Decision no. 822/2012

At the time of the assumption of power by the National Socialists in Austria, Martha W. owned several properties in the Viennese municipal districts of Innere Stadt and Alsergrund, as well as in Stammersdorf and Aspern, in Bad Hofgastein (Salzburg) and in Altaussee (Styria). She also owned a one quarter share of another property in Vienna, Aspern.

The widow Martha W.  and her three children were members of the Jewish Religious Community and were considered Jewish according to the Nuremburg Laws of 1935. Martha W. lived in a residential building which was located on her property in Vienna, Innere Stadt.

Martha W. sold a part of her one quarter share of one of her properties in Aspern pursuant to purchase agreements dating from 1936 and 1938. In February 1939 to cover maintenance claims, she transferred her property in Vienna Alsergrund to Ellinor Wa., the divorced wife of her oldest son Walter W.
In March 1939, Martha W. was forced to sell the property in Vienna, Innere Stadt to Richard Sch., and the property in Altausee to Walter T., on which a villa was located that had already been seized by the Gestapo (“Secret State Police”) in 1938.

In April 1939, Martha W. fled to the United States of America with her two younger children. Walter W. had already left Vienna in 1938. In the beginning of 1941, Martha W.’s citizenship was revoked and her entire assets were seized by order of the Gestapo. Pursuant to the Elfte Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz (“Eleventh Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law”) of 25 November 1941 Martha W.’s assets located in Austria at the time were reverted to the German Reich.

From 1946 to 1956 all properties originally belonging to Martha W. which had been reverted to the German Reich or which Martha W. was forced to sell during the NS era were restituted to her.

The Arbitration Panel determined in its legal reasoning that only the property in Aspern which had been under the sole ownership of Martha W. and an approximately ten square meter partial area of a property in Altausee, which for the purpose of road construction had been partitioned off for the benefit of the Province of Styria in 1975, had been publicly owned on 17 January 2001, the cut off day pursuant to the Entschädigungsfondsgesetz (“General Settlement Fund Law”). These properties were seized from Martha W. during the NS era but had been restituted to her in their entirety during the 1940s. The Arbitration Panel rejected the application for restitution of these properties.

All other claimed properties were owned privately on 17 January 2001. As such, the Arbitration Panel rejected the related application for restitution.