Austrians get 482 hectares of arable land back, Germans get 376

In addition to restitution requests by Serbian citizens, the Agency for Restitution is also processing restitution requests by descendants of ethnic Germans who lived in Serbia and who had their property taken away from them after WW2. A total of 1,157 such requests have been filed by their descendants, now mostly citizens of Austria and Germany.

Austrian citizens have filed 564 requests, whereas German citizens have filed 593 requests.

According to the Agency for Restitution, so far, 75 decisions on the restitution of the property of Austrian citizens have been adopted, pertaining to 13 office spaces, two apartments and three buildings, a total of 18 facilities of 2,440 square meters. The agency also returned 891 sqm of undeveloped building land, 482 hectares of agricultural land and 0.25 hectares of forests and forest land.

Under the Law on Restitution of Property and Compensation, the agency has so far adopted 67 decisions on the restitution of the property of German citizens, namely, 28 office spaces, three apartments and nine buildings, a total of 40 facilities of 2,171 square meters. The agency also returned 187 sqm of undeveloped building land, 376 hectares of agricultural land and 2.1 hectares of forests, the Agronews portal reports.

According to the director of the agency, Strahinja Sekulic, the agency has adopted several dozen decisions rejecting the restitution of property to former members of the occupying forces. Court rehabilitation, Sekulic emphasizes, does not entail the reaching of the decision on restitution, as the motives of rehabilitation and restitution are not the same.

He says that the Agency for Restitution uses the existing documentation from all relevant archives to determine whether the applicants are descendants of those who were members of the occupying forces, Agronews writes.

Agencija za restituciju Republike Srbije

Bezbednosno-informativna agencija- BIA Beograd

Vojska Srbije

restitution of property

restitution request

Law on Restitution of Property and Compensation

Strahinja Sekulic

confiscated property