Court rules in heiress’s favour

The district court in Semily has confirmed the right of heiress to the Walderode noble family, Johanna Kammerlander, to local property confiscated by the Czech authorities after World War II. Former real estate belonging to the family in the Semily area includes the castle Hrubý Rohožec and surrounding property. During the war the property was owned by the family’s Karl des Fours Walderode who, as an ethnic German, was stripped of it in 1946. A year later he was given back Czechoslovak citizenship but not the confiscated assets. Mrs Kammerlander called Friday’s decision a ‘moral victory’ but estimated that years of legal battles still lay ahead.