Securities
The BARoV (as of 1 January, 2006 the Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues – BADV) has preserved approximately 30 million share certificates from the former Office for the Legal Protection of Assets of the German Democratic Republic (AfR).
The majority of these share certificates, which were issued before 1945, were stored in the safe of the former Deutsche Reichsbank in Berlin.
The share certificates are of no legal validity today, but they can be regarded as documents of a particular period, and as historical share certificates, they have a certain collector's value. Any share certificates, the issuing of which was either not applied for by the cut-off date of 31 May, 1995, or was rejected definitively, are now being offered for sale to the public in a series of auctions. The income from the sales will flow into the compensation fund, from which all payments pursuant to the Law on Compensation and Settlement Payments (EALG), including financial matters with respect to the Property Law and Section 4 Paragraph 2 of the GDR Debt Register Clearing Law (Schuldbuchbereinigungsgesetz) are made.
Auctioning of Historical Share Certificates
Two auctions of historical share certificates have already taken place, the first in June 2003, followed by another in January 2005. In both of these auctions, various types of stock and share certificates reached the reserve price. At least 200 share certificates were available from a total of 2,000 companies. All of the certificates found buyers, who numbered between 300 and 400. The auctions met with considerable interest among both the media and collectors.
The wording of the joint press conference given by the Federal Agency for the Settlement of Unresolved Property Matters and the Dr. Busso Peus Nachf. Auction House can be found under interner deutschsprachiger Link folgt Press Release, along with further information.
In the third auction, approximately 2,400 different German share certificates from 1,000 companies will be on offer. Over 100 of each of these certificates are available. This auction will be the first to feature registered securities and share certificates from after 1938 from Austria and the areas occupied by the German Reich.
Old Bonds and Currencies
German Reich mark treasury bills, bonds and special funds
Claims arising from German Reich mark treasury bills and bonds and special funds (German Reich railway, German Reich postal service) as well as from the former state of Prussia issued from 1924 to 1945 were settled under the November 5, 1957, General Law Regulating Compensation for War-Induced Losses (AKG) (Federal Gazette, vol. I, p. 1747). Claims arising from these securities could accordingly be redeemed at 10 percent of the face value under certain personal conditions (conversion from Reichsmark to Deutsche Mark).The regular filing period under the AKG expired in the sixties. Thereafter, filings were possible only in especially well-founded, exceptional cases. Following the December 21, 1992, Law Regulating the Settlement of War-Induced Losses, this grace period definitively expired as of January 1, 1993.
German Reich bonds issued prior to 1924
For German Reich bonds issued in old Reich currency prior to 1924, the Bond Redemption Law of July 16, 1925 (Reich Gazette vol. I, p. 137) stipulated whether and, if so, in what amount these securities could be exchanged for the German Reich loan redemption debt of 1925. Generally speaking, the securities were exchanged at a ratio of 40 (gold) marks to 1 Reich mark; in the case of securities stemming from the inflationary years of 1922/1923, however, exchanges were made at much lower percentages of the face values. The period for exchanging these securities definitively expired by the war's end in 1945. From December 1926 to March 1945, the loan redemption debt was largely repaid.