What should be done about cultural property confiscated in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the GDR? This legal appraisal commissioned by the Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste (German Lost Art Foundation) enables public institutions and their funding providers to assess the legal position of collection items seized in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the GDR, and identifies legal options for action. Thomas Finkenauer and Jan Thiessen present a compendium classifying 13 case groups along with the historical circumstances of their confiscation and the legal consequences. The report also serves provenance research through this overview, which has not been available in such a form before.

• First legal compendium on the confiscation of cultural property in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the GDR

• Legal analysis and regulatory options for action

• Reference work for provenance research

  Autorentext

  Thomas Finkenauer, Chair of Civil Law, Roman Law and European Private Law, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen; his research focuses not only on civil law as a whole but also on the law of cultural property

  Jan Thiessen, Chair of Civil Law, Contemporary Legal History and History of Economic Law, Humboldt University Berlin; his research in contemporary legal history focuses on judicial history, corporate law, and injustice under dictatorships