German court backs Jewish claim

Barbara Principe is the oldest surviving Wertheim heir

A German court has ruled that shopping chain Karstadt-Quelle must pay compensation to a Jewish family forced to sell shops during the Nazi era.

The case of the Wertheim family is one of the largest Jewish claims still outstanding in Germany.

The family are reported to be seeking more than a $190m (144m euros, £99m).

The ruling applies to a small part of the disputed Wertheim fortune acquired by Karstadt-Quelle after the war. The company said it would apeal.

Household name

The oldest surviving heir to the Wertheim legacy is 72-year-old grandmother, Barbara Principe, from the US state of New Jersey.

She grew up in poverty on a chicken farm after the Wertheims fled to America to escape Nazi persecution.

The BBC's Ray Furlong, in Berlin, says Wertheim was a household name in pre-war Germany, a huge chain of department stores owned by the Jewish family of the same name.

They were forced to sell up and moved to America.

Mrs Principe alleged the family were then swindled out of what was left of the business in 1951 - a parcel of land in the heart of the German capital, Berlin - which was acquired by a chain called Hertie.

Hertie was subsequently swallowed up by Karstadt-Quelle - now one of Europe's biggest department store chains.

A spokesman for the company said it could not be held liable for what happened in 1951.

But the family's lawyers have called the victory a tremendous step forward.

Gideon Taylor of the Jewish Claims Conference, which is working with the family told Reuters news agency: "We assume that this landmark decision will enable the [Federal Restitution Authority] to reach decisions soon on all other Wertheim properties.

"The legal issues have now been clarified, so there is nothing preventing the speedy resolution of these cases and the rightful restitution of these assets."