Farmer sues German hiking club over Nazi-era land deal

A farmer in Bürserberg has sued a German hiking club over restrictions on his land that stem from a 1944 agreement his family says was made under pressure. ORF reports that the agreement bars him from building on the property and gives the club the right of first refusal if he sells it.

Stefan Wehinger inherited about 7,600 square metres of building land from his father. He wants to build holiday apartments there, but says he cannot build without the club’s consent or sell to a buyer of his choice.

The restrictions date to a deal between Wehinger’s grandfather and representatives of the club’s predecessor during Nazi rule. Wehinger’s family says his grandfather was forced to sell land cheaply to the group and that a building ban and right of first refusal were then registered against the land he retained.

Wehinger’s lawyer, Karl Schelling, said the agreement appeared to have been made under considerable pressure. His grandfather received 4,932 Reichsmarks for the land sold. Schelling said this was too little, equivalent to just over two average annual incomes at the time, or about 108,000 euros measured against today’s average earnings.

The predecessor organization ran mountain huts for leading Nazis, according to the report. It was banned by the Allies after the war under denazification laws and removed from Germany’s register of associations. Its former chairman, Gottlob Dill, later secured the reversal of that deletion at a Stuttgart court in 1954.

Vorarlberg historian Werner Bundschuh said Dill had been a leading Nazi and that the club’s board included prominent Nazi figures. The club, whose current name was not disclosed in the report, said a review in the 1950s had established that it had never been a Nazi organization. It also said Wehinger’s grandfather had received a fair price and that it rejected Nazi ideology and supported democratic principles.

Wehinger offered to transfer part of his land to the club in exchange for it waiving the building ban and right of first refusal, but the offer was rejected. Schelling has now sued the club.