Kinsky, who lives in Argentina, has filed over 150 lawsuits totaling more than EUR 160 million against the Czech State so far, which have been met with mixed results, claiming claim substantial political interference in the courts. In the past few years he has also legally pursued claims on landmarks like Kinsky Palace in the historic Old Town Square in Prague and even won five cases, including land in the Village of Cankovice. Meanwhile, von Pezold, the adopted sister of Czech aristocrat Karel Schwarzenberg, is fighting several lawsuits of her own. One claim is on the Cesky Krumlov Castle, a popular tourist destination in the Czech Republic estimated to be worth some EUR 1.2 billion.

Czech Culture Minister Pavel Dostal, meanwhile, would like nothing better than to put these cases to rest, if only to stop the flood of property restitution claims that cost the Czech government billions of crowns and damage the country’s international image.

In mid-May this year, the most vocal of claimants, Frantisek Oldrich Kinsky, lost his dispute with the Czech Village of Prysk concerning 4,500 square meters of mostly meadowed wetlands. The judge determined him to be an ethnic German, and denied him restitution, citing the Benes Decrees, penned in 1945-46.

The Benes Decrees

The decrees, named after then-President Edvard Benes, stripped citizenship and property rights of ethnic Germans associated with Nazi-Germany. Those of German or Hungarian ethnicity were to be expelled from Czechoslovakia and their property seized, forbidding any type of restitution. This setback is coupled with another lawsuit Kinsky lost earlier this year for the historic Kinsky Palace, in Prague's Old Town Square. But the cases are far from over. In both suits, Kinsky’s lawyer, Jaroslav Capek, argued that the property was unjustly stripped from Kinsky because the government was confused over who owned the land, and was even unaware of his nationality. Kinsky’s father was an alleged Nazi collaborator, but his grandfather, a duke of the same name, gave the property to his grandson, when young Frantisek Kinsky was only nine years old.

LAWFUL OWNER? Czech Elisabeth von Pezold is suing the Czech State claiming that the famed Cesky Krumlov Castle rightfully belongs to her. The popular tourist destination is valued at around EUR 1.2 billion.

Ethnicity further confuses the case, as Frantisek Kinsky is technically a full-fledged German citizen. Both his parents were German nationals, which, according to a law signed by Czechoslovakia and Nazi Germany in Munich, October 1938, made him German. He was born, however, in 1936 into nobility in Czechoslovakia, a fact that helped him get full Czech citizenship in 2001.

These cases sparked national interest and they touch on the very sensitive issue of restitution in the Czech Republic. David Uhlir, a Prague-based lawyer who handles such suits, says they are a politically sensitive matter.

"When the Social Democratic government found out an aristocrat living in Buenos Aires wanted to have the palace where the Czech National Gallery is housed, it was quite understandably a very touchy matter," says Uhlir.

Uhlir explains that since the end of World War II, Czechoslovakia had two waves of nationalization of assets. The first took place under the Benes Decrees, which nationalized property from Germans, Hungarians (living in what is now Slovakia), banks, mines and other industries. Subsequently, in 1948, when communists took power, they nationalized what was left.

"Quite vast sums of properties have been returned to aristocrats," says Uhlir, who alsohandles Kinsky’s cases in his law firm. Some notable victories include the Mensdorff- Pouilly family, who got their Moravian property back after 1989, including the Boskovice Chateau, and Kristina Colloredo- Mansfeld who was given back 20 buildings and the Opocno Castle last year. Reports from the Prague Post say l5 East Bohemian castles have been handed back to their original owners.

Uhlir says Czech Culture Minister Dostal and others often confuse Sudeten, or ethnic Germans who lived in Czechoslovakia, with aristocrats for a simple reason: "Many aristocrats are themselves German."

Sudeten was a term used for ethnic Germans who lived in various parts of Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. The culture minister, meanwhile, maintains that Kinsky and the von Pezold families have no case. "According to Czech legislation, the Czech nobility does not exist," he told the Czech newswire CTK.

Interference in the courts?

In July 2003, Dostal asked the Constitutional Court to find a common approach for lower courts to decide restitution of property that was seized prior to the 1948 communist takeover. Later, the Czech parliament approved legislation to give free legal service to villages fighting restitution claims. This bit of political interference in the courts lead to outrage from Kinsky’s lawyer, as well as criticism from the press and even governments abroad.

"This country does not respect the basic principles of justice that are the norm in other European nations," Capek said after one of the verdicts.

In further comments, Dostal echoed the overall position of the Czech state, which refuses to recognize any property claims that might contravene the Benes Decrees, "These people collaborated with the Nazis, so you can understand why we don't want to negotiate with them," Dostal said. Confusingly, neither Kinsky nor von Pezold are Sudeten Germans, so the conditions of the Benes Decree would seemingly not apply to them. However, Dostal’s hardline stance and his confusion over the claims of former aristocrats with that of Sudeten Germans are believed to be a calculated mistake. Even Czech Deputy Prime Minister Petr Mares has publicly criticized Dostal and others in the government about their knowledge of restitution cases.

Restitution is a complex political issue that resonates both at home and extends far beyond the borders of Czech Republic. Some estimates peg restitution claims to total billions of euros. Other than the money at stake, the Sudeten-Germans have also caused more than a few rows in the European Parliament. Earlier, they had threatened the Czech Republic’s accession to the EU and even strained ties with neighboring countries like Germany and Austria.

Dostal tried to snuff the flames by saying the decision on the Kinsky case effectively extinguished the Benes Decree, however, it is still a law enforced in the Czech cours despite being considered by many foreign politicians as a human rights abuse.

The Sudeten question

Adolf Hitler had initially provoked the nationalist sentiments of the German-speaking, Sudetendeutche, who lived in Czechoslovakia near the borders with Germany, in what was called Sudetenland. In his campaign to "repatriate the Reich," in the 1930s, Nazi Germany used the Sudeten German question as a reason to invade and occupy parts of Czechoslovakia. When World War II ended in 1945, it left behind an indelible mark on European society. The systematic destruction of the then- Czechoslovakian Village of Lidice and concentration camp at Terezin were just some of the horrors Europe was forced to wake up to. However, in the post-war period, the Czech government - then-exiled in Britain - wrote the Benes Decrees to handle the political transition from the foreign German power.

Between 1945-1946, the Benes Decrees were written by former Czechoslovak President Eduard Benes during his exile in Britain during the war. After their inception came what many claim to have been a brutal expulsion of 2.5 million Germans living inside Czechoslovakian borders. In many cases, people were forced to march over the border to Germany, many were beaten, raped and even killed.

The Benes Decrees legislated immunity for Czechs who committed crimes against Germans during the early post-war period. One of the most controversial parts of the decrees dictated that ethnic Germans would not be granted compensation for land and property that they were forced to leave behind.

Hitler had instrumentalized the Sudeten nationalist sentiment to legitimize the takeover of Czechoslovakia. In the years after the war, however, the tables turned on the Sudetendeutche. There was violence against ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia, in what many claim as retribution for winners of the war.

Czech historians like Karel Jech claimed the decrees were justified by Czechs at the time and were crafted to restore order to Czechoslovakia after the handover of power. Jech rejects allegations that the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans was a punishment for their “collective guilt“ in wartime atrocities committed against the Czechs.

Political Rumblings and Euroskeptics

The row over Sudeten Germans has surfaced throughout EU politics. In 1999, the European Parliament called on the Czech Republic to scrap the decrees. A few years later, the European Commission concluded the decrees did not hinder Czech EU accession. In 2002, Austria made clear its position on the issues, wanting the decrees repealed. Austrian politician Jörg Haider had a sharp exchange of words with former Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman. Zeman made comments calling the Sudeten “traitors,” and the “fifth column.” German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder even cancelled a visit to Prague last spring in protest against Zeman's remarks, who has since retired.

Inside the European Parliament there have been ongoing rifts over the Benes Decrees. Prior to accession, members of the German CSU (Christian Social Union) strongly opposed having Czech membership in the European Union because the Czech ODS party (Civic Democrats) was staunchly against repealing the decrees.

In the end, the decrees were not enshrined, nor did they pose a problem for Czech accession to the EU this past May. After analysis of the Benes Decrees by three international law experts, Czech politicians were assured by the European Commission they would not stand in the way of EU membership because they did not constitute European law.

Following Czech’s EU accession, fuel was added to the fire from comments by Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber, who said by not repealing the Benes Decrees, Czechs were applying "collective guilt to Sudeten Germans." Stoiber’s wife is a Sudeten German and he has remained a vocal opponent of the decrees.

Benes and populist leanings

Jiri Pehe is a leading Czech political analyst who wants the Benes Decrees repealed. He says the Sudeten restitution issue is often used by politicians to gain public favor because it is a contentious issue that can sway potential voters. Typically when polled, 80 percent of Czechs still think expelling Sudeten Germans was the right thing to do. “Basically Czech politicians are populist” says Pehe. “They go with popular opinion, and most Czechs feel that the German expulsion was the right thing. It is an emotional issue here that can be used for many political purposes.”

The comments Dostal publicly made about Kinsky and von Pezold being Nazi sympathizers, and even his attempts at passing legislation to give money to municipalities to fight restitution claims, are blatant attempts to discredit and hurt restitution cases, says Pehe.

“This was an attempt to prevent those who were seeking restitution from getting their assets back," says Pehe. “Dostal was trying to influence what goes on in the courts,“ he adds.

These restitution cases promise to make headlines for some time. Out of the 150 cases, Kinsky has won five disputes and lost three. Consequently, Czech politicians have criticized verdicts that returned part of the property to Kinsky because they contravened the Benes Decrees. Due to the appeal process, none of the lawsuits is expected to be closed in the near future.