The year-long settlement negotiations between the state and the Hohenzollern family regarding their restitution claims from the 1990s have finally failed. Now the courts will have to decide. This emerges from a letter from the Brandenburg Ministry of Finance to the Potsdam Administrative Court, about the Berliner daily mirror has reported. According to the report, representatives of the federal government and the states of Berlin and Brandenburg have decided not to continue the negotiations, which have been going on since 2014 and were interrupted in 2019.
Did Crown Prince Wilhelm “considerably encourage” the Nazi system?
The fact that the public authorities are now handing the matter over to the courts is probably due not least to the fact that Claudia Roth, a new Minister of State for Culture, is representing the federal government. Only the Brandenburg Minister of Finance, Katrin Lange (SPD), had campaigned for the continuation of the negotiations until the very end.
The court has to clarify the famous question of whether Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia “considerably encouraged” the Nazi system. Only if it comes to the conclusion that this was not the case could the Hohenzollerns succeed in their demand for compensation of 1.4 million euros and the return of various objects of art.
Proponents of out-of-court negotiations had argued that it was safer Hohenzollern fulfill some of their return requests than risk losing the case and having to return far more. In addition, it was feared that the family could withdraw their numerous loans from museums in Berlin and Potsdam. Supporters of the judicial solution had criticized the negotiations, among other things, for the fact that they were held behind closed doors. In any case, the state’s chances of success in court are very high. However, the process could drag on for at least ten years. Only a small part of the return claims is negotiated in the process. About 80 percent of what the Hohenzollerns are reclaiming is about unclear ownership issues that have to be decided separately.