Private property or enemy property: how parliament confiscated the property of the stateless of German origin in Belgium (1918–21).

During the First World War, statelessness erupted suddenly – an anomaly at a time when nations were fighting each other at gunpoint. The stateless of German origin in Belgium discovered their legal status to be a resource to oppose claims on them by the German (and Belgian) state. After the First World War, the Belgian state took revenge on the Germans in their midst by confiscating their private property. This article discusses whether the property of the stateless of German origin was considered as enemy property. Although international law opposed such a position, Belgian nationalists insisted on punishing all Germans, regardless of their legal status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]