Decision no. 643a/2010

The case concerned 13,664 m² of 73,051 m² of arable land which the Jewish owner Salomon W. had had to sell to the German Air Force in 1941. Around 60,000 m² had already been restituted to two sons of Salomon W. in later restitution proceedings.

The remaining area was now asserted by Salomon W.’s grandchildren in the proceedings before the Arbitration Panel. Of the 13,664 m² requested, in decision no. 643/2010 the Arbitration Panel was able to recommend the restitution of 9,172 m² as it had assessed the waiver made by the sons in 1959 to be extremely unjust.

Today, this area forms part of a 125,000 m² property owned by the Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft. Due to the fact that it is used as a shooting range and the way in which it has been built on, an in rem restitution of the partial area awarded of 9,172 m² is not practicable.

For this reason, pursuant to Sec. 34 of the General Settlement Fund Law, the Arbitration Panel recommended that the current market value be awarded. The Minister for Economics, who exercises the Federation’s ownership rights to the Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft agreed to this. In order to determine the current market value, the Arbitration Panel called on an independent, sworn court expert in the field of real estate valuation. His valuation report formed the basis for the recommended payment of 133,000 Euros.