Social compensation for victims of state injustice in the former GDR; applying for benefits

If you were politically persecuted or became a victim of arbitrariness due to an administrative decision by an authority in the former GDR that was contrary to the rule of law and suffered damage to your health, you can receive social compensation benefits in accordance with SGB XIV.

Zentrum Bayern Familie und Soziales Region Oberpfalz

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93053 Regensburg

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Many citizens of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) were politically persecuted or arbitrarily discriminated against and harassed by the authorities of the GDR state apparatus or the Soviet occupation zone in very different ways. Sometimes this went so far that those affected suffered damage to their health that they still suffer from today.

Such damage to health can be, for example

chronic pain due to the consequences of police operations contrary to the rule of law or
long-term psychological damage caused by years of spying and harassment by the Stasi.

If this applies to you and there are no grounds for exclusion, you may be entitled to social compensation benefits.

You are excluded from these benefits if you yourself have violated the principles of humanity or the rule of law in the past or have seriously abused your position for your own benefit or to the detriment of others. This is the case, for example, if you voluntarily acted as an informer or informer for the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in order to gain advantages for yourself.

Social compensation benefits include the following:

Medical treatment,
monthly compensation payments for victims as well as benefits to compensate for occupational damage and
supplementary benefits, for example as part of medical treatment, in connection with participation benefits or in the event of a need for long-term care.

In order to receive social compensation benefits, the following conditions must be met:

You have been rehabilitated due to a sovereign measure taken by a German official body to settle an individual case in the accession territory from the period from May 8, 1945 to October 2, 1990 or it has been established that such a measure was contrary to the rule of law.
The administrative decision must have caused damage to your health.
You yourself have not violated the principles of humanity or the rule of law or seriously abused your position for your own benefit or to the detriment of others, for example by
- significantly aided the political system of the GDR (for example by working in the state apparatus or in leading positions in the SED) or
- worked for the Ministry for State Security (MfS) (full-time or unofficially).

Submit an application for social compensation benefits to the Zentrum Bayern Familie und Soziales (ZBFS). The application does not require any special form.

The ZBFS will examine your application and, if necessary, request further evidence from you.
It will make the necessary findings on the existence of grounds for exclusion and, if rehabilitation has not yet taken place, on the unlawfulness of the measure.