Decision no. 1105/2014

In 1938, the requested property was under the sole ownership of Hermann H., who was considered Jewish in accordance with the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. In 1938 a residential building was situated on the property in which the original owner ran a general store.

On 31 October 1938, Hermann H. concluded an authorization and trusteeship contract with the Ostmärkischen Revisions- und Treuhand-Gesellschaft m.b.H. for the administration and liquidation of his assets. On 20/28 November 1940 the mentioned company sold the property to the Municipality of Stockerau for 37,000 Reichsmark. The purchase price had to be transferred into a frozen account.

On 19 October 1941, Hermann H. and his wife Adelina H were deported to the Lodz Ghetto, where they perished. The spouses had two children: Erwin H. fled to Palestine in 1938; Erna B. to Great Britain in 1939.

On 9 December 1948, Erwin H. and Erna B. waived the restitution of the property in exchange for a payment of 55,000 Schilling. On 17 January 2001 the property continued to be owned by the Municipality of Stockerau.

The Arbitration Panel’s judicial appraisal mainly focused on the question whether the settlement of 1948 was to be assessed as “extremely unjust”. Despite determining a discrepancy in value between the settlement sum and the value of the property, no indications existed, however, that the freedom of contract of Erwin H. and Erna B. had been limited during the settlement negotiations. Therefore, the Arbitration Panel did not qualify the settlement as “extremely unjust” in accordance with the GSF Law and rejected the application.