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Prussian Trust

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The Prussian Trust, or Prussian Claims Society, (German: Preußische Treuhand GmbH & Co. KGaA) is a corporation registered in Düsseldorf, founded in 2000 as Preußische Treuhand GmbH by some descendants of German expellees, and supported by some officials of the Landsmannschaft Schlesien organization. It seeks to claim compensation from Poland and the Czech Republic, among others, for property confiscated from Germans expelled from territories which after World War II became parts of Poland and Czechoslovakia. The chairman of the supervisory board is Rudi Pawelka, who also is president of the Landsmannschaft Schlesien, and vice president is Hans Günther Parplies, also vice president of the Federation of Expellees. The Trust probably has less than a hundred members.^[1] Rudi Pawelka told the Daily Telegraph that: "Germans held lands and properties in what is now Poland for hundreds of years. They have a deep, inner connection to the region and many want their properties back. Soon we will all be Europeans. Poland's accession to the EU will enable us to take our case to the Strasbourg court for the first time. Poland must not be allowed to discriminate against Germans."^[2] The former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder stated on August 1, 2004 that the German government will not support these claims. Also, the Polish Sejm declared that Poland will demand war reparations from Germany if the German government does not end the press for compensations. Some German politicians stated that the claims were ridiculous and had no legal basis; the corporation's activities have been repudiated by all mainstream German politicians who have addressed the issue, including the president of the Federation of Expellees, Erika Steinbach. In December 2006, the corporation filed 23 individual claims against Poland in the European Court of Human Rights, an action which has been condemned by both the Polish and German governments.^[3] The Polish government decided that the submissions warranted a comment by Anna Fotyga, the Polish Minister of the Foreign Affairs who "express [her] deepest concern upon receiving the information about a claim against Poland submitted by the Prussian Trust to the European Court of Human Rights".^[4]

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Contributory factors to the special quality of relations between Germany and Poland include the former’s unconditional admission of guilt for the Second World War and its renouncement of subsequent material claims for the expulsion of the Germans from what is now Polish territory. Given this situation, there was disquiet in Poland at plans by the League of Expellees in Germany to establish a Centre Against Expulsions and at the complaints submitted by the so-called Prussian Trust to the European Court of Human Rights by expelled Germans demanding the restitution of or compensation for expropriations. ... An expert report jointly commissioned by the two governments from specialists in international law confirmed that the proposed complaints by the Prussian Trust had little hope of success. (The German Federal Foreign Office, January 2007)^[5]

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