Supreme Court to rule on Walderode family claim to assets worth CZK 3 bn

The Supreme Court is due on Wednesday to announce its ruling on the restitution case of the family of Karel des Fours Walderode, an aristocrat whose property was confiscated after the Second World War under the Beneš decrees.

His widow, Johanna Kammerlander, has since 1992 been fighting to regain control of assets in north Bohemia valued at 3 billion crowns. Walderode was stripped of his assets in 1946 due to his German nationality, but regained Czechoslovak citizenship the next year. After the Communists took power, the restitution process was halted.

The Supreme Court will be ruling on an appeal against decisions by regional courts to return the bulk of Walderode’s estate, which was filed by from the Forests of the Czech Republic, the National Monuments Institute, the City of Turnov and the State Land Office.