Application of Confiscatory Agricultural Presidential Decree No. 12/1945 through Example of Confiscation of Manor Farm Estate Velhartice
Abstract
The following study deals with the practical application of confiscatory agricultural Decree No. 12/1945. It deals in particular with the confiscation of aristocrat Josef Windischgrätz' manor farm estate Velhartice.
Several factors combined to work against his attempts to recover the estate - firstly, his natural use of the German language, which figured as the major reason for his inclusion in the mass deportation of Germans. Furthemore he had extensive contacts with other German-speaking noblemen (sometimes even NSDAP party members), he was also related to the family of the infamous general Alfred Windischgrätz and worked for a German company in Hamburg.
Using the direct method of archive document research, mostly documents of an administrative character, this study reconstructs the entire process of confiscation, beginning with the issue of the confiscatory ordinance, continuing with the appeals to the district National Committee and the provincial National Committee, concluding with the negative verdict of the Supreme Administrative Court in Prague and his subsequent forced expulsion from Czechoslovakia. All this in a historical context - primarily in the context of a Czechoslovakia which was heading from one form of totalitarianism to another.