The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Lawsuit against the state of Berlin: Adlon heirs want luxury hotel back

2022-06-15T09:04:38.272Z


For years, the heirs of the Adlon Hotel have been trying to get the property back. The state of Berlin rejects this because of the role of the family in National Socialism. A lawsuit is now before the administrative court.


Enlarge image

Adlon at the Brandenburg Gate: »The Nazis have taken control of the hotel«

Photo:

Carsten Koall/dpa

The heirs of the famous Hotel Adlon at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin are fighting for the property in court.

The Administrative Court of Berlin has filed a lawsuit with which they are demanding the retransfer of the property and the hotel in the heart of the capital from the state of Berlin, as a court spokeswoman announced on Tuesday on request.

"Bild" and "BZ" had previously reported.

According to the court, there will probably no longer be a hearing in the case this year.

In essence, it is about the role of the family under National Socialism and the legality of the expropriation of the luxury house.

The dispute goes back to the mid-1990s.

In September 1996, the State Office for the Settlement of Unresolved Property Issues (LROV) had refused a retransfer of the property, according to the Senate Finance Administration.

According to the BZ report, the Soviet Union had put the property on “List 3” of the “Law on the Confiscation of Assets from War Criminals and National Socialists”.

The Adlons were in the NSDAP.

Great-great-grandson wants new insights

From the point of view of the great-great-grandson of hotel builder Louis Adlon, Felix Adlon, there are now new insights into what happened during the Nazi era and the question of whether the family could have defended themselves against being apprehended by the Nazis.

The lawsuit was preceded by extensive research, among other things, his client had access to the files of the tax authorities, said Düsseldorf lawyer Wolfgang Peters of the dpa news agency.

"In the process, we came across many new facts." On this basis, the community of heirs decided to make a new attempt to challenge the expropriation.

According to the tax authorities, the LROV had rejected the application to resume the procedure in February 2020.

The case is now before the administrative court.

Can Nazi property confiscated by the Soviet Union be returned?

“The Nazis took control of the hotel and basked in the Adlon's global reputation,” says Peters.

The Adlons were "in fact expropriated" and thus entitled to compensation, he argued.

At the same time, the case addresses the fundamental question of whether Nazi property confiscated by the former Soviet Union may generally not be returned.

The Federal Constitutional Court had previously affirmed this.

sol/dpa

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2022-06-15

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.