The Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen (organization of displaced persons from East-Prussia) has intensively pondered the question of property ownership, especially with respect to the best possible method for the displaced persons to reclaim their confiscated property under the current set of circumstances. The result was the current ´Preußische Treuhand´, founded legally as a limited liability corporation (GmbH) which in turn joins a limited partnership based on shares (KG a.A.).

The reasons for selecting this type of setup were as follows:

The Preußische Treuhand shall be fit to not only represent and promote the ownership rights of single individuals but to assert them legally and commercially as well. In order to realize this goal the legal form of an enterprise was preferred over that of a society.
An association or society founded for business purposes requires a special federal permit as a commercial society, while corporations and partnerships are both legal entities suitable for commercial activities. Once officially registered, such organizations can start operating their business right away.
The effectiveness of the Preußische Treuhand will depend it's financial basis. A realistic way to set up such a financial basis under the current circumstance is a limited partnership by shares (KG a.A.). In this setup each partner can contribute to the financial basis by buying shares as a silent partner and thus promote the purpose of the Preußische Treuhand - without being actually involved in the management of the organization. The Preußische Treuhand GmbH as the general partner, takes care of management; and, in this way effectively limits the liability to the capital of the limited liability corporation (GmbH).