German gov't reiterates issue of WWII reparations closed

The German Federal Finance Ministry reiterated on Tuesday that the issue of its war reparations to Greece was closed, responding to Greek Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas' remarks that Germany owed Greece 278.7 billion euros (302.9 billion U.S. dollars) for the Nazi occupation during WWII.

"As Chancellor Angela Merkel recently said: 'From the point of view of the German federal government, the issue of the reparations is politically and legally closed,'" Frank Paul Weber, spokesman for the German Finance Ministry, said in a statement.

He added that Mardas gave no further details about the war reparations issue besides quantifying Athens' claims for the first time.

When addressing a special parliamentary committee set up to seek routes of Greece's current debt crisis on Monday, Mardas said Germany owed at least 10.3 billion euros for the forced loan granted to Nazi forces during the WWII and 268.4 billion euros for damages in infrastructure and compensations to individuals.

Germany has repeatedly rejected Greece's requests for the war reparations, saying the case was concluded in 1960 when it made a payment of 115 million Deutschmarks (approx 63.7 million U.S. dollars) to the country.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who also raised the reparations issue during a recent visit to Berlin, has stressed that it was not connected to the ongoing negotiations with creditors on the resolution of the Greek debt crisis and to Germany's insistence that Athens sticks to a fiscal adjustment and reform drive.

However, statements on WWII reparations made by Greek cabinet ministers in recent weeks have been dismissed as "inflammatory" by the German government.

Athens received aid worth 240 billion euros from its international creditors to cover its huge debts. A majority of the aid came from Germany, the biggest economy in Europe. (1 euro = 1.08 U.S. dollars) Endit