The court will deal with the claims of the Liechtensteins to real estate in South Moravia

Brno - The Appellate Regional Court in Brno will today address the lawsuit brought by the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation against state institutions. The Foundation seeks the return of property that it claims is being unlawfully used by the Czech state, as well as compensation for damages. This includes, for example, the castles of Lednice and Valtice. The District Court in Břeclav dismissed the lawsuit last February as groundless. The Liechtenstein princely family claims that the Czech state unlawfully confiscated its property based on Beneš decrees after 1945.

The Foundation filed lawsuits in nearly thirty Czech district courts at the end of 2018, and the Břeclav court was one of them. In the lawsuits, the Foundation points out that the last holder of the family properties in Czech territory, Franz Joseph II, was not a citizen of Germany but of neutral Liechtenstein, moreover, he was the head of a sovereign state. Therefore, according to the Foundation, the confiscation of property was unlawful. However, Liechtenstein Prince Franz Joseph II allegedly declared his German nationality to the administrative authority in the 1930s, and thus his property fell to the state after World War II based on the Beneš decrees.

The Břeclav court ruled on the matter on February 11 last year, dismissing the lawsuit as groundless. According to spokesperson Klára Belková of the regional court, in addition to the Foundation, three defendants also appealed: the State Land Office, the Railway Administration, and Czech Post. Among the 14 state institutions that faced the lawsuit in Břeclav were, for example, Lesy ČR, the National Heritage Institute, the Morava River Basin Authority, and the Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the Czech Republic.

District courts are deciding on the Foundation's lawsuits at different paces. According to available information, the Liechtensteins have not yet succeeded with any of these lawsuits. Not even subsequently at the Constitutional Court, which, for example, dismissed the Liechtensteins' complaint in May of this year regarding real estate in the Kolín area, which is now held by forestry and water management enterprises and other state entities.