A BID by one man to reclaim more than one billion pounds worth of property in the Czech Republic is threatening to open the floodgates for compensation claims from 2.5million ethnic Germans

A BID by one man to reclaim more than one billion pounds worth of property in the Czech Republic is threatening to open the floodgates for compensation claims from 2.5million ethnic Germans, who were expelled from the region after the Second World War. Claims from their descendants are also feared. At the heart of Franz-Ulrich Kinsky’s bid is the grand 18th century, neo-classical Kinsky Palace, which lies in the Old Town Square in Prague. Mr Kinsky, 66, insists the palace is his, like almost 160 other properties and pieces of land in the Czech Republic. He said he inherited everything from his great-grandfather through a trust but that it was confiscated unlawfully by the state after he fled war-torn Europe to Argentina with his half-Argentine mother in 1940. Mr Kinsky, who runs a hunting business based in Buenos Aires, has never lived in the Czech Republic, or Czechoslovakia as it was until 1993. However, he is targeting 157 properties and pieces of land thousands of miles from his current home which were left to him, he insists, by his great-grandfather in trust before Czechoslovakia even existed as a country and still formed part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. His success so far in claiming small amounts of land in his first three court cases has made many politicians nervous. Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president, and Vladimir Spidla, the prime minister, have called emergency meetings with politicians and advisers. They are afraid Mr Kinsky’s court success could open the floodgates for compensation and property claims. Two and a half million ethnic Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia after the Second World War for supporting Hitler’s invasion of the country, under the so-called Benes Decrees signed by the then-president, Edvard Benes. Mr Kinsky firmly denies claims that his father, Ulrich, collaborated with the Nazis and denies that photographs allegedly showing him with Adolf Hitler do, in fact, feature his father.