Expropriated land in East Germany will be returned, as a general rule, to its previous owners under a draft agreement signed Friday by the East and West German governments.
Rudolf Seiters, a top aide of Chancellor Helmut Kohl, said the question of property in East Germany is "the one of the most difficult with regard to the German-German division, which personally concerns and affects many people."The document, released in Bonn, states "expropriated landed property will be returned to its former owners or their successors."
But it said the document does not apply to property confiscated by the Soviet Union under post-war occupation rights between 1944 and 1949.
The accord states the Soviet and East German governments "see no possibility of reversing the measures taken at the time." The West German government says in the document that it "takes note of this in consideration of historic developments."
The draft agreement states if property was obtained as a result of "intrigues (e.g. misuse of power, corruption, intimidation or cheating on the side of the acquirer), the acquisition of title cannot be legally protected and is to be reversed."
The clause is likely to be applied to property owned by the formerly ruling Communist party.
The two governments agreed former owners could claim compensation but could not get their former property back in cases where apartment, commercial or public buildings were standing on the expropriated land.
East German Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere said East Germans will remain protected from eviction by existing tenant laws.