Decision no. 1162/2016

The original owner of the requested properties, Adolf N. was a partner in a shoe wholesaler. Following the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich in March 1938, he and his wife Emma and his daughters Greta and Gertrude were considered Jewish in accordance with the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. The family fled Vienna to the USA in 1938 and 1938.

Prior to their flight, Adolf N. had had to sell the two properties in Favoriten, on both of which tenanted apartment buildings were situated, in order to be able to pay the Reich Flight Tax. His one third share in the property in Landstraße was forfeited to the German Reich in 1941on grounds of the Elfte Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz (“Eleventh Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law”).

In 1947 Adolf N. filed two claims for restitution of the properties in Favoriten at the Restitution Commission Vienna pursuant to the Drittes Rückstellungsgesetz (“Third Restitution Act”). One property was restituted to him in 1949 the other remained under the ownership of the buyer in exchange for financial compensation.

Also in 1947 Adolf N. filed for restitution of a one third share of the property in Landstraße at the Financial Directorate for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland pursuant to the Erstes Rückstellungsgesetz (“First Restitution Act”). This one third share was restituted to him in 1949.

On 17 January 2001, the cut off day pursuant to the Entschädigungsfondsgesetz (“General Settlement Fund Law”) neither of the properties in Favoriten were under public ownership. The Arbitration Panel had to reject the applications for these properties alone for this reason.

The holdings of the property in Landstraße were owned by the City of Vienna on 17 January 2001. As Adolf N.’s one third share of this property had already been restitutied once, the Arbitration Panel also rejected these applications.