History and location

After the foundation of the State of Rhineland Palatinate on 30th August 1946 the state expressly committed itself on 25th November 1947 of in the articles 139 and 140 its constitution to the restitution of national socialism injustice as well as the still exist-ing regulations and structures for restitution based on the occupation legislative or-ders which were transferred to the Ministry of Finance at that time and the recon-struction and reorganisation as a result of the Ordinance enacted on 5th April 1950. The earlier servicing agencies for the victims of fascism and the Office for Restitution in the Ministry of Finance with state office for controlled assets and its subsequent service agencies were combined. As a result the new State Office for Restitution and Controlled Assets was formed in Mainz as well as all the district offices for restitution and controlled assets in Neustadt, Koblenz, Mainz and Trier besides the subordinate offices at some District Administration Offices (up to end 1951) and later an external office in Berlin.

These authorities were responsible for the processing of compensation applications made by victims of national socialism, initially on the basis of the state legislative res-titution regulations and later based on the Federal German Restitution Law [BEG] .

Up to 1987 a total of approx. 940,000 compensation applications were filed with the restitution authorities of the state of Rhineland Palatinate. To enable these to be processed in good time the number of employees increased in time up to 720 em-ployees in the restitution administration centre of the State of Rhineland Palatinate. After processing the first applications there were completed towards the end of the 1960s and the number of employees was gradually reduced and various offices closed. The first offices closed were the District Office in Mainz as well as the Exter-nal Office in Berlin and then later the District Offices in Mainz and Neustadt and fi-nally the District Office in Coblence in the mid 1980s.

Ever since the processing of restitution cases in accordance with the Federal German Restitution Law [BEG], which fall under the responsibility of the State of Rhineland Palatinate has been solely serviced by the Amt für Wiedergutmachung in Saarburg, Germany which originated from the former District Office for Restitution in Trier and moved to Saarburg on  January 1st 1975 to the Offices of the former Finance Office in the course of structural measures.

In the year 1996 the office was additionally entrusted with the implementation of the newly created hardship funds of the State of Rhineland Palatinate to support victims of national socialism.

Effective from November 1st 2014 the Amt für Wiedergutmachung in Saarburg has been dissolved in the context of a reform of the financial administration of Rhineland Palatinate and as a branch office with domicile in Saarburg integrated into the new Landesamt für Finanzen.