A.  Introduction

  With the progressive "accession" of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal German Republic after the reunification in 1990, Germany had to deal with a number of impediments emanating from the attempt to reconcile different political, social and legal models that developed during the forty years of separation between East and West Germany.  Among these was the issue of how the property order in Germany would be influenced by seeking to integrate two such different socio-political and legal systems. As the discussion below indicates, the demands placed by this issue on the courts, legislature and administration of the newly reunified Federal German Republic still cause repercussions.

  One such problem relates to the extent to which the reparation arrangements in West Germany influenced the measures undertaken in East Germany. Refugees who left Germany between 1933 and 1945 were forced to sell their immovable property and could only take a restricted amount of currency out of the country. The persecuted that did not flee only rarely survived the large-scale massacre of so-called "state enemies" during the National Socialist reign of terror that persisted through the end of World War II. In both cases, the victims' land often ended up in the hands of Nazi Party  organisations or members, without any systematic alterations to the land register. The Wiedergutmachung initiative in the German Federal Republic was aimed at providing some kind of reparation for these victims of National Socialism. The Bundesgerichtshof (BGH – Federal Court of Justice) declared on one occasion that these reparation arrangements were compatible with article14of the Basic Law.

  No comprehensive rehabilitation was ever envisaged in the German Democratic Republic for the victims of National Socialism, and in particular no restitution of property, which had been lost as a consequence of persecution in the period between 1933 and 1945, had been undertaken. However, after reunification, it was not...