Decision no. 553/2009

Application

 

Applicant, Status

Madlen M. D., Dismissal
Magdalena G., Dismissal
Hanna H., Dismissal
Chava K., Dismissal
Chanit R., Dismissal
Alfred W., Dismissal
Daniel Z., Dismissal

Public owner

Stadt Wien

Type of property

immovable

Real estate in

KG Leopoldstadt (01657), Wien, Wien | show on map
KG Pötzleinsdorf (01510), Wien, Wien | show on map
Show all on map

Decision

 

Number

553/2009

Date

22 Apr 2009

Reason

No legal succession

Type

substantive

Decision in anonymous form

Press release

Press Release Decision No. 553/2009

Vienna, Pötzleinsdorf and Leopoldstadt
On 22 April 2009, the Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution dismissed the applications for restitution of properties in Vienna, Pötzleinsdorf and Leopoldstadt due the absence of eligibility to file an application.

In 1938, the requested property in Pötzleinsdorf was under the sole ownership of Leopold F. From 1937 onwards, Leopold F. had been involved in negotiations with the City of Vienna due to the conversion of one of the property parcels into building sites. Pursuant to the Building Regulations for Vienna of 1930, a partial area was also to be transferred into public ownership. The corresponding entry in the land register occurred in April 1938 after the City of Vienna had granted the request of Leopold F.

After the Anschluss, Leopold F. – who was Jewish – committed suicide in August 1939. His heirs, his son Hans F., who had fled to England and his brother Karl F., who had remained in Vienna, sold the property to Erich M. and Erich E. in 1940 for 56,600 Reichsmark.

In 1941, Karl F. was deported to the extermination camp Maly Trostinec and murdered. His heir was his nephew Hans F. Hans F. claimed restitution of the property in 1949. In a settlement concluded in 1950, he waived restitution in exchange for a payment of 31,000 Schilling.

On the cut off day relevant for the Arbitration Panel, 17 January 2001, the property was predominantly privately owned. Only the partial area transferred into public ownership in 1938 remained in the ownership of the City of Vienna.

Seven descendents of the siblings of the husband of Leopold F.’s sister, Helene W., appeared as applicants before the Arbitration Panel. Concerning the settlement concluded in 1950, they asserted “extreme injustice” and assessed the transferral of the partial area into public property of April 1938 as a consequence of National Socialist discrimination.

In its juridical appraisal, the Arbitration Panel first examined whether the applicants were to be considered eligible heirs of Leopold F. Their eligibility was denied. In the end, his son, Hans F., was the sole statutory heir. However, the statutory succession to Hans F. was not able to be established. For this reason the applications for restitution were dismissed.

Furthermore, the examination of the settlement for “extreme injustice” would have been denied the Arbitration Panel on principle due to the absence of public property. Regarding the partial area formerly belonging to Leopold F. and currently owned by the City of Vienna, the Arbitration Panel would have reached the conclusion that the transfer had not constituted a seizure in the meaning of the General Settlement Fund Law as this had occurred in compliance with the application filed in 1937.

With regard to the property located in Leopoldstadt, the applications were also dismissed due to the absence of eligibility to file an application. Helene W. was merely the tenant of an apartment in the house located there. Moreover, the property was not publicly owned on the cut off day 17 January 2001. However, above all even the legal succession of the applicants to Helene W. was not able to be established.

For use by media; not legally binding upon the Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution.
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