Osen LLC -December 11, 2003
GERMAN FINANCE MINISTRY WITHDRAWS APPEALS BLOCKING RETURN OF HITLER “WHITE HOUSE” – SS BUNKER PROPERTIES
Berlin, Germany (December 11, 2003)-- Heirs of the Wertheim Department Store dynasty converged on Berlin’s Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus for the ceremonies marking the completion of the last building in the German government’s parliament complex. Barbara Principe and other family members were invited guests of Wolfgang Thierse, President of the German Bundestag who addressed the audience of dignitaries and assembled media and welcomed the Wertheim heirs in the audience. “I invited the heirs and claimants to attend to day’s opening ceremony,” Mr. Thierse said, adding that “from the viewpoint of the German Bundestag there are no doubts: the pending restitution procedures will be carried out according to constitutional principles. If the restitution claims are justified, they have to be acknowledged appropriately.”
Earlier in the day, the Wertheim family assembled at the Federal Press Center in Berlin to discuss the German Finance Ministry’s decision to withdraw its appeals blocking the return of one of history's most infamous landmarks, properties that were once part of Hitler's infamous Reich Chancellory. Most of the remaining East German claims of the family continue to be subject to appeals filed by KarstadtQuelle AG, Europe’s largest retailing conglomerate.
In March of 2000, Mrs. Principe and her nephew, Martin Wortham filed a lawsuit in the United Stat es District Court for the Southern District of New York accusing KarstadtQuelle AG of profiting from an ongoing 50 year fraudulent scheme that helped it gain control of the Wertheim department store empire by obtaining shares stolen from the Wertheim family.
The suit claims that KarstadtQuelle’s subsidiary knowingly acquired stolen shares when it purchased a controlling interest in the Wertheim companies in 1951 and that it participated in a scheme intended to conceal both the sale and the true value of the corporate assets from the rightful owners of those shares. The lawsuit has since been conditionally transferred to the District Court of New Jersey where the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case remains pending.
At stake in the dispute are several tracts of vacant land in the center of Berlin worth more than $400 million, including the land being used to build the new Ritz Carlton and Marriott hotels as well as other sites of historical and financial significance.
The Wertheim family’s attorney, Gary M. Osen, welcomed the government’s decision to abandon its legal appeals and thanked Mr. Thierse for inviting the Wertheims to the ceremonies, but Barbara Principe, the 71 year old grandmother who has been the most outspoken of the heirs reminded the assembled media that: "Until Karstadt comes to terms with its legal and moral obligations," she said, "the battle will go on."
