(16 Mar 2012) FILE: Berlin - 23 January 2007
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1. Various of posters formerly owned by Hans Sachs exhibited at the German Historical Museum
Berlin, 16 March 2012
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2. Zoom out from German Historical Museum
3. Mid people walking in front of museum
4. Close up of museum with German flag
5. SOUNDBITE (German) Rudolf Trabold, German Historical Museum spokesman:
"The German Historical Museum accepts the decision the judge made and the Federal court announced today. The court decided that the heir of Hans Sachs, Peter Sachs is the owner of the Hans Sachs poster collection the Historical Museum has in its archives. It is clear that we accept this final decision."
FILE: Berlin - 23 January 2007
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6. Various of Peter Sachs, son of former poster collector Hans Sachs, arriving at German Historical Museum and visiting exhibition
Berlin, 16 March 2012
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7. SOUNDBITE (German) Matthias Druba, German lawyer of Peter Sachs:
"Mr. Sachs is relieved about the verdict which gives him the possibility now to close a chapter of his family history. Hitler and Hitler alone disrupted the history of an exemplary German man, Hans Sachs. We had to fight three court cases to close the chapter. Today's verdict is a great satisfaction for Peter Sachs and he is grateful about the decision the German court made."
8. Various of Druba handling book
9. SOUNDBITE (German) Matthias Druba, German lawyer of Peter Sachs:
"The collection should be displayed and shown to the public. Therefore Peter Sachs wants to find a museum, which will show his poster collection."
FILE: Berlin - 23 January 2007
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10. Various of posters from the Sachs collection at the German Historical Museum
11. Mid of Peter Sachs looking at posters
STORYLINE
Germany's top federal appeals court ruled on Friday that a Berlin museum must return to a Jewish man from the US thousands of rare posters that were seized from his father by the Gestapo, saying that for the institution to keep them would be perpetuating the crimes of the Nazis.
The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe said 74-year-old Peter Sachs was the rightful owner of the posters, now believed to be worth between 4.5 (m) million euro and 16 (m) million euro (6 (m) million US dollars and 21 (m) million US dollars), and can demand their return from the German Historical Museum.
The ruling brings to an end some seven years of legal battles to have the vast collection of posters that date back to the late 19th century returned.
"It feels like vindication for my father, a final recognition of the life he lost and never got back," Sachs wrote in an email statement after the ruling.
"Hitler and Hitler alone disrupted the history of an exemplary German man, Hans Sachs," said Peter Sachs' German lawyer Matthias Druba.
"Today's verdict is a great satisfaction for Peter Sachs and he is grateful about the decision the German court made."
Druba said that his client now hopes that he can find a new home for the collection where they can be displayed to a wider public.
The case ended up with Karlsruhe court because of the posters' unique and tumultuous journey through more than 70 years of German history, in which they were stolen from Sachs by the Nazis' Gestapo, moved on to the possession of communist East Germany, then to the Berlin museum after reunification.
The court acknowledged that Peter Sachs did not file for restitution of the posters by the official deadline for such claims, and that the postwar restitution regulations instituted by the Western Allies could not be specifically applied in his case.
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