Regime change and property transfer from the Third Reich to the Federal Republic. Hamburg as a case study.1. The confiscation, restitution and transfer of Reich and Nazi property in Hamburg 1945-1970.2. The treatment of confiscated individual property of former Nazis in Hamburg after 1945.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Frank Bajohr
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2013 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 236210384

In 1945 the Allied Property Control confiscated property in Germany on a large scale, i.a. firms, the property of the German Reich and of Nazi organizations as well as the individual assets of many National Socialists. This practice of confiscation, administration and transfer of property after 1945 has not been sufficiently investigated. The two projects are following the basic lines of Allied property policy and deal with state and party property on the one hand and individual Nazi property on the other hand, with the state of Hamburg as an example. The first sub-project is focusing on the transfer of state and Nazi party property after 1945. It therefore deals with a crucial aspect of regime change and the transformation of the Nazi system of rule into a democratic federal system of government. The second sub-project is investigating the individual property of National Socialists, its confiscation and treatment after 1945, which was closely connected with the process of de-nazification. Was Allied and German property policy primarily aiming at the punishment and control of former Nazi functionaries or did it follow the primacy of social re-integration?

• DFG Programme: Research Grants