On 30 June 2005, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a judgment concerning the expropriation of the heirs of new farmers in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). With this decision, the Grand Chamber overturned a unanimous judgment by the Chamber of 22 January 2004. This article outlines the facts of the case (section A), the German case law (section B) and the Chamber and Grand Chamber judgments (section C) and provides an evaluation of the judgments (section D).