The Regional Court in Hradec Králové as the appellate court annulled on 13 October 2026 a decision of the District Court in Semily in the restitution case of the Walderode family. It returned the case for a new hearing, requiring that the claim identify more than a thousand plots of land more precisely.[1][2]
Earlier decision
The District Court in Semily ruled in September 2025 by a partial judgment, relying on a finding of the Constitutional Court of 19 September 2024. It considered only the plots that could be identified most easily. It ordered one plot of 1,554 square metres in Turnov-Daliměřice to be handed over and rejected the claim for almost sixty others.[1][2][4]
Decision of the Regional Court in Hradec Králové
According to the representative of the claimant, the widow and heir of Karel des Fours Walderode, the court requires the cadastral office to prepare identifications of the parcels and to compare the state in 1945, in 1991 and the current state. The representative estimated that for roughly a thousand plots this will mean about a year of work for the office. The District Court in Semily is then to assess the current designation of the plots and decide which are to be returned and for which financial compensation is due.[1][2][3]
The Regional Court in Hradec Králové stated explicitly that the claim is well founded on the merits and that it will not deal with it further. Jan Rutsch, chair of the appellate panel, said that the claimant and her legal predecessor are, under the finding of the Constitutional Court, entitled persons, because the Ministry of the Interior issued Walderode a certificate of Czechoslovak citizenship on 16 December 1947. The claimant's representative described the return of the case as a technical matter that does not mean the claimant has no right to restitution.[1][2][5]
The defendants and the background of the dispute
The defendants include the town of Turnov, the National Heritage Institute, the Office for Representing the State in Property Affairs and the state enterprise Lesy ČR. Their representatives proposed before the Regional Court in Hradec Králové that the claim be dismissed.[1][2]
The Walderode family has sought the return of property since 1992, including Hrubý Rohozec Castle in Turnov. After the Second World War Karel des Fours Walderode lost his estates in the Semily, Jablonec and Liberec areas as a German under the Beneš decrees. The authorities returned Czechoslovak citizenship to him in 1947; after February 1948 he emigrated and lost it again. The Ministry of the Interior restored it in 1992, and he then applied for the return of the family property; he died in 2000 at the age of 95.[2][4]
In February 2026 a court ruled that the National Heritage Institute must return the furnishings of Hrubý Rohozec Castle. The Institute appealed, so the ruling is not final. The Institute's spokesperson Lucie Bidlasová said that the Institute does not dispute the heir's claims but, as an administrator of state property, may not release items whose origin in the family is in doubt.[1]
Related articles: District Court in Semily, Regional Court in Hradec Králové
Chronology
- — The Regional Court in Hradec Králové overturned a ruling by the District Court in Semily in the Walderode restitution case and sent it back for a new hearing, requiring more precise identification of more than a thousand disputed plots of land. Novinky.cz ČTK / České noviny
Sources
- Novinky.cz — 13 October 2026
- ČTK / České noviny — 13 October 2026
- ČT24 — 13 October 2026
- Echo24 — 13 October 2026
- iDNES.cz: Liberec — 13 October 2026