April 23, 1991             first Supreme Court judgement
The victims of these injustices had taken their cause to the Supreme Court of Germany on the basis that their treatment by Bonn was in violation of the principle of equality guaranteed in the constitution. There was an inequality created because those people, whose properties had been confiscated by the communists after 1949, did get their properties back. The court, however, sided with the government saying that the high goal of unification justified this inequality, especially since the Soviet Union had made the well known demand. The victims could very well be expected to bring this sacrifice for the greater good of the country. However, the court did not allow the victims to cross examine the government witnesses nor to present their own witnesses, but the court did order some form of compensation to be paid to the victims.

February 1996             the Truth revealed

Kohl/Pinocchio animated GIF

The British historian Norman Stone exposed the claim of the government regarding that Soviet precondition as what it really is:             a blatant lie!
Stone based his findings on an interview with Gorbachev and on statements made by the other participants of the negotiations on German unification, including the then U.S. president Bush.
May 1996             second Supreme Court judgement
The victims had taken the government to court again, citing that the court had been misled by the government witnesses in its first ruling. The court again sided with the government, saying that it was satisfied that the government witnesses had told the truth. The court did not, however, permit the lawyers of the plaintiffs to cross-examine those witnesses.

During the course of 1996             Soviet rehabilitations
The Russian Republic, successor of the Soviet Union, issued rehabilitation orders for those of the victims who applied for them. The German authorities, however, refuse to recognize the Russian rehabilitation orders. In fact, Kohl made a quick trip to Moscow in order to stop the issuance of further rehabilitations.