According to the new version of the Federal Law on Restitution in the Civil Service of 1955, the Faculty of Arts at the University of Hamburg had to submit a statement as to whether Walter A. Berendsohn would have been appointed as an associate professor without the racial persecution under National Socialism. This would have resulted in financial claims. The Faculty passed a devastating judgment on the academic quality of the researcher concerned, which was not shared by subsequent generations. Berendsohn was later awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty in recognition of his scientific achievements and a research unit at the university was posthumously named after him.