Restitution in Austria – from the Collection Agencies to the Arbitration Panel

23. October 2017, 7 pm, Jewish Museum Vienna, Dorotheergasse 11, 1010 Wien

2017 marks 60 years since the establishment of the so-called collection agencies. These agencies embodied one of the most comprehensive restitution measures for victims of National Socialism, which Austria had undertaken to implement in accordance with the State Treaty of 1955. By 1969 the collection agencies had laid claim to thousands of confiscated properties, businesses, securities and other assets, the profits from which were used to aid people who had suffered persecution and for collective social purposes. The activities of the collection agencies and their dedicated director, Dr. Georg Weis (pictured), have all but been forgotten today.

The Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution, which must often examine the work of the collection agencies in its decisions, will also be presenting volume 7 of its series “Decisions of the Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution” at the event. As such, the event covers two of the key institutions responsible for implementing Austrian restitution policies after 1945.

Speakers

MMag. Dr. Michael Wladika, law graduate and historian, provenance researcher at the Vienna Museum and the Leopold Museum, author of, among others, “Die Tätigkeiten der Sammelstellen” (Publications of the Austrian Historical Commission, volume 28), Vienna/Munich 2004, with Margot Werner.

Mag. Martin Niklas, historian and staff member of the Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution, author of, among others, “…die schönste Stadt der Welt”. Österreichische Jüdinnen und Juden in Theresienstadt” (Series of the Documentation Centre of the Austrian Resistance on the history of Nazi atrocities, volume 7), Vienna 2009.

Please notify the Jewish Museum Vienna of your intention to attend: Tel.: +43 1 535 04 31-110 oder E-Mail: events@jmw.at.