Własność jako prawo rzeczowe na ziemiach polskich wcielonych do Rzeszy Niemieckiej podczas drugiej wojny światowej
Ownership as a Property Right in the Polish Territories Incorporated into the German Reich during the Second World War

Summary/Abstract: Property Rights like many other areas of law, were systematically violated during the Second World War. Breaking this law regarding both real and movable property took place on Polish land incorporated into the Third Reich, in the General Government, but also on Polish land incorporated into the USSR. From 1939 Hitler’s Germany started the politics of pillage of Polish property and they did not have to create any new ideological justification for it. The whole interwar period of the Third Reich has created the groundwork for the politics of complete disrespect of ownership (especially Jewish). Hence the considerations about the titular problem cannot exclude the law and political founding rules of the Third Reich. From ancient times proprietorship was the most important of all property laws. It was equally important over centuries. Especially the 19th century brought the important for Europe codifications and indicated many various possibilities of stating the term of ownership. Among different European currents of doctrine of civil law, the German science also played an important role. For titular considerations it seems worth mentioning the original dispute about the essence of ownership, which was indicated by prominent lawyer Rudolf von Ithering. He pointed out that ownership could be considered from individualistic and social point of view. It was deeply embedded in German tradition, where not only private property was respected, but also that of public ownership, for example of county, etc. The inferior value of the private property in the second half of the 19th century was dominating the views of German left-wing. They were referring to Karl Marx, although the fall of the Second Reich in 1918 was significantly broadening the political options, which were inclined to state public property as superior to private. In the context of this dispute, it should not be forgotten about German Civil code BGB from 1896. As it became effective after four years the Second Reich received anew codification inter alia about property law. It is worth mentioning here the most important regulations regarding property laws. In the Third Reich German Civil code BGB from 1896 and Reich Law Gazette RGB1 from 24th March 1897 were still effective. In BGB after comprehensive discussions during codification works, the term of ‘thing’ (Sache) was finally stated as follows: “Only corporeal objects are things as defined by law” (§90). The exception was statutory contents of the pledge of rights (§1273) and Statutory definition of usufruct in rights (§1068). It gave rise to a progress of doctrine named “prawa na prawach”– “laws over laws”. As a matter of fact, BGB has gone away from regulations of Roman Law regarding term of object, because recognising corporeal objects as things was only apparent. As showed by Otto von Gierke despite relinquishing these regulations BGB combined things and laws in one term of object (Gegenstand), as a part of property. Thus, the opposition of “things” and “laws” had only a terminological character.

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