Expropriation and compensation

After the Second World War, the Russian forces seized or destroyed many homes belonging to the Prussian aristocracy in Brandenburg, east of Berlin, towards the Polish border.

Schloss Blankensee is one such example. It's a "Herrenhaus" - a Manor House built in 1862, that had always been owned by the same aristocratic family. The family fled the house, however, when Russian troops advanced and it was then used as home for 85 refugees. The Russian administrators intended to blow up the Manor House but fortunately didn't have enough dynamite to carry out their plans. The building was left to fall into disrepair until the collapse of the Communist GDR regime.

The countess, whose family had owned the house, was only one-year-old when she was forced to evacuate the premises. She and her family have now moved back into what they still view as their home. They're making it their goal to restore the house for the generations to come and establish it as an agricultural business.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, various laws have been passed to address the expropriation of property under the GDR regime, such as Article 41 of the Unification Treaty, the "Gesetz zur Regelung offener Vermögensfragen", the law to regulate open property matters. Restitution Rights apply to property which had been taken away during the Nazi's regime between 1933 and 1945 and during the existence of the GDR, from 1949 onwards, as long as certain criterias are met.

Links:

German Property Compensation Law
For the really keen and eager: an essay on property compensation in Germany. In English.