Decision no. 827/2012

At the time of the National Socialist assumption of power in Austria in 1938, the sole owner of the requested property in Ober St. Veit was Dr. Josef M. Moreover, at this time, Dr. Josef M. had also owned a 3/4 share of a property in Leopoldstadt. Dr. Josef M. belonged to the Jewish Religious Community and, pursuant to the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 he was considered Jewish.

In June 1939, Dr. Josef M. had to sell the property in Ober St. Veit. In October of the same year he fled to New York with his wife. His two daughters made it to England on a Kindertransport and arrived in New York in 1940. The property in Leopoldstadt was forfeited to the German Reich on the basis of the Elfte Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz (“Eleventh Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law”) of 25 November 1941.

In March 1948, both the property in Ober St. Veit and the 3/4 share of the property in Leopoldstadt were restituted to Dr. Josef M.

On 17 January 2001, the cut off day pursuant to the Entschädigungsfondsgesetz (“General Settlement Fund Law”), the property in Leopoldstadt and the majority of the property in Ober St. Veit were privately owned. Only 2 m² of the property originally owned by Dr. Josef M. in Ober St. Veit was owned by the City of Vienna on the cut off day.

In its juridical appraisal, the Arbitration Panel held that the requested properties had been seized during the National Socialist era. As the property in Leopoldstadt and the majority of the property in Ober St. Veit had not been publicly-owned on the cut off day 17 January 2001, the Arbitration Panel rejected the application already for this reason. The application was also rejected regarding the 2 m² of the property in Ober St. Veit which were owned by the City of Vienna on the cut off day and constituted publicly-owned property: like the property in Leopoldstadt, the entire property in Ober St. Veit had been restituted to the aggrieved owner in its entirety in 1948.