61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

«Wiedergutmachung». 14 «Reparations» relates to war and the intergovernmental
level. It concerns the victors’ claim, backed by international law, for payment of
the costs of the war by the losing countries, either in money or in assets. 15 The
term «restitution» is used in different ways. In its narrow, precise sense, it
means a natural restitution, a restitutio in integrum by returning the property (be
it a dwelling, a painting or another object of value). After the First World War
and especially after the Second World War, restitution based on the protection
of private property became an important concept sanctioned by international
law. Unlike reparations, a claim for restitution is based on the existing property
of any persons whose possessions and valuables of all kinds have been «expropriated»,
i.e., taken away, stolen or looted. These are generally referred to as
«transactions under duress».
The London Declaration of 5 January 1943 confined itself to what is known as
«external restitution», i.e., the return of all assets appropriated by representatives
of the Nazi regime in occupied territories. Only later did the Western
Allies begin to focus their attention on «internal restitution», i.e., the property
expropriated within the Reich. 16 The German term «Rückerstattung» was
usually used to describe the return of these assets. In all those many cases where
a restitutio in integrum was not possible, financial recompense had to be paid. In
this case, the question arose as to how compensation should be calculated. Was
the amount of compensation to be derived from the value of an asset or a work
of art when it was expropriated or looted? Or was the relevant market value or
the capitalisation value at the time of restitution to be the deciding factor and,
if so, how was it to be calculated?
Terminology is rarely innocent; it often reflects the contrast between national
and cultural sentiments and sensitivities. French, English and other languages
speak of «restitution» when physical objects (for example, a building or a
painting) are returned to their rightful owner; «reparation» refers to the
compensation of the costs of war or losses of the victors by the defeated, whereby
the reparations may be paid either with money or goods. The term «reparations»
or «compensation» is also used when it is a question of righting an intangible
wrong such as forced labour: the corresponding vocabulary in these
languages is quite clear. In German, by contrast, it becomes more complicated.
The concept of «reparations» was applied by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 to
the huge amount of financial compensation which the victors of the First World
War demanded from Germany as «reparations» for the damage and losses
caused by the war. The word formed a nucleus for German efforts at revenge,
contributing considerable material for nationalist agitation and resulting in the
disastrous consequences of which we are all aware. In the post-war period,
«reparations» was therefore a highly emotionally charged word: German usage
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