Federal Compensation Act

The Federal Compensation Act for Victims of National Socialist Persecution (German: Bundesgesetz zur Entschädigung für Opfer der nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung), commonly abbreviated BEG (Bundesentschädigungsgesetz), was a major West German law governing individual compensation for persons persecuted under the Nazi regime. It became one of the central instruments of the Federal Republic of Germany’s postwar Wiedergutmachung policy, providing compensation for harms such as damage to life, health, liberty, property, assets, and professional advancement.^[1]

In the years after 1945, compensation for Nazi persecution in West Germany developed unevenly and was initially regulated through a patchwork of Länder laws and sector-specific provisions. The first compensation statute applicable throughout the Federal Republic was the Additional Federal Compensation Act of 18 September 1953, which entered into force on 1 October 1953. According to the German Federal Ministry of Finance, this act considerably expanded earlier legislation but soon came to be regarded as insufficient.^[2]

The more comprehensive Federal Compensation Act was adopted on 29 June 1956 and entered into force retroactively from 1 October 1953. The 1956 act broadened eligibility and made a number of changes favorable to claimants; it also introduced cost-sharing between the federal government and the Länder, whereas the Länder had previously borne the costs alone.^[2]

Under the BEG, persons persecuted for reasons of political opposition to National Socialism, race, religion, or ideology could claim compensation if they had suffered damage to life, limb or health, deprivation of liberty, loss of property or assets, or harm to their business or professional career. Compensation could take the form of pensions, one-off payments, retraining grants, medical treatment, and benefits for surviving dependants. The law was implemented by compensation authorities in the Länder.^[2]

Specialist historical research also notes that the 1956 BEG expanded the circle of recognized claimants compared with the 1953 law. Recognized victims and, in certain cases, surviving dependants could receive imprisonment compensation, pension payments, and welfare-related benefits such as emergency aid and convalescent care.^[3]

The original filing deadline under the Federal Compensation Act was 1 October 1957. This was later extended to 1 April 1958 by an amending act adopted on 1 July 1957.^[2]

After further revisions, the Final Federal Compensation Act was adopted on 14 September 1965. It significantly extended the deadline by providing that no new claims could be made after 31 December 1969. New applications can therefore no longer be submitted, although in some cases existing awards could still be revised, particularly where health damage worsened or earlier decisions were shown to be incorrect under later legal interpretation.^[2]

The BEG was a landmark in West German reparations policy, but historians have also emphasized its restrictive features. Research on compensation practice has pointed to numerous bureaucratic hurdles, narrow eligibility rules, and the importance of residence requirements. Under the law’s territorial logic, many people living outside the relevant West German jurisdictional framework—including many victims in the German Democratic Republic, deported foreign victims, and foreign resistance fighters—were excluded in practice.^[4]

Other groups were also disadvantaged or excluded in postwar compensation practice. Scholarly and memorial sources have highlighted the difficult or denied access to compensation experienced by groups such as victims of forced sterilization, homosexuals, and many Sinti and Roma claimants. In the case of Sinti and Roma, compensation claims were long obstructed by official and judicial interpretations that treated persecution as alleged “security” or “criminal-preventive” policy rather than racial persecution.^[5]

The BEG remains one of the most important legal foundations of West German compensation policy for Nazi injustice. The German Federal Ministry of Finance describes it as a core part of the broader legal framework for compensating victims of National Socialist persecution, and the German Foreign Office notes that many persons persecuted by the Nazi regime continued to receive monthly compensation payments under it long after the original legislation was passed. Between 1 October 1953 and 31 December 1987, more than 4.38 million compensation applications were submitted under the 1953, 1956, and 1965 compensation laws.^[6]

• Wiedergutmachung
• Luxembourg Agreement
• Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany