Press Releases
GERMAN FINANCE MINISTRY REJECTS COMPENSATION FOR HEIRS OF THE DEUTSCHE KABELWERKE SHAREHOLDERS
Oradell, NJ (August 15, 2003)-- After more than a decade of administrative proceedings and three sets of legal decisions by the German Restitution Authority in Berlin and the OFD Berlin, the heirs of Bernhard and Siegfried Hirschmann, the former Chairman and Managing Director of of Deutsche Kabelwerke, were rebuffed in their effort to obtain compensation from the German government.
Despite two prior favorable rulings by the Berlin Restitution Authority, the German Finance Ministry refused to acknowledge its obligation to pay Leonore Zarek, the daughter of the company's co-founder.
"Mrs. Zarek has so far received more restitution from the country villa her father once owned than she has from the vast conglomerate he owned and managed for over thirty years," said her attorney, Max N. Osen. The Berlin Restitution Authority had previously ruled that the Hirschmanns were entitled to a 38% interest in the compensation for the company. Deutsche Kabelwerke's real estate holdings included a block of factory and office buildings in Berlin-Friedrichshain as well as an enormous industrial and office complex in the city of Fuerstenwalde, southeast of Berlin, that was sold to foreign investors in the early 1990's.
"The Finance Ministry's decision is unconscionable and goes against both the facts and existing law," Mr. Osen said, adding that. "Refusing to compensate the Hirschmann family is almost a lawless act and we remain confident that the courts will repudiate this kind of behavior."
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