German reparation policy

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The term German reparation policy summarizes the measures taken by Germany through which those persecuted by National Socialism were materially compensated. It is a partial aspect of the German coming to terms with the past .

Although the term “ reparation ” does not mean that suffering suffered and years of disenfranchisement, deprivation of liberty and damage to health can be compensated and “made good” through the benefits granted, the expression has established itself in the professional world.

Reparation was made in the Federal Republic in the following ways:

  • Refund of property and other assets lost as a result of the suppression measures directly to their former owners or their legal successors (in the case of property without heirs to Jewish organizations)
  • Individual and immediate cash payments to compensate for the damage caused by interfering with life chances such as the loss of freedom, health and professional advancement
  • Special regulations in various areas of law , especially in social insurance
  • Legal rehabilitation primarily in the criminal justice system, but also in cases of injustice such as expatriation or the revocation of academic degrees
  • Global agreement on various compensation payments with states, foundations or organizations of beneficiaries.

In the GDR , reparation payments to the Soviet Union were almost exclusively regarded as reparations . For this reason, the GDR viewed its international obligations after the reparations ended in autumn 1953 as having been settled and refused to negotiate compensation, both with the Warsaw Pact states and, in particular, with Israel . Only victims of Nazi persecution residing in the GDR received benefits.

Measures taken before the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany

Military Law No. 59 (publication in British Zone)

Aid measures for surviving Jews and those persecuted for political and religious reasons soon began, but in the first few years these services were regionally limited and uncoordinated. After all, this group of people was preferred in the procurement of household items, housing and work as well as in the allocation of rationed food .

These early compensation payments also showed disadvantages: the currency reform reduced the value of the installment repayment of the special property tax that had been demanded from the Jews in the Third Reich. Some stateless Jews ( displaced persons ) who wanted to emigrate to the United States of America ceded their claims against an advance payment to German banks.

In addition, the occupying forces from 1947 to 1949 issued a number of laws and regulations for reimbursement of the assets that had been under Nazi rule stolen or lost through "forced sales" (z. B. in the American zone , the military government law no. 59 ).

Legislation of the Federal Republic for the reimbursement of individual claims

Allied laws and ordinances continue to apply

In accordance with Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the Transitional Agreement of May 26, 1952, all laws and ordinances of the occupying powers continued to apply unchanged, in particular the provisions governing compensation payments and the like. Ä. concerned. The requirements of the Allies were also fundamental to all further legislation in the Federal Republic of Germany for the compensation of those persons who had been persecuted for racial, political or religious reasons.

Many Germans considered compensation payments for war widows , displaced persons and bomb victims to be urgent. The integration of those polluted by National Socialism also had to be managed. The public's negative attitude was reinforced by the fact that cases of alleged or actual abuse of compensation payments became known (for example embezzlement by Philipp Auerbach or the controversial payments to Eugen Gerstenmaier ). For tactical reasons, the less popular compensation measures for victims of Nazi persecution were always decided at the same time as laws in favor of one of the other groups.

London Debt Accords

The 1953 London Debt Accord also set other priorities. In it the Allies waived parts of their pre-war debts and the repayment of their economic aid; However, the remaining amount of debt was to be repaid with priority, all other payment obligations of Germany such as reparations were postponed until the conclusion of a peace treaty.

Supplementary laws in 1953

The first attempts to standardize and optimize the application of the provisions applicable under the transition agreement were made in 1953 at the end of the first legislative period.

On August 3, 1953, the Bundestag passed the “Law on the Reparation of National Socialist Injustice in the Provision of War Victims for Persons Abroad”.

In addition, the Federal Supplementary Act (BErG) of October 1, 1953 was passed. It met a nationwide regulation for the compensation of the losses suffered in life, body and health, freedom, property and assets. However, only German nationals were eligible to apply; they also had to have their place of residence in West Germany. In the law, the amount of compensation was set at five marks per day “imprisonment” spent in a concentration camp, ghetto or prison.

Federal Compensation Act of June 29, 1956

A more generously designed Federal Compensation Act (BEG) of June 29, 1956 expanded the group of persons and included further facts, but still excluded many claims from persons residing abroad. Soviet prisoners of war, forced laborers , prominent communists , Roma , Sinti , Yeniche , victims of euthanasia , forced sterilization , those persecuted as “asocial” and homosexuals were not considered.

Closing line: Amendment of the Federal Compensation Act of 1965

The amendment of the Federal Compensation Act of 1965 was expressly intended to restore "national honor" and to put a "dignified line". It contained numerous improvements, extensions of deadlines and exceptions for hardship cases. In the run-up to this, there were clashes between the government ( cabinet Erhard I ) and the opposition, as those persecuted outside the 1937 borders were still excluded. The Jewish Claims Conference managed to include the Eastern European Jews who had emigrated to Israel since 1953 , which affected almost 1,000 people.

After 1965 the question of compensation was considered settled by the following federal governments (e.g. the first grand coalition, the Kiesinger cabinet ). Payments to Yugoslavia and Poland were not related to individual compensation; some hardship regulations were reissued.

Up until 1965 there were 28 Bundestag committees , including the following four: reparation, burden sharing, questions about war victims and returning home as well as displaced persons. In November 1965, President of the Bundestag Eugen Gerstenmaier suggested that the number of committees be significantly reduced.

Developments since 1980

It was not until the 1980s that there was a dispute about reparation, a term that has now been contested as being trivialized . The disadvantaged minorities of the Sinti and Roma and the homosexuals , the victims of forced sterilization, deserters of the armed forces and forced laborers were now perceived as victims of National Socialism. Although the parliament made funds available to equip a further hardship fund, the compensation of the forced laborers was left out. There was no collective redress for homosexuals either.

Since 1998, numerous class action lawsuits seeking compensation for forced laborers have been filed in the United States . The uncertain outcome of such lawsuits, but also the resulting political discussion, led to the foundation of the Remembrance, Responsibility and Future Foundation in 2000 . This is to pay out the capital of 10 billion DM , which was raised in equal parts by industry and the federal government, to former forced laborers in five Eastern European countries, Israel and the USA. The precondition for this commitment was the complete withdrawal of the lawsuits.

Property and property refunds

Between 1947 and 1949, the occupying powers enacted various laws to restore property that had been lost as a result of persecution under Nazi rule. There were differences, in particular, in the treatment of assets without heirs. The Soviet Union wanted to keep this as compensation for victims of Nazi persecution and for reparations payments, the USA intended to hand them over to Jewish organizations abroad. The British, on the other hand, feared that this money would then flow into Palestine , which is under a British mandate , and that this would accelerate the independence and establishment of the State of Israel , which was sought in particular by Holocaust survivors. In the end, the US line established in 1947 in Military Government Act No. 59 prevailed in the three western zones .

The refund was fraught with conflict. If the facts of the "forced sale" existed, property acquired by Jews - in particular land and businesses - had to be reimbursed even if they were otherwise "acquired in good faith". In addition, the reversal of the purchase contracts because of the devaluation that had occurred since the war ( currency reform in 1948 ) practically led to an almost compensation-free expropriation of the buyer. The return of real estate was essentially complete by 1957. 44% of applicants lived in the US; In times of the Cold War, injured parties from the Eastern Bloc did not get a chance, especially because the restitution was limited to assets that were in the Federal Republic and West Berlin.

In the Federal Restitution Act (BRüG) passed in 1957, the Federal Republic of Germany undertook to pay compensation for assets that had been stolen and no longer found. However, the prerequisite was that these items had reached the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany. For example, an applicant not only had to make the value of the stolen jewelry credible, but also had to prove that it had been brought into West German territory. There were numerous lawsuits and the amount of compensation paid out remained comparatively small.

Global compensation payments from the Federal Republic

After tough negotiations, against great resistance also in his own political camp and under considerable foreign policy pressure, Konrad Adenauer signed the Luxembourg Agreement on September 10, 1952 , in which goods worth DM 3.0 billion were delivered to Israel and the payment of DM 450 million the Jewish Claims Conference were agreed. The Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany was founded in 1951 to represent 52 Jewish organizations in Western countries. The payments, which sparked controversy and public protests in Israel, were seen by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion as vital. Among other things, they were also needed for the integration of new immigrants from Europe.

The Jewish Claims Conference also repeatedly advocated the interests of the victims. In the years 1957 to 1962 the IG Farben , Krupp, AEG, Siemens and Rheinmetall saw themselves induced by the pressure of public opinion in the USA to compensate their Jewish forced laborers.

Bilateral global treaties with other countries

Reparation agreement with Denmark - exchange of instruments of ratification in 1960

Between 1959 and 1964, the Federal Republic of Germany concluded so-called "global agreements" with twelve Western European governments:

Global Agreement of the Federal Republic
Country Conclusion of contract Amount in million DM
Luxembourg July 11, 1959 18th
Norway 7th August 1959 60
Denmark August 24, 1959 16
Greece March 18, 1960 115
Netherlands April 8, 1960 125
France July 15, 1960 400
Belgium September 28, 1960 80
Italy June 2, 1961 40
Switzerland June 29, 1961 10
Austria November 27, 1961 95
Great Britain June 9, 1964 11
Sweden 3rd August 1964 1
Total: 971

Germany left the distribution of the funds to the recipient states. Forced laborers and resistance fighters received nothing. In the breakdown of the payments to individual countries, which was expressly described as voluntary while maintaining the legal position, the German government took into account the varying degrees of pressure of public opinion in these countries and the hoped-for foreign policy impact.

The German-Greek treaty of March 18, 1960, on the basis of which Germany 115 million D-Marks (today's purchasing power: 458.5 million euros ) for distribution to “for reasons of race, belief or the Weltanschauung nationals affected by National Socialist persecution, who suffered damage to their liberty or health as a result of these persecution measures, as well as in particular in favor of the surviving dependents of those who perished as a result of these persecution measures ”. In an exchange of letters between the signatories of the contract on the same day, it was stated that "all the questions forming the subject of this contract in the relationship between the Federal Republic of Germany and (the other state) have been finally settled", i. H. In return, Greece waived further claims for compensation for the victims of National Socialist persecution.

The agreement of October 9, 1975 between the Federal Republic of Germany and the People's Republic of Poland on pension and accident insurance obliged the German social security system to pay Poland 1.3 billion DM. Mutual claims should thus be balanced across the board. In any case, one purpose of these payments was to settle the pension claims of Polish slave laborers from whom insurance contributions had been deducted during the war. After German reunification , global agreements were concluded with Poland (1991) and in 1993 with the successor states of the Soviet Union ( Russian Federation , Ukraine and Belarus ), as well as agreements with the three Baltic states (1995) and the German-Czech future fund in 1998.

German Democratic Republic

Rejection of redress requests

According to GDR history , the Nazis' takeover of power was caused by the "machinations of the monopoly capitalists" and the "working class of the German people was abused". This had a debt-relieving effect on the GDR population. The GDR refused to negotiate compensation, both with the Warsaw Pact states and, in particular, with Israel and the Jewish Claims Conference .

In contrast to Western compensation, there were - with a few exceptions - no property or real estate reimbursements. The SED politician Paul Merker was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Supreme Court of the GDR in March 1955 because he had spoken out in favor of compensation payments to Holocaust survivors and the restitution of " Aryanised " property.

The demands for reparation from the "fascist aggressor" described state of Israel were rejected. The GDR was also unwilling to return Jewish real estate and assets without heirs. With reference to the extensive reparations payments to the USSR , referred to in parlance as reparation , all further claims were rejected. These were put forward again after reunification and partially fulfilled by the Federal Republic of Germany.

Pensions for victims of Nazi persecution

Only victims of Nazi persecution who lived in the GDR were considered for benefits. Those persecuted by the Nazi regime and their surviving dependents received start-up assistance and additional social welfare benefits, and from 1973 also preferred medical care. You could claim the old-age pension five years earlier; their children were given preference in the allocation of university places. A distinction was made between the " persecuted by the Nazi regime " and the financially better off persecuted communists, the " fighters against fascism ". In 1966, with an average general retirement pension of 164 marks, the " honorary pension " was 600 marks and 800 marks, respectively.

After the end of the SED dictatorship

After the constitution of the last and only democratically elected People's Chamber in the GDR, it distanced itself on April 12, 1990 from the UN's Zionism resolution of November 10, 1975, which the GDR had approved at the time. With a majority of the Arab and socialist countries, Zionism had been condemned as "a form of racism". Furthermore, in a declaration, the People's Chamber acknowledged its shared responsibility for the Holocaust, asked for forgiveness for the hostility of the GDR policy towards Israel and regretted the anti-Semitism in the GDR :

“We ask forgiveness from Jews around the world. We ask the people of Israel for their forgiveness for the hypocrisy and hostility of the official GDR policy towards the State of Israel and for the persecution and degradation of Jewish citizens in our country even after 1945. "

A few weeks before reunification, the two German states concluded the "Agreement on the Implementation and Interpretation of the Unification Treaty". Article 2 reads:

“The contracting parties express their intention to advocate fair compensation for material losses suffered by the victims of the Nazi regime in accordance with the resolution of the People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic of April 14, 1990. In the continuity of the policy of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Federal Government is ready to make agreements with the Claims Conference on an additional fund solution in order to provide hardship payments to those persecuted who have so far received little or no compensation according to the statutory provisions of the Federal Republic of Germany. "

Reparation in the accession area after reunification

During the Kohl reign, with the Article 2 Agreement, Germany took over the historical inheritance that the GDR had rejected vis-à-vis the Claims Conference and began the return of Jewish property in the new federal states. Legal basis for restitution of assets or compensation to NS Following the Accession area are § 1. 6 Property Act (Act for regulating open property issues ), and the NS-VEntschG (NS-tracked compensation law). To the extent that it was not private individuals (above all owners of former Jewish property) but government agencies that had to pay compensation, they were borne by the public budgets of reunified Germany. On November 4, 2013, the Federal Government informed the German Bundestag about the amount of reparation payments to Jewish victims up to June 30, 2013. After that, the Jewish Claims Conference received approx. 727 million euros (as well as around 251 million euros on a different legal basis), almost 3 billion euros in ongoing subsidies, bridging payments of approx. 110 million euros, institutional funding in the three-digit million euro range and reimbursement of administrative costs.

total

The total amount of all compensation payments by the public sector amounted to 74.513 billion euros by the end of 2016, it includes payments according to the BEG, the BRüG, the ERG, the compensation law for victims of the Nazi persecution, the Israel Treaty, global contracts, public service services, for the Wapniarka aid organization , Fund for human experimentation victims, services provided by the federal states outside the BEG, various hardship regulations and services to the Remembrance, Responsibility and Future Foundation . The number is the sum of payments made at different times; the very different purchasing power in each case is not taken into account.

Others

Some groups of victims did not receive any compensation or reparation payments. The psychiatrist Werner Villinger (1887–1961), an expert on the reparation committee of the German Bundestag in 1961 , coined the term “compensation neurosis”. Therefore, those forcibly sterilized during the Nazi dictatorship - around 400,000 people - fell out of the Federal Compensation Act. The situation only changed in the 1980s: since 1980, those who have been forcibly sterilized have been able to apply for a one-off payment of DM 5000 and, since 1988, monthly pensions (today 291 euros) as hardship benefits.

See also

literature

Movie

  • The wrong word - the persecution and extermination of Sinti and Roma during the Nazi era and the “reparation” in Germany after 1945. Documentary by Melanie Spitta and Katrin Seybold , 1987, 85 min.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See for example BVerfG 54, 53, para. 51 f.
  2. ↑ See Hans Günter Hockerts : reparation in Germany 1945–1990. An overview. In: Federal Center for Political Education (Ed.): From Politics and Contemporary History , 63rd year, 25–26 / 2013, pp. 15–22 (16).
  3. ^ A b c d e f g Hans Günter Hockerts : reparation in Germany 1945–1990. An overview.
  4. ↑ Law on the reparation of National Socialist injustices in the provision of war victims for those entitled abroad , Federal Law Gazette of 10 August 1953.
  5. ↑ Robert Probst: Adenauer's symbolic reparation. Article in Süddeutsche Zeitung from April 11, 2009
  6. ↑ Cf. Wolfgang Ayaß : The homeless persecuted under National Socialism have so far been refused any compensation . Expert opinion on the hearing of the Interior Committee of the Bundestag on June 24, 1987 to compensate all victims of National Socialism , published in: German Bundestag, 11th electoral term, Interior Committee, Stenographic Protocol of the 7th Meeting of the Interior Committee, Annex 6, pp. 283-291 in: Contributions to National Socialist Health and Social Policy , Vol. 5, Berlin 1987, pp. 159–163.
  7. ↑ Hakohen, Devorah: Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Immigration to Israel and Its Repercussions in the 1950s and After. Syracuse University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-8156-2969-9 , p. 267 .
  8. ^ Origin and further development of reparation and consequences of war regulations in Germany ( Memento of November 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), pdf, Federal Ministry of Finance, accessed November 22, 2016, p. 36
  9. ↑ Foreign Office: Compensation for Nazi injustice
  10. ^ Memorandum on the agreement, printed in Bundestag printed paper 7/4310.
  11. ^ Hans Günter Hockerts: Reparation in Germany 1945–1990. An overview. In: Federal Center for Political Education (Ed.): From Politics and Contemporary History. 63rd vol., 25-26 / 2013, pp. 15-22 (21).
  12. ^ Peter Reichel : Coming to terms with the past in Germany. Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-45956-0 , p. 14.
  13. ↑ Hans Pötter: Return of identifiable assets to Jewish beneficiaries in accordance with Section 1, Paragraph 6 of the Property Act and compensation based on the Nazi Compensation for Persecuted Persons Act, taking into account previous benefits under the Federal Compensation Act (BEG). Journal for Open Property Issues , 1995, p. 415 ff.
  14. ^ People's Chamber of the GDR, 10th electoral period, 27th session of July 22, 1990, p. 1280ff. and printed matter 10/169
  15. ↑ Quoted from Peter Reichel: Coping with the Past , ISBN 3-406-45956-0 , p. 16 / Original: Deutschland Archiv 23 (1990) No. 5, p. 794.
  16. ^ Agreement between the FRG and the GDR on the Unification Treaty of August 31, 1990, September 18, 1990 Federal Law Gazette II p. 1239. Press and Information Office of the Federal Government, Bulletin No. 112, September 20, 1990, pp. 1177–1184, accessed on September 24, 2016.
  17. ↑ http://www.claimscon.de/unsere-taetigkeit/individuelle-entschaedigungsprogramme/entschaedigungsprogramme-erfahren-sie-mehr/artikel-2-fonds.html
  18. ↑ Bundestag printed paper 18/30 (PDF; 254 kB)
  19. ↑ Federal Ministry of Finance: Public Sector Services in the Field of Reparation ( Memento of December 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), as of December 31, 2016 ( PDF ; 60 kB).
  20. ↑ Wave of Truths , Spiegel Online , January 2, 2012.
  21. ↑ GeN ( Memento of 13 December 2016 Internet Archive ). Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  22. ↑ h-net.org: Review by Jürgen Lillteicher
  23. ↑ Britta-Marie Schenk: Review of: Tümmers, Henning: Acknowledgment fights. The post-history of the National Socialist forced sterilizations in the Federal Republic. Göttingen 2011 , in: H-Soz-u-Kult , January 4, 2012
  24. ^ The wrong word (1987) , IMDb entry