Information on data processing: Files of the Restitution Commission at the Provincial Court Innsbruck

Terms of reference

The restitution files were created during the proceedings which were conducted pursuant to the Third Restitution Act at the Provincial Court Innsbruck. According to information provided by the Tyrol Provincial Archives, the file holdings appear to be largely intact. The restitution proceedings concern assets seized from Jews and assets which were, for example, expropriated from the Church. A number of proceedings were connected with each other for material reasons and then conducted as one set of proceedings. The restitution files predominantly contain correspondence between lawyers and their aggrieved clients, minutes of hearings and proceedings, land register excerpts, court orders, documents relating to personal status, powers-of-attorney, requests to courts for the taking of evidence, valuations of various assets (mostly real estate and businesses) and interesting insights into the judicial practices at the time.
The restitution files constituted a vital basis for the General Settlement Fund when resolving restitution-related matters in Tyrol.

Digitization

The original list of proceedings conducted at the Provincial Court Innsbruck pursuant to the Third Restitution Act [hier: Link] had been created at the Provincial Court Innsbruck. The reference work used by the Findbuch is based on a list created with the consent of the Tyrol Provincial Archives by Mag. Lukas Mayrhuber during the course of his work on his diploma thesis*. The reference work (RK Repertorium) was provided to the General Settlement Fund by the Tyrol Provincial Archives in May 2010 and by Mag. Lukas Mayrhuberin June 2010. The latter was subsequently drawn on by the staff of the General Settlement Fund for the Findbuch. The index contains information on the restitution claimants and the adverse parties (surname, forename or name of the legal entity), the file number of the proceedings and the date of the proceedings’ commencement. There are 1,075 entries relating to the names of natural persons and names of legal entities. In contrast there are 215 file numbers for restitution proceedings which relate to other restitution proceedings without names being given, i.e. they were consolidated into a single set of proceedings. A further 34 file numbers reveal that the proceedings were transferred to a different authority (for example, eight proceedings to the Financial Directorate Tyrol, 16 proceedings to the Restitution Commission at the Provincial Court Vienna), with the result that the documents relating to the proceedings are not held by the Tyrol Provincial Archives.

*Mayrhuber, Lukas: “Jedenfalls bin ich ebenso unschuldig wie es der einzelne Jude damals war.” Rasche „Arisierung“ und langwierige Restitution in Tirol. Innsbruck, University, 2010.

Processing the digitized data

In order to meet the requirements of the Findbuch, forenames and surnames were separated and legal entities transferred into separate data entry fields. As a rule, one record was created per natural person (or legal entity), increasing the original number of 1,075 entries linked to names to 1,793 records in the Findbuch. Restitution proceedings for which no names are stated were recorded in the data entry field Comments of the proceedings to which they are related (“related to”). References to further aggrieved persons involved in the proceedings were also entered in the data entry field Comments (“see also”). Information on the adverse parties was not included; this information can be gathered from the contents of the files which were created during the course of the restitution proceedings. In general, the formal data processing standards conventionally developed by the project team were applied and the data entry fields were adapted according to the information available.

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