European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 15, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The o cd Homestead who owns East German properties the Bonn government estimates a million West germans could Lay claim to property the communist regime seized when they left East Germany Here a bavarian Village straddling the East from West Border. By Tamara Jones los Angeles times the first time the West German stranger appeared on their Doorstep Thomas and Sabine Siede of Rangs Doris East Germany invited him in for Coffee and cookies. It was a pleasant visit they say. The visitor told the East German couple that their Small Stone House had been his childhood Home built by his parents in 1932. He told of a Messerschmidt fighter crashing in the Garden during the War. Later his family fled to West Berlin. The second time the visitor appeared he had a Superior air the sides say. He told them that their doors needed refinishing that a Wall should be knocked out to enlarge the tiny living room. The third time he brought a can of paint and brushes. He told the sides to fix the place up because he would be moving in this summer. When the sides protested the West German turned icy. He said Quot this is my House. In be waited 40 years. I can wait two or three  As the two Germany move swiftly toward reunification conflicts like this Are cropping up with alarming frequency. Nervous East germans watching West German cars cruise slowly through their neighbourhoods find themselves waiting for what has come to be called simply Quot the  but the question of who owns East Germany goes much deeper and the visits seem to reflect both the arrogance and fear that color the fragile relationship Between two countries and two Peoples As they struggle to somehow become one again. The controversy touches on something they have always shared a deeply embedded sense of he mat or Home. Yet it also underscores something they have never agreed on and suggests that the Success of reunification cannot be measured in Bank notes or ballots or Borders. Instead it May come Down to things like a stranger on the Doorstep with a can of paint. The Bonn government estimates that 1 million West germans could Lay claim to property the communist regime seized when they left East Germany. Neither government can say with any certainty what belongs to whom and the Issue looms As possibly the most complicated and sensitive of All in the process of negotiating the reunification. Some West germans Are drawn across the fading Border by bittersweet memories. They just want to look to reminisce and reconnect. But others come with tape measures video cameras time yellowed deeds and a sometimes unsettling determination to take Back what they lost so Long ago. Quot of course i would like my property Back Quot said Heinrich Wehemeyer a 56-year-old West German Salesman who remembers with fondness his childhood in Langsdorf. Quot my aunt owned the House and i went to school there during the  after fleeing to the West in 1945, the aunt spent the next 36 years writing to East German authorities to inquire about the three bedroom cottage on a dirt Lane in Langsdorf Wehemeyer said. She died nine years ago without Ever getting a reply and she willed the House to Wehemeyer and his sister. Quot and now i want my property Quot Wehemeyer said. The East germans who believe they bought the House from the state for a pittance 17 years ago can stay in the House and pay him a fair rent he said Quot but it is my  Wehemeyer who lives in the West German City of Osnabrock compares his situation to that of jews routed by the nazis during world War ii. Quot the nazis took away their Homes and gave them to other nazis Quot Wehemeyer said. Quot most of the property seized in East Germany went to communists. And nobody got  after the War the soviets and the East German leaders began eliminating private property under the slogan Quot nobility a land to peasant  in Many instances owners who were not forced to give up their land and Homes had to rent them out at rates too Low to cover even routine maintenance. Frequently these people would end up abandoning their property. Often the houses fell into disrepair for under the socialist system there was always a shortage of material capital and skilled labor. In the quiet woodsy town where the sides live about five Miles from the West Berlin Border a newly formed citizens support group estimates that up to 70 percent of the 1,800 single family houses once belonged to people who fled to the West. Already since the first of the year Langsdorf has had More than 100 visits or letters from West German claimants. People Tell of a neighbor who was reassured by a West German owner that he would not have to move out but would have to give up one of the two bedrooms every summer for the West germans vacation. Quot reunification Means we want to live together Quot one villager said Quot but not that  some people scoff at such concerns. Quot its just communist propaganda Quot said Helmuth Sehrig a West Berlin lawyer who said his firm represents about 1,000 West germans with property claims in the East. Quot the old party is trying to stir things up and create this needless angst for political  East Germany a socialist Laws still provide airtight Protection for tenants Sehrig said and no one is going to be forced into homelessness. In the end he predicted a United Germany will pay out billions of Marks in restitution to the old owners without affecting current owners or tenants. Not All West germans Are eager to reclaim property in the East. Indeed some fear that reunification and the undoing of the communist Quot land Reform could Saddle them with old mortgages a and demanding tenants. Gerhard Fuchs a retired lawyer who Heads an association of West germans with property claims in the East finds that Many people now want to waive their rights As a precaution. Quot i had a place in Leipzig but i Don t want it Quot Fuchs said. Quot it s old and rotted. I  do anything with it it s in such awful shape. In some cases its a waive All claims in Case they decide to give Back the houses with their unpaid mortgages and All these expensive repairs and  Only a third of East German households Are said to have indoor toilets. They Are generally heated with Brown Coal which is dirty As Well As expensive. Scarcities can mean waiting four years for a Bantu months for a sack of Cement. Silke Mcqueen a Bonn Retiree inherited her grandparents two houses and land in Schwerin Germany where she spent her Early childhood. Quot one Day maybe i la take a trip and have a look a it Quot she said. Quot it would probably make me terribly a to see my childhood Home in bad  i was 10 when i left. In a 66 now. In be lived in lots o other places since then and my friends Are All n _ Don t want to complain. I wrote that property of g a a ago a Ages but now i get angry at the injustice Page 16 a a a the stars and stripes sunday april 15,1990