Post-War Czechoslovakia and the Presidential Decrees

In a note to the Soviet Union on 20 June 1945, the Czechoslovak Foreign Ministry declared that a payment of reparation based on the property of Adolph Schwarzenberg was out of the question, as Schwarzenberg was a well-known anti-Fascist. Nevertheless, Schwarzenberg was illegally denied the restitution of his property as provided for by Presidential Decree No. 5/1945.

Post-war photograph of Adolph Schwarzeneberg

Post–war photograph of Jindřich Schwarzenberg

On 21 June 1945, Presidential Decree No. 12/1945 on the expropriation of the agricultural assets of "Germans, Magyars and Nazi collaborators" was issued. And on 4 October 1945, the District National Committee of Ceske Budejovice stated that Adolph Schwarzenberg was German, as defined by this Decree and his entire Czech properties were confiscated under this decree. This decision was delivered to his lawyer in Prague on 5 October 1945, with instructions that an appeal could be made within two weeks. The appeal was then duly lodged on the grounds that Schwarzenberg was not German as defined by the Decree. In additional, exemption from confiscation was applied for after the Decree was issued, on the grounds that he had taken part in the struggle for the liberty and territorial integrity of Czechoslovakia.