ロスチャイルド家子孫、ウィーン市を提訴　ナチスが解散した基金めぐり

【ウィーンＡＦＰ＝時事】欧州のユダヤ系財閥ロスチャイルド家の子孫が、オーストリアのウィーン市が同家の公益信託基金を不法占有し、ナチス・ドイツ時代の法令を「持続させている」として、同市を相手取って訴訟を起こした。複数メディアが25日に伝えた。（写真はオーストリア・ウィーン市内を歩く女性。資料写真）
　英紙フィナンシャル・タイムズ（ＦＴ）によると、今回の訴訟は長い間忘れられていた、精神的支援を提供する公益信託をめぐるもので、ナチス体制下の被害者子孫による返還要求としては最大規模だという。
　オーストリアの大衆紙クリアや週刊誌プロフィルも、ＦＴと同様の内容を掲載。審問はウィーン地裁で来月２０日に開かれる。
　報道によると、ナサニエル・マイアー・フォン・ロートシルト男爵の弟の末裔（まつえい）、ジェフリー・ホーゲ氏の代理人は訴状で、ウィーン市が「ナチスの没収命令がまだ存在しているかのように振る舞っている」と主張している。
　同男爵は独フランクフルトで始まったロスチャイルド家のオーストリア分家の一員で、１９０５年の死去時に、精神的支援を提供することを目的に約１億ユーロ（約１２０億円）相当を残していった。
　同男爵の名前で基金が設立され、当初は同男爵一家が率いる委員会が管理に当たり、後に２か所の療養所を運営。１９１２年に開設された１か所は、現在も神経学関連の施設として運営されている。
　ナチス・ドイツは１９３８年にオーストリアを併合すると、同年にロスチャイルド家を追放し、翌年には同基金を解散させた。
　第２次世界大戦後の５６年に同基金は再設立されたものの、管理は従来の委員会ではなくウィーン市が担うことになった。
　ホーゲ氏は、独立した管理委員会を再び設置するべきだと主張しており、ウィーン市が設立者の遺志に反して同基金を不法占有していると非難している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/01/27-12:27）

A member of the Rothschild family member is suing the city of Vienna, accusing it of perpetuating Nazi laws by plundering the Jewish banking family's foundation, media reports said Saturday.
The Financial Times reported that the dispute -- over the long-forgotten charitable trust set up to provide psychiatric help -- is one of the largest-ever restitution claims by Nazi regime victims' descendants.
Austria's Kurier daily and Profil magazine carried similar reports on the case, for which a Vienna district court hearing has been set on February 20.
Vienna has acted as if the Nazi confiscation decrees were still in place, according to the reported court filings by the lawyer of Geoffrey Hoguet, a descendant of the younger brother of Nathaniel Freiherr vonRothschild.
Rothschild -- a member of the Austria branch of the wealthy family originally from Frankfurt -- left the equivalent of about 100 million euros ($110 million) when he died in 1905 to provide psychiatric help for the needy.
The foundation set up in his name and initially managed by a 12-member committee led by the Rothschild family ended up running two sanatoriums -- the first, opened in 1912, still operating today as a neurological centre.
The Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, expelled the Rothschilds in that year and disbanded the foundation in 1939.
After World War II, in 1956, it was re-established and managed by the city of Vienna, no longer under a 12-member committee.
- Sale 'grossly undervalued' -
Hoguet -- a prominent investor from New York and financial supporter of Democratic Party presidential nominee Pete Buttigieg -- now says an independent management committee should be put in place again.
He has accused the city of appropriating the foundation in breach of its founder's will, according to the reports.
The 69-year-old also wants to nullify the sale of one of the sanatoriums in the early 2000s -- a late-baroque palace that was reportedly one of the world's earliest centres of mental health treatment.
He alleges it was sold at a grossly undervalued price to the city, according to the Financial Times.
Hoguet's court case also aims to nullify a 2017 clause that determines that if the foundation were dissolved its wealth would go to the city of Vienna.
A lawyer for the city of Vienna said in a statement that agreements regarding the foundation were made decades ago with the greatest respect and absolutely in line with the foundation's purpose.
It is not the first case highlighting Austria's dealing with its past.
In 2016, Vienna's famous Leopold Museum settled a long-running dispute over five Nazi-plundered drawings by Austrian painter Egon Schiele with the descendants of the works' Jewish former owner.
Since Austria passed a law in 1998 covering the restitution of vast numbers of artworks stolen by the Nazis, thousands have been returned -- including major works worth millions of euros.