Decision no. 811/2011

In 1938, the requested property, on which a residential and commercial building was situated, belonged to the spouses Therese and Leopold H., each owning half. After the Anschluss, they and their two sons, Friedrich H. and Paul H., were considered Jewish pursuant to the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. Therese H. died in Vienna in January 1939. In Winter 1939, Leopold H. fled to the USA. His two sons had already fled in August 1938 and spring 1939 respectively. The estate of Therese H. was devolved to her two children in January 1941.

The property, which then belonged to Leopold, Friedrich and Paul H., passed into the ownership of the German Reich in November 1941 on the basis of discriminatory National Socialist legal provisions.

In March 1947, the three former owners filed for the restitution of the property at the Financial Directorate for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland. It was restituted in its entirety in April 1948.

After the owners had failed to comply with orders from the building inspection to carry out repairs on the dilapidated and bomb-damaged building, the necessary work was carried out by the City of Vienna. The resulting costs were charged to Leopold, Friedrich and Paul H. From 1952, the property was encumbered with liens in order to secure the City of Vienna’s claims. Subsequently, further liens were also recorded for tax claims of the Republic of Austria. In 1957, upon the request of the City of Vienna, a forced auctioning procedure was commenced and in November 1958 the property was sold at auction to a private person. She sold the property to the City of Vienna in 1960.

The applicant, a nephew of Friedrich H.’s widow Paula H., now asserted that the non-resident owners had not been sufficiently informed by the City of Vienna about the measures undertaken by the building inspection or the related claims and liens. Moreover, the Republic of Austria had, from the proceeds from the sale, been able to successfully assert claims which had resulted from discriminatory tax claims imposed during the National Socialist era. The applicant further claimed that the actions of the City of Vienna and the Republic of Austria after 1945 would warrant the restitution of the property on “grounds of equity”.

The Arbitration Panel reached the conclusion that a renewed restitution of the property could not be recommended as the restitution claim of the aggrieved owner had already been fulfilled in its entirety.