Supreme restitution court for Berlin
The Supreme Restitution Court for Berlin ( English : Supreme Restitution Court for Berlin ; French : Cour Surprême des Restitutions pour Berlin ) was a special court for the reparation of National Socialist injustices.
history
The court was established by Law No. 25 of the Allied Commandatura on July 1, 1953. It was initially responsible as the highest authority for legal disputes about the restitution of property that had been withdrawn from the victims during the Nazi era in West Berlin for reasons of racial, political or religious discrimination. In 1957 the jurisdiction of the court was extended by the Federal Restitution Act to all restitution claims against the German Reich due to the confiscation of assets abroad.
In addition to the Supreme Restitution Court for Berlin, there was the Supreme Restitution Court based in Herford (later: Munich ) , whose district extended to western Germany.
By 1974, out of a total of 783,393 restitution proceedings, around 7,000 cases were processed at the Supreme Restitution Court for Berlin.
By law of December 17, 1990, on the occasion of the reunification of Germany, the only proceedings still pending before the court were transferred to the Federal Court of Justice and the court annulled.
Status and composition
The court stood outside the German judicial organization and derived its powers from occupation law.
The court consisted of seven members. The President was jointly appointed by the Allied Command and the Berlin Senate . The President was not allowed to be German or a citizen of the three Western Powers. The first president was the Swedish judge Torsten Salén, followed in 1965 by the Swede Ivan Wallenberg. Each city commandant in West Berlin also appointed a judge, three judges were appointed by the Berlin Senate .
The negotiating languages were German, English and French. The court issued its own collection of decisions until 1988 (abbreviation: ObREG Bln .; ORGE is also in use).
building
The court had its seat in the former building of the Yugoslav Legation at Rauchstrasse 17/18 in Berlin-Tiergarten . Part of the building is on land that a Jewish family was forced to sell. In 1964 the ORG itself issued a judgment on the compensation of the former owners. The building is used today by the German Society for Foreign Policy .
Sources and literature
- Eva Balz: Past Politics and Property Politics in the Cold War. The Supreme Restitution Court for Berlin . Berlin 2019.
- Volker Kähne: Courthouse in Berlin. Haude and Spener, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-7759-0318-6 , p. 90 ff.
- Harold P. Romberg: The Supreme Restitution Court for Berlin. In: Friedrich Biella: The Federal Restitution Act . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-406-03666-X , p. 585 ff.
- Transfer of the supreme restitution courts to the BGH. In: Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 1991, p. 1875.