Germany Enacts New Measure to Benefit Property Claimants

The German government has enacted new Legislation benefitting persons reclaiming property in the former East Germany, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany has announced.

The new measure, which will go into effect Dec. 1, will affect property that was confiscated or forcibly sold by the Nazis, or nationalized by the Soviet military government that was in place following World War II or by the East German Communist regime that succeeded the Soviets.

The legislation, known as the German Law for Compensation in Lieu of Restitution, is intended to compensate with funds those who had filed claims for property by June 30, 1993, under an earlier law, known as the German Property Restitution Law, according to Saul Kagan, executive director of the Claims Conference.

The legislation benefits persons, or their heirs, who lost real estate, business enterprises and other assets which cannot be recovered in kind because their restitution is impossible at this time. It also affects persons who elect compensation rather than restitution in kind.

The new measure, passed last month, follows two years of intensive negotiations with the German government, and contains “substantial improvements” over a draft proposal that had raised hackles among claimants and Jewish groups, according to Israel Miller, president of the Claims Conference.

The legislation has omitted a 25 percent levy on the restitution that originally had been proposed.

According to Kagan, “Thousands and thousands of Jewish owners and their heirs filed claims.” He said the benefits will be extended to “individuals living anywhere, without geographic limitations.”

If the individual has died, or the property to Jewish organizations or communities dissolved by the Nazis, the law names the Claims Conference as the successor organization.

The money will come from German government funds.