Germany Confiscating Homes to Use for Migrants: “A Massive Attack On Property Rights”

by | May 17, 2017 | Headline News | 33 comments

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    The following report was originally published by Soeren Kern of the Gatestone Institute at: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10352/germany-migrants-property-rights

    Authorities in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany, have begun confiscating private dwellings to ease a housing shortage.

    • In an unprecedented move, Hamburg authorities confiscated six residential units in the Hamm district near the city center. A trustee appointed by the city is now renovating the properties and will rent them — against the will of the owner — to tenants chosen by the city. District spokeswoman Sorina Weiland said that all renovation costs will be billed to the owner of the properties.
    • Similar expropriation measures have been proposed in Berlin, the German capital, but abandoned because they were deemed unconstitutional.
    • Some Germans are asking what is next: Will authorities now limit the maximum amount of living space per person, and force those with large apartments to share them with strangers?

    Authorities in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany, have begun confiscating private dwellings to ease a housing shortage — one that has been acutely exacerbated by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow more than two million migrants into the country in recent years.

    City officials have been seizing commercial properties and converting them into migrant shelters since late 2015, when Merkel opened German borders to hundreds of thousands of migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Now, however, the city is expropriating residential property units owned by private citizens.

    In an unprecedented move, Hamburg authorities recently confiscated six residential units in the Hamm district near the city center.The units, which are owned by a private landlord, are in need of repair and have been vacant since 2012. A trustee appointed by the city is now renovating the properties and will rent them — against the will of the owner — to tenants chosen by the city. District spokeswoman Sorina Weiland said that all renovation costs will be billed to the owner of the properties.

    The expropriation is authorized by the Hamburg Housing Protection Act (Hamburger Wohnraumschutzgesetz), a 1982 law that was updatedby the city’s Socialist government in May 2013 to enable the city to seize any residential property unit that has been vacant for more than four months.

    The forced lease, the first of its kind in Germany, is said to be aimed at pressuring the owners of other vacant residences in the city to make them available for rent. Of the 700,000 rental units in Hamburg, somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 (less than one percent) are believed to be vacant, according an estimate by the Hamburg Senate.


    Hamburg, Germany. (Images source: Morris MacMatzen/Getty Images)

    Socialists and Greens in Hamburg recently established a “hotline” where local residents can report vacant properties. Activists have also created a website — Leerstandsmelder (Vacancy Detector) — to identify unoccupied real estate in Hamburg and other German cities.

    It remains unclear why the landlord in Hamm left his apartments vacant for more than five years. Some have posited that, given the location of the properties, the renovation costs may have been too high and probably would not have been offset by the rental income.

    Others are blaming city officials for not approving more building permits to allow for the construction of new residential units. A study conducted in 2012 — well before the migrant crisis reached epic proportions — forecast that by 2017, Hamburg would have a deficit of at least 50,000 rental properties.

    In 2016, however, only 2,433 new residential units came onto the market, while only 2,290 new building permits were approved, accordingto statistics provided by the City of Hamburg. These numbers were up slightly from 2,192 new units and 2,041 new permit approvals in 2015.

    In 2012, Hamburg’s Socialist government presented a plan to build 6,000 new residential units per year. The plan never materialized, however, because prospective builders were constricted by government-imposed rental caps which would have made it impossible for them to even recover their construction costs.

    Since then, the city has turned to seizing private property to resolve its self-inflicted housing crisis.

    On October 1, 2015, the Hamburg Parliament (Hamburgische Bürgerschaftapproved a new law that allows the city to seize vacant commercial real estate (office buildings and land) and use it to house migrants.

    City officials said the measure was necessary because, at the time, more than 400 new migrants were arriving in Hamburg each day and all the existing refugee shelters were full. They said that because the owners of vacant real estate refused to make their property available to the city on a voluntary basis, the city should be given the right to take it by force.

    The measure was applauded by those on the left of the political spectrum. “We are doing everything we can to ensure that the refugees are not homeless during the coming winter,” said Senator Till Steffen of the Green Party. “For this reason, we need to use vacant commercial properties.”

    Others have argued that efforts by the state to seize private property are autocratic and reek of Communism. “The proposed confiscation of private land and buildings is a massive attack on the property rights of the citizens of Hamburg,” said André Trepoll of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). “It amounts to an expropriation by the state.” He said the proposed measure is a “law of intimidation” that amounts to a “political dam-break with far-reaching implications.” He added: “The ends do not justify any and all means.”

    Katja Suding, the leader of the Free Democrats (FDP) in Hamburg, said that the proposed law is an “unacceptable crossing of red lines… Such coercive measures will only fuel resentment against refugees.”

    Similar expropriation measures have been proposed in Berlin, the German capital, but abandoned because they were deemed unconstitutional.

    In November 2015, lawmakers in Berlin considered emergency legislation that would have allowed local authorities to seize private residences to accommodate asylum seekers. The proposal would have authorized police forcibly to enter private homes and apartments without a warrant to determine their suitability as housing for refugees and migrants.

    The legislation, proposed by Berlin Mayor Michael Müller of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), would have amended Section 36 of Berlin’s Public Order and Safety Law (Allgemeine Gesetz zum Schutz der öffentlichen Sicherheit und Ordnung, ASOG), which currently allows police to enter private residences only in extreme instances, to “avert acute threats,” that is, to fight serious crime. Müller wanted to expand the scope for warrantless inspections to include “preventing homelessness.”

    The proposal was kept secret from the public until the leader of the Free Democrats (FDP) in Berlin, Sebastian Czaja, warned the measure would violate the German constitution. He said:

    “The plans of the Berlin Senate to requisition residential and commercial property without the consent of the owner to accommodate refugees is an open breach of the constitution. The attempt by the Senate to undermine the constitutional right to property and the inviolability of the home must be resolutely opposed.”

    Since then, both the mayor’s office and the Senate appear to have abandoned their plans.

    Following an investigation, Gunnar Schupelius, a columnist with the Berlin newspaper BZwrote:

    “A strange report made the rounds at the weekend: The Senate would authorize the police to enter private homes to house refugees, even against the will of the owner. I thought it was only satire, then a misunderstanding, because the Basic Law, Article 13, states: ‘The home is inviolable.’
    “So I went on a search for the source of this strange report and found it. There is a ‘proposal’ which the Senate Chancellery (Senatskanzlei) has apparently circulated among the senators. The Senate Chancellery is another name for the mayor’s office. The permanent secretary is Björn Böhning (SPD)…

    “The proposal is clear: The police can enter private property without a court order in order to search for housing for refugees when these are threatened with homelessness. You can do that ‘without the consent of the owner.’ And not only should the police be allowed to do this, but also the regulatory agencies.

    “This delicate ‘proposal’ attracted little public attention. Only Berlin FDP General Secretary Sebastian Czaja spoke up and warned of an ‘open preparation for breach of the constitution.’ Internally, there should have been protests. The ‘proposal’ suddenly disappeared from the table. Is it completely gone or will it return?”

    It remains unclear why no one has challenged the constitutionality of Hamburg’s expropriation law.

    Meanwhile, some Germans are asking what is next: Will authorities now limit the maximum amount of living space per person, and force those with large apartments to share them with strangers?

    This report was originally published by Soeren Kern of the Gatestone Institute

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      33 Comments

      1. Any way we can ship all the libtards over to Germany so they can live happily ever after being raped, run over and stabbed by the sand apes?

      2. Europe is about ready for a complete “tet style offensive” take down under Sharia law and Islamic rule big time. Cowardly gelded Euro males are nihilistic, decadent loser morons. Women and girls will be sex slaves or killed off if not suited, and men will either convert or be executed. Europe is evolving into a third world hell hole at high speed. Marxist leaders on globalist payrolls are pushing multiculturalism to the max and gestapo land grabs. Law and order is zero in most of Europe now. The globalists are using Islam as a tool for an end run for global control, choosing this demonic death cult to speed up their NWO agenda. (pamelageller.com, jihadwatch.org)

        • I would’nt get on Europe too much. We have the same thing in the US with mass immigration. And Blacks have been raping for over 50 years in the US and nothing has been done.

          • The black savages are so beyond out of control. I am telling you, things are ultimately going to EXPLODE like no tomorrow folks. This cannot continue. So many men, especially in Europe are little sissy, 1/2 rate fag types, ball-less boys and do not stand up or defend anything. My God man, come on people.

            • Euro males: many gay and wear women’s clothing, musta been gelded as children. They will be thrown off buildings by Muslims and women raped and enslaved.

        • Another little piece of the Kalergi Plan…

        • Oh so you read “Caliphate” too?

          This story sounds exactly like one of Matt Bracken’s novels. He posits a scenario where a family is forced to share their house with complete strangers. When fiction becomes reality you know things are getting bad. Are we there yet? Yes.

        • This is what happens when the mental-midget liberals just go crazy with such wise ideas. Hey, let’s allow all of these no good, radical, filthy, disease-ridden mutts into our open borders and allow them to ignore our laws and let them do whatever they like…WTF??

      3. if your building is confiscated, burn it down

        • The German people need to rise up against their own POS ‘authorities’ who clearly show they don’t care about their own people and show favoritism to all the muzzies they’re letting in.

      4. My cousin has lived in Germany for over 50 yrs. He still lives there.

        Last year he wanted to build a deck on the new home he bought.

        Every builder he contacted told him that they were not allowed to build for anyone but immigrants. They had to build housing for immigrants and nothing else. Government orders. 🙁 He has no deck.

        Another item on the radar.

        Venezuela out of toilet paper !

        The worst that can happen in a stuff hit the fan event. No tp.

        ht tps://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/05/16/venezuela-toilet-paper-chavez/2165405/

        Government says they will import “the equivalent of 50 million rolls of toilet paper.

        The population of Venezuela is 23.9 million. That comes out to 2 rolls a person.

        hahahahaha. Don’t be a Venezuelan.

        Better be stocking up on tp. A yrs worth is a good start.

        • Most people barely have room for food storage and water. A rented storage unit would be the answer for more stuff needed for shtf.

      5. Court cases in the United States greatly expanded the right of government to seize privately-held property against the wishes of the owner. The property did not have to have a public use. If developer wanted to build an industrial park, for example, and the city government was supporting the park; the city government could seize the needed properties and sell them to the developer. What is happening in Germany could easily happen here. I know Germany has guilt feelings about the treatment of the Jews but this is most unwise.

        • This kind of government theft has a name, it’s called Eminent Domain.

        • brian, the situation in Germany has nothing to do with chews but with muzzies. the German people need to rise up against their own illegitimate government.

      6. How can you move into a house that is on fire?

        • Yep?

      7. YouTube
        “Eisenhower’s Rhine Meadows Death Camps”
        __
        Following WW2 The Best of the Germans were murdered after the war in nothing short of genocide. That genocide continues to this day. The main stream fictictional melodramas portray Germans in a deliberately ugly and twist the facts this slandering these people.

        Germans starved before WW2. The reasons Hitler turned against the Jews are expressed in his book “Mien Kamphf” which is available in full text on the Internet, or the condensed version as well.
        In short, Hitler was not an anti-Semite as a youth but when he was an adult he observed Jews and began to question whether the Jews were actually Germans. In his own words he says, “I asked myself ‘Is this a German?'”. Note he never questions whether or not Jews are Human, which is a question the JEW asks himself and answers in his books, deciding that all nonJews are not human. So it is the JEW who decided that the German is subhuman and not the other way around.

        All the crimes of the JEWS are projected onto their opposition. If you study this you find the Jew is the one causing the genocide of Germans through forced immigration of nonwhites into Germany. And by other means including provoking war. If you investigate you find Jews behind the wars, including WW1&2&3.

        This robbing of private property and robbing of wealth by charging the owner for repairs and illegally renting out a privately owned home is an example of Jewish abuse of power in Germany. The Jews had assumed power in Germany via their international banking. Hitler came to power as an antidote to this Cancer on the German.

        Yes Hitler became an avowed anti-Semite. Yes Hitler pulled Jews out of jobs in Germany. Yes Hitler banished the Jew Bankers and put Rothschild in prison. Yes Hitler sent the Jews off to Isreal and others left on their own to America. Yes when war broke out, Hitler put the Jews into work camps and made them work. Yes it is true.

        But why he wanted to expel the Jews is never mentioned. The Jews want us to believe that Germans were just evil. That is a lie. The Germans were angry for reasons such as what you see them doing now with this property grab. Jews created Communism. This home grab is Communistic, genocidal, and Jew instigated. The Jews are in power. The Jews are the “World’s Greatest Problem” (in the words of HENRY FORD).

        __ yes I know, this comment will be moderated. God forbid one says anything bad about Jews. Remember what Voltare said, and know that it is The Jews who rule over you. Here in America and even more so in Germany.

        __

        • This has to be repeated until people start to understand these truths.

      8. Same Nazis, different colour shirts than brown this time. Otherwise, pretty much the same, except that the racial purity thing has gone to the exact polar opposite. When things do that (viz., go to the polar opposite) you know something is seriously amiss.

        Idea: Send all the faux refugee Muslims to live on George Soros’ property. Oh wait! That will happen just as soon the Hollywierd leftists take in the illegals here into their gazillion room mansions.

      9. My post is still in moderation. By the time it posts people will have forgotten this article and be off on another. Attention deficit is being encouraged. Read a good book. It helps you extend your ability to concentrate on one thing.

        Books by: David Duke, George Lincoln Rockwell, Eustace Mullins, Ezra Pound, William Luther Pierce and others.

        _

        • My posts almost always show up within a few days.

          You’re right about attention spans, the maximum legal attention span in America is 2 hours, the average about 7 minutes.

      10. Welcome to Agenda 21 world wide.

      11. SEG HILE

      12. I burn it down late at night before I would allow the government to take it from me.

      13. Jim, I’ll be back at the BOL before any of that crap can happen. If someone tried to pull those stunts in small towns or rural areas they would have war on their hands.

      14. Be on the READY folks! This maybe the biggest push-back in American history! No Quarter. If they move on DJT and are successful his Voters are NEXT!!!!!!
        You are HATED to the core by the Left. Your existence and ability to even breath air is pure Hatred of you by them!
        Stand Your Ground. Increase your awareness. Civil war may very well be under way!

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT6LsXMIf-0

        • They will never stop trying to jack up DJT! There is no doubt in my mind for a second. The radical, crazy bunch of nuts on the Left need to be dealt with once and for all. They will not stop…they will not go away. Think about it.

      15. Braveheart1776-Thanks for the tip. I was trying to think of the term for this type of property ownership case (Eminent Domain) but I kept coming up with caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). Allowing for the government seizure of people’s property to further the business interests of people with political connections made “property ownership” a joke. The German people need to turn Merkel out to pasture. The people of California need to do the same to Jerry Brown!

        • Adverse possession?

      16. These liberal fools just do not learn their lesson. These Muslim invaders and yes they are invaders will ruin Europe…they are well on their way to doing just that boys & girls. Wake up people! Keep their azzes out of the US.

      17. “If you cannot baffle them with brilliance, befuddle them with bullsh*t!” This has been the liberal strategy for preserving the swamp. This is the quicksand defense. Give non-taxpayers freebies to support you, builds political machines. Tax supported does not mean “free”. Taxpayers ultimately pay for it.

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