Restitution of publicly owned properties

The first seven decisions of the Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution are now available as volume 1 of a new bilingual series.

In rem restitution of publicly owned properties is among the more recent Austrian measures dealing with the consequences of the National Socialist era. The Arbitration Panel for In Rem Retitution, established with the General Settlement Fund in Vienna, decides on the applications for restitution. The Arbitration Panel began its work in October 2001 and by June 2008 had decided on a total of 608 applications. Until now, property assets with an estimated total value of 30 million Euro were able to be restituted through the decisions of the Arbitration Panel.

The Arbitration Panel has developed a case law in accordance with the instructions of the General Settlement Fund Law, which exemplarily presents the consequences of National Socialism in Austria regarding the law of property. The decisions of the Arbitration Panel form a part of the current debate about property seizures during the National Socialist period and restitution practices after 1945.

The decisions as a book

The decisions of the Arbitration Panel will be – beginning in the year of remembrance 2008 – published in a bilingual series by the Facultas publishing house. Volume 1 contains the first seven decisions from the years 2003 and 2004, including the first recommendation for the restitution of a property owned by the Republic of Austria as well as the decisions on the applications of the Habsburg family. The publication of the Arbitration Panel decisions in the German and English languages documents an element of more recent compensatory policies and illuminates an important part of the current restitution judicature. By means of specific cases, the texts of the decisions offer an insight into the historic and legal complexities of the compensatory measures for the victims of National Socialism.

Contact for inquiries as well as material and contact with the publishers:

Sigrid Winter, facultas. WUV Verlag
Tel. +43 (0) 1-310 53 56-26, winter@facultas.at
Jürgen Schremser, General Settlement Fund
Tel. +43 (0) 1-408 12 63, presse@nationalfonds.org