Opposition ODS in Brno wants to return the Tugendhat villa to its original owners

Brno - The opposition councilors of ODS in Brno want the heritage-protected Tugendhat villa, which is now owned by the city, to be returned to the descendants of its original owners. They stated this in their press release. The heirs of the former owners requested the return of the functionalist monument listed on the UNESCO list at the end of December. The opinion of the opposition ODS conflicts with the views of the city coalition. This week, councilors stated that Brno acquired the monument legally and that the family of the original owners has no legal claim to its return.
    The ODS, which wants to return the monument to the family, compared the rejection of this step to aryanization. The term refers to the confiscation of Jewish property in Nazi Germany and in countries occupied by Germany and its transfer into the ownership of so-called Aryans. The Civic Democrats assume that the heirs would make the monument accessible. "It seems that the opposition role has driven them to madness," reacted to the statements of ODS Deputy Mayor Oliver Pospíšil (ČSSD).
    The descendants of the Tugendhat family requested a gratuitous transfer of the villa as a work of art, according to the law on the alleviation of certain property injustices caused by the Holocaust. However, the Brno councilors rejected this, stating that the villa cannot be considered a work of art that entitles a transfer, as previously communicated by city spokesman Pavel Žára.
    "Of course, it is a work of art. The artistic processing is so exceptional that there can be no doubt about it. The law does not stipulate anywhere that a work of art must be movable," responded to the councilors' opinion earlier the family's legal representative Augustin Kouhoutek. The heirs are now waiting for an official response from the city; if it is negative, they are determined to turn to the court, according to Kouhoutek.
    Brno would also rely on a judge's verdict; according to Pospíšila, any potential return is such a serious step and a complicated legal matter that it could not be decided solely by the Brno council.
    The Tugendhat villa has been listed since 2001 as the only Czech building of modern architecture on the UNESCO list. The building in the residential district of Černá Pole was designed in 1928 by the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. According to experts, it is unique in its spatial concept, material selection, and furnishings.
    Its owners, the spouses Gréta and Fritz Tugendhat, came from a family of prominent textile entrepreneurs. They lived in the house until 1938 when the family emigrated to Switzerland and then to Venezuela to escape the Nazis. After the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia, the villa was confiscated by the Gestapo in 1940, and in 1945, it was seized by the then Czechoslovak state as Nazi property.
    According to the Ministry of Culture, the Tugendhat family did not request the property in either 1945 to 1948 or in the 1990s, nor did they seek partial compensation through the Holocaust Victims Foundation. According to ČTK, however, the original owners did inquire about the villa after 1945; the procedure, for which there are records in the Brno archive, was not completed by February 1948.
    The monument is now awaiting necessary extensive reconstruction, but the timing is continually being postponed. Initially, this was due to disputes among architects over who should win the selection process for the designer. The project is now completed, yet the city council has still not selected a construction company and has canceled the originally announced selection procedure.