The Constitutional Court rejected the complaint of the German Order, the land at Bouzov remains with the state

Brno – Not only the Bouzov Castle, but also nine adjacent plots will remain with the Czech state. The Constitutional Court (ÚS) today denied the complaint of the Czech Province of the Order of Brothers of the House of the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem (the so-called Teutonic Order), which seeks the return of property confiscated by the Nazis at the beginning of World War II and then seized by the Czechoslovak state as Nazi property. According to the ÚS, there is a decisive date for restitution claims established by the law from 2012, which is February 25, 1948. Czechoslovakia officially took possession of the order's property on May 1, 1947.

According to the reporting judge Ludvík David, while the order should have a claim to the property based on historical justice, the ÚS must adhere to Czech restitution justice. Four years ago, the order also unsuccessfully ended a dispute at the ÚS regarding the return of the castle. According to David, the judicial panel could now only rely on the then-position, but the situation is more complex and there was still more to say. At that time, the courts stated that the order did not assert its post-war restitution claim and can no longer do so. "Which would mean that had the claim been asserted back then, it could now be made," explained David.

Nazis confiscated Bouzov and the surrounding lands from the predecessors of today’s order after the occupation in 1939. Based on Beneš decrees, the state acquired this property as Nazi property on May 1, 1947. Because this date precedes the communist takeover in Czechoslovakia, the order lacks a restitution claim. "We cannot go against the framework of Czech restitutions and break them temporally. We would be saying that everyone who could have restituted after World War II can now make claims in today's restitutions," said David. His opinion was shared by the chairman of the judicial panel, Tomáš Lichovník.

The dissenting opinion presented by Ludvík David was held by David Uhlíř. The situation after the war was unclear, and various legal and physical entities found themselves in the order’s situation, having their property taken by the Nazis. They could seek restitution based on the 1946 restitution law, but these restitutions dragged on, and after the communist takeover, they completely stopped, leaving many awaiting the return of pre-war property. Post-war restitutions were further delayed because in 1946, the Ministry of Interior was taken over by communists who were not interested in returning property. Uhlíř pointed out that justice could not be served after the war.

"I believe that the frequency of similar complaints will diminish after this decision," said David, whose term as a constitutional judge ends in a few weeks.