WGA-Files Project

Online-database on WGA-files

WGA-Files Project

The WGA-Files online project on records of the Berlin restitution offices started on September 1, 2012. This project aimed to provide information about restitution cases, in order to facilitate provenance research.


The Berlin State Archive (Landesarchiv Berlin) supports provenance research since many years. Especially, the record group of the restitution offices of Berlin (B Rep 025, Wiedergutmachungsämter von Berlin) is of high importance. The record group consists of more than 800,000 files of the restitution offices of Berlin. These offices were in charge to solve restitution claims in West-Berlin according to the Berlin Restitution Order, enacted in 1949.

In 1957, the Federal Restitution Law included also property confiscated or acquired by the Reich, the NSDAP, and the state of Prussia or other Nazi institutions. The Berlin restitution offices became responsible for those claims. That means, that the Berlin restitution offices were not only in charge of Berlin related claims, but also other claims, where the Reich, the NSDAP etc. confiscated or acquired property.

The online database was produced by Facts & Files Historical Research Institute Berlin, commissioned by the Berlin State Archive. The project was finished by the end of 2014.

About 430,000 records were revised and are now published online completely. www.wga-datenbank.de

The project was funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media via the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation according to a decision of the German Bundestag and the State of Berlin.

Contact

beate-schreiber_1_3-4
Beate Schreiber
FaCTS & FILES
P: +49 (0)30 / 480 986 20
schreiber@factsandfiles.com
Frank Drauschke
Frank Drauschke
FACTS & FILES
P: +49 (0)30 / 480 986 20
drauschke@factsandfiles.com