Talking Point The "Benes decrees" - a historian's point of view
During the past few years, the two words "Benes decrees" have been ubiquitous in the Czech media. Most recently the term has been used in connection with the case of Franz Ulrich Kinsky, a member of an aristocratic family with long roots in Bohemia, who has filed a total of 157 lawsuits asking the Czech courts to confirm that he is the rightful owner of large amounts of property which were confiscated from him as a child after the war. The so-called "Benes decrees" that politicians, journalists, lawyers and property claimants frequently refer to, are in simple terms usually described as "post-war legislation that sanctioned the expulsion of ethnic Germans and Hungarians from Czechoslovakia and the confiscation of their property". But of course, matters are much more complex. Historian Jan Kuklik, who is assistant professor at the law faculty in Prague, specialises in the history of law. I spoke to him about the origins of the so-called "Benes decrees".
Signing of the so-called 'Benes decrees'
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