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Originally published in The Houston Chronicle March 05, 2005

Copyright 2005 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company

By MATTHEW SCHOFIELD

BERLIN - A German court ruled Friday that the heirs of a Jewish family that once owned the country's best known department store must be compensated for property they lost when the Nazi government was in power seven decades ago.

In making the ruling, the court dismissed a claim to the property by KarstadtQuelle, one of Europe's largest retailing chains, which in 1994 purchased companies once owned by the Wertheim family.

The ruling affects only one piece of land worth a relatively modest sum of $ 22 million. But it eventually could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to the heirs, both from the German government and from KarstadtQuelle. Other disputed properties include a Ritz-Carlton Hotel complex and an office building used by members of Germany's parliament.

"This is a very important step towards justice, an important moment," said Matthias Druba, a Berlin attorney who represented the claimants in the case. "Worst case scenario now, we're six months to a year from a final decision (on all the properties). But I think this ruling makes it clear we will be victorious, and I hope it won't take so long."

"Sometimes I've felt like they've stolen my history," said Barbara Principe, 72, of Newfield, N.J., whose grandfather and great-uncles owned Wertheim, once Berlin's most prominent department store. "Now I feel like I got a little bit of it back."

There are 45,000 Nazi reparations cases still pending in Germany.

Principe's grandfather, Franz Wertheim, was one of three brothers who signed over their properties to a legal adviser in the 1930s. Some family members then died in concentration camps; others fled.

Principe's father and uncle filed a claim for the family land after the war, but then sold their rights to the legal adviser for $ 24,500 after he convinced them the land was virtually worthless since most of it was in Soviet-controlled East Berlin.

The adviser then sold the Wertheim properties to another company, which continued to operate Wertheim stores in West Germany and held onto other properties in East Germany.

The current case was complicated when KarstadtQuelle purchased the remnants of the Wertheim chain in 1994 and later sold some of the property, including land that became a $ 1.5 billion real estate development with a Ritz-Carlton Hotel.