Decision no. 1408/2017

In 1938 the property, which was used for agricultural purposes, and other properties in the cadastral districts Laa and der Thaya, Ungerndorf, Klaftern and Wulzeshofen, were owned by the spouses Moritz and Frieda M., who ran a farm and a business selling regional products.

Following the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich in 1938 the M. spouses fled Austria with their three children Gerda, Kurt and Erika. Frieda M. died when the ship “Patria” was sunk off the coast of Palestine; Gerda M. was murdered in Auschwitz. Moritz, Kurt and Erika survived the Nazi period.

As early as late March 1938 Moritz and Frieda M. had sold one of their properties to the spouses Friedrich and Karola B. from Laa an der Thaya for 27,000 Schilling and used the proceeds to pay off a claim of the Spar- und Vorschusskasse in Laa an der Thaya originating from 1929. In 1941 the trustee for the assets of Moritz and Frieda M. appointed by the Reich Governor in Niederdonau sold a number of further properties to the spouses Friedrich and Karola B. for 4,300 Reichsmark, including the properties subject of the application. The proceeds from the sale were used to satisfy the claims of three private creditors and to pay outstanding corporate tax and sales tax. The balance of the proceeds was forfeited to the German Reich.

In 1948 Moritz M., who returned to Austria after the war, and Kurt M. and Erika, married Bo., filed an application for restitution of the properties sold to the B. spouses as the heirs of their mother Frieda M. In a partial decision of March 1949 the Restitution Commission Vienna ordered Friedrich and Karola B. to restitute the properties.

In December 1949 Moritz M., Kurt M. and Erika Bo. concluded a settlement with the B. spouses in which they waived the restitution of the properties in exchange for a payment of 55,000 Schilling and 3,000 Schilling to cover costs.

The legal successors of the late applicant before the Arbitration Panel requested the in rem restitution of the parts of the properties dealt with in the settlement that had been publicly-owned on the cut off day pursuant to the GSF Law.

Among other things the Arbitration Panel had to examine whether the settlement concluded in 1949 had constituted an “extreme injustice” as set out in the GSF Law. As no discrepancy in value between the value of the property at the time when the settlement was concluded and the settlement sum could be determined, the Arbitration Panel rejected the application.