ABSTRACT
The cold of winter could not dampen the passion that thousands of exiled Germans felt about coming home. Since that fateful night of 9 November 1989, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) had been inundated by westerners venturing to the east to start the process of reestablishing themselves. They were eager to reclaim what they had always considered their property and their family's place. While politicians spoke of the many opportunities of reunification, their actions created yet a new set of barriers-the irritant of non-restitution of confiscated farms and homes lingered. This process began with a number of the expropriated families filing a class-action lawsuit with the German Constitutional Court. In June, 1990, the GDR Volkskammer passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act that formalized how the government would dispose of the land it had acquired through forced collectivization beginning in 1949 until the middle of 1961. As a result, in 1990, privatization of collective farms (LPGs) did not entail legal fights over ownership and compensation.
