Adopted in 1945, the Decree on Ownership and Use of Land in Warsaw served as a base for systematic reconstruction and urban renewal of Warsaw after World War 2. The idea behind the regulation was to make the municipality the owner of the area of the city of Warsaw, whereas the ownership of the real estate would remain in private hands. Contrary to how it tends to be interpreted, the concept did not originate in the Soviet Union but had once been proposed by Hans Bernoulli, Swiss architect, urban planner and reformer, who had worked as a consultant of the urban development plans of Warsaw in the 1930s. Bernoulli adopted the idea from Silvio Gesell, an economist and author of the ‘natural economic order theory’ (natürliche Wirtschaftsordnung), which intended to reform the social order. The article seeks to present the history of the actual concept of the ‘Bierut Decree’, which has been distorted during its implementation, as the residents of Warsaw lost not only the land but also the ownership of their houses.