Decision no. 1037/2014

Application

 

Applicant, Status

Raimund H., Rejection

Public owner

Republik Österreich

Type of property

immovable

Real estate in

KG Edelbach (24012), Allentsteig, Niederösterreich | show on map
KG Äpfelgschwendt (24001), Göpfritz an der Wild, Niederösterreich | show on map
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Decision

 

Number

1037/2014

Date

14 May 2014

Reason

No persecution as defined by the GSF Law

Type

substantive

Decision in anonymous form

Press release

Press Release Decision No. 1037/2014

Lower Austria, Allentsteig
On 14 May 2014, the Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution rejected an application for in rem restitution of four former properties, the areas of which are situated in the grounds of the Allentsteig military training area. The properties had been purchased by the German Armed Forces during the course of the construction of the Döllersheim military training area. The former owners had not been subjected to political persecution by the National Socialist regime.

On 12 March 1938 the four properties situated in the Municipality of Edelbach were owned by the spouses Maria and Johann H. In July 1938, during the course of the construction of the Döllersheim military training area the German Armed Forces, represented by the German Settlement Society, acquired the properties subject of the application for a total price of 80,000 Reichsmark. Prior to this acquisition, the German Settlement Society had acquired two properties in Styria in order to be able to offer replacement land to those resettled from Döllersheim. In August 1938 the H. spouses entered into the purchase contract and acquired the two properties in the vicinity of Gleisdorf at a price of approx. 32,000 Reichsmark.

With the State Treaty of Vienna, the four properties in Lower Austria passed into the ownership of the Republic of Austria. In 1956 the H. spouses filed an application with the Restitution Commission Vienna for restitution of two of the properties, directed against the Republic of Austria in accordance with the Drittes Rückstellungsgesetz (“Third Restitution Act”). Due to the provisions of the Erstes Staatesvertragsdurchführungsgesetz (“First State Treaty Implementation Act”) the proceedings were resumed at the Financial Directorate for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland. In December 1958 it rejected the application for restitution on the ground that the sale of the property had not occurred on the basis of an improper application of the law. The H. spouses had not been persecuted either.

The applicant, a grandson of Maria and Johann H., requested the Arbitration Panel for the restitution of his grandparents’ four former properties. They had incurred severe damages as a result of being resettled. Additionally, they had not received the entire proceeds from the sale.

In its juridical appraisal, the Arbitration Panel examined whether the grounds of persecution listed in the Entschädigungsfondsgesetz (“General Settlement Fund Law”) had been a decisive factor in the sale of the properties to the German Armed Forces in 1938. The Arbitration Panel reached the conclusion that the construction of the military training area per se did not constitute an act of persecution and the modalities of the purchase of the H. spouses’ properties did not reveal any indications of political persecution. Therefore the application for restitution was rejected.

For use by media; not legally binding upon the Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution.
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