna in Vienna, Währing, due to ineligibility to file an application.
In 1938, Ida B. was the 2/3 owner of each of the two properties, on both of which tenanted buildings were located. Ida B. was one of the two children of the spouses Franz and Jeanette P. Prior to her marriage to Franz P., Jeanette P. had given birth to an illegitimate son, Hermann T. In 1942, Ida B and her husband Isador B. were deported to the extermination camp Maly Trostinec near Minsk. The property shares, which had until this time remained in the ownership of Ida B., reverted to the German Reich on the basis of the Eleventh Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law.

After the war, the childless spouses Ida and Isador B. were declared legally dead. Both the parents of Ida B and her divorced and childless sister were already deceased. Probate proceedings for Ida B. were initiated, however, they were never concluded.

In 1945, the Republic of Austria initially assumed the administration of the seized property shares. As no legal successors to Ida B. had laid claim to the property shares within the deadline for restitution in 1956, these assets reverted to the collection agencies, established in 1957 by the Republic of Austria for the assertion of as yet unfulfilled claims for restitution. In the case at issue, the transfer of ownership occurred pursuant to the Auffangorganisationengesetz-Novelle (amendment to the Receiving Organizations Act) 1958. The transfer of the property was determined by decision of the Financial Directorate for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland. In 1965, the collection agencies sold to property shares to the City of Vienna.

The present applicants, legal successors to descendants of a brother of Jeanette P., referred to the statutory succession with regard to their eligibility to file an application and requested the restitution of the seized property shares.

In its juridical appraisal the Arbitration Panel came to the conclusion that the statutory succession to Ida B. had passed over to the descendants of her half brother Herman T., and dismissed the application due to ineligibility to file an application. As the property shares subject of this application had been transferred to the collection agencies, which, with regard to restitution claims, constituted the sole legal successors to aggrieved owners who had been subject to persecution in the National Socialist era, a renewed decision to restitute would already have been precluded from the Arbitration Panel for this reason.  
For use by media; not legally binding upon the Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution.
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