Decision no. 614/2009

In 1938, the property, on which a three-story tenanted building was located, was under the sole ownership of Ernestine F., who was considered a Jew in accordance with the Nuremberg Laws. After she had gone into hiding in Vienna, in February 1943 Ernestine F. was arrested by the Gestapo and, one month later, deported to Auschwitz and murdered. In 1943, her property was confiscated by the Gestapo and transferred into the ownership of the German Reich.

After the end of National Socialist rule, the Republic of Austria initially assumed the administration of the seized property. By the time the deadline for restitution had expired in 1956, no legal successor of Ernestine F. had filed a claim for the property. As a result, the property fell to the collection agencies, established by the Republic of Austria in 1957 for the assertion of as yet unfiled restitution claims. The proceeds raised in the process were used for the benefit of the victims of National Socialism. The transfer of the property was determined by decision of the Financial Directorate for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland in 1959. In 1963, the collection agencies sold the property to the City of Vienna.

The present applicant is a descendant of the uncle of Ernestine F.

In its juridical appraisal, the Arbitration Panel first confirmed the existence of "prior proceedings" pursuant to the Entschädigungsfondsgesetz ("General Settlement Fund Law"), as the collection agencies constitute the sole legal successors, restricted to the assertion of restitution claims, of the owners aggrieved in the National Socialist era. As the property at issue had also de facto been transferred to the collection agencies, the restitution claim was fulfilled in its entirety. As the Arbitration Panel has already repeatedly ruled, it is precluded from granting a renewed restitution.