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What was the “Right to the Heimat”? West German Expellees and the Many Meanings of Heimkehr

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2012

Andrew Demshuk
Andrew Demshuk*
Affiliation:
University of Alabama at Birmingham
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Extract

Twenty years and a day after Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender, Hanover county administrator Helmut Janssen declared to an assembly of East Prussian expellee leaders that Germany was still destined to recover all of the territory it had possessed in 1937. One day, he claimed, the roughly twelve million ethnic Germans expelled from the lost eastern territories and eastern Europe in the wake of the war would return home. Although by 1965 this political goal seemed “further away than ever before,” he repeated an expellee declaration of March 1960, which pledged that all expellees “still want to return to the Heimat [homeland]—now, in the future, and forever.”

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Central European History , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , September 2012 , pp. 523 - 556
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Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 2012

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References

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3 For an example, see RMW, “Für Recht und Heimat. Dr. Gille umreißt die Forderungen der Heimatvertriebenen,” Das Ostpreußenblatt. Organ der Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen 10, no. 16, May 9, 1959, 1–2Google Scholar. Amid their usual political tirades, the editors emphasized that Landsmannschaft leader Alfred Gille was the “only legitimate speaker” for “millions of German expellees.”

4 The concept of national “self-determination” had permeated interwar debates about human rights, in particular the question of German minorities in Prussian and Habsburg successor states such as Poland and Czechoslovakia. After Austria and the Sudetenland failed to fall to Germany during the treaties after World War I, the left-leaning Bohemian activist and law professor Rudolf Laun spent the Weimar era advocating for the “self-determination” of German minorities: that is, for the annexation of their Heimat to Germany. After the ethnic cleansing of Germans in the aftermath of World War II, Laun easily translated the notion of self-determination into Recht auf die Heimat, meaning the reversal of all German territorial losses and right of German expellees to return home. See Laun, Rudolf, Das Recht auf die Heimat (Hanover-Darmstadt: Hermann Schroedel Verlag, 1951)Google Scholar. See Lora Wildenthal's analysis in “Rudolf Laun and the Human Rights of Germans in Occupied and Early West Germany,” in Human Rights in the Twentieth Century, ed. Hoffmann, Stefan-Ludwig (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 125–146CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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19 von Moltke, Johannes, No Place like Home: Locations of Heimat in German Cinema (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005), 5, 139Google Scholar. This was a useful extension of the theories of Heimat by Confino and Celia Applegate, which illustrated the modernity of Heimat as an invented regional identity and its role as an escape from the delegitimized nation after 1945. Applegate, Celia, A Nation of Provincials: The German Idea of Heimat (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Confino, Alon, The Nation as a Local Metaphor: Württemberg, Imperial Germany, and National Memory, 1871–1918 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1997)Google Scholar.

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24 For more on this expellee sense of social disenfranchisement despite the attainment of legal citizenship, see Demshuk, Andrew, “Citizens in Name Only: The National Status of the German Expellees, 1945–1953,” Ethnopolitics 5, no. 4 (Nov. 2006): 383–397CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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27 Section XI, article 116 of the BRD Grundgesetz (May 23, 1949) confirmed complete legal equality between all Germans “in the territory of the German Reich as at December 31, 1937,” along with “refugees or expellees of German stock.” “The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany,” May 23, 1949, Germany 1947–49: The Story in Documents, Dept. of State Pub. 3556, European and British Commonwealth Series 9 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, March 1950), 301Google Scholar. The 1953 Federal Expellee Law promised expellee leaders forty to forty-five million West German marks per year. Unger, Corinna R., Ostforschung in Westdeutschland. Die Erforschung des europäischen Ostens und die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, 1945–1975 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2007), 96Google Scholar.

28 Schoenberg, Germans from the East, 317–320.

29 See Christian Lotz's helpful corrective in Die Deutung des Verlusts, 144.

30 Lukaschek, Hans, “Begrüßung, September 1950,” in 1. Bundestreffen der Schlesier der Landsmannschaft Schlesien für das Gebiet der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und Berlin (Landsmannschaft Schlesien, 1950), 4Google Scholar.

31 For analysis of crucial social and economic legislation in the western zones through the first postwar decade, see Erker, Paul, Rechnung für Hitlers Krieg. Aspekte und Probleme des Lastenausgleichs (Heidelberg: Verlag Regionalkultur, 2004)Google Scholar; Hughes, Michael, Shouldering the Burdens of Defeat: West Germany and the Reconstruction of Social Justice (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999)Google Scholar; Oldenhage, Kersten, ed., Lastenausgleich (1948–1990) (Koblenz: Bundesarchiv, 2002)Google Scholar; Schillinger, Reinhold, Der Entscheidungsprozess beim Lastenausgleich, 1945–1952 (St. Katharinen: Scripta Mercaturae, 1985)Google Scholar; and Wenzel, Rüdiger, Die große Verschiebung? Das Ringen um den Lastenausgleich im Nachkriegsdeutschland von den ersten Vorarbeiten bis zur Verabschiedung des Gesetzes 1952 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2008)Google Scholar, the latter based entirely on research conducted before 1989.

32 As Schwartz demonstrated, the Lastenausgleich funds largely went to other needy parties, such as pensioners, while the economic miracle of the 1950s and 1960s offered expellees far greater material benefits. See “Vertriebene im doppelten Deutschland. Integrations- und Erinnerungspolitik in der DDR und in der Bundesrepublik,” Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte 56, no. 1 (January 2008): 101–151, here 127Google Scholar.

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37 Elizabeth K. Horst, “The Expulsion of Germans from the East and the Construction of Memory, 1944–1960” (master's thesis, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 1994), 3.

38 The Federal Expellee Law (Bundesvertriebenengesetz) added that, in order to “support science and research” about the lost German East, authorities had to “secure, expand, and utilize archives, museums, and libraries, as well as support and guarantee the creation of art and education.” See Bundesvertriebenengesetz, Section 96, May 19, 1953, http://bundesrecht.juris.de/bvfg/index.html.

39 Vollack, Manfred and Schmelzle, Georg, Ostdeutschland und ehemalige deutsche Siedlungsgebiete in Ost- und Südosteuropa (Stade: Selbstverlag der Schulerzeitung WIR, 1961), 4Google Scholar.

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43 See, for instance, the case of the “Brieg tower” in Brieg's Patenstadt Goslar in Demshuk, Andrew, The Lost German East: Forced Migration and the Politics of Memory, 1945–1970 (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 177–183CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44 E. Hahn and H. H. Hahn, “Flucht und Vertreibung,” 338.

45 This coincides with the findings of Corinna R. Unger, who has observed that through the writing of Ostforschung, the leadership inadvertently offered a means for coming to terms with the loss of the eastern territories. Unger, Ostforschung in Westdeutschland, 111.

46 Schlaak, Eva-Maria, August 15, 1958, in Ein Teil Heimat seid Ihr für mich. Rundbriefe einer Mädchenklasse, 1944–2000, ed. Braun, Juliane (Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, 2002), 108Google Scholar.

47 Braun, ed., Ein Teil Heimat seid Ihr für mich, 267–268Google Scholar.

48 Boym, Svetlana, The Future of Nostalgia (New York: Basic Books, 2001), xiii, 41, 49Google Scholar. See Maurice Halbwachs's observation that “each memory is a viewpoint on the collective memory,” an evolving perspective in a social process. Halbwachs, Maurice, The Collective Memory (New York: Harper and Row, 1980), 48Google Scholar. See also Fritzsche, Peter, “How Nostalgia Narrates Modernity,” in The Work of Memory, ed. Confino, Alon and Fritzsche, Peter (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002), 62–85, here 64–66Google Scholar; and Lowenthal, David, “Past Time, Present Place: Landscape and Memory,” Geographical Review 65, no. 1 (Jan. 1975): 1–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 The dual images of Heimat—the Heimat of memory and Heimat transformed—form the analytical basis for Demshuk, The Lost German East, 13–25.

50 This early period's importance for the development of expellee thinking about the lost Heimat is explored in Demshuk, Andrew, “‘When you come back, the mountains will surely still be there!’ How Silesian Expellees Processed the Loss of their Homeland in the early Postwar Years, 1945–1949,” Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropaforschung 57, no. 2 (2008): 159–186Google Scholar.

51 Emphases in original, Norbert Hettwer, Pastoral Letter 9, May 1947, Bundesarchiv-Koblenz (hereafter BAK) Z 18/214, 90.

52 Ibid.

53 Leo Machinek, Pastoral Letter 5, Early October 1948, BAK Z 18/218, 14.

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56 Ibid., 6.

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72 Erich Mende to Christa-Maria Skopek, January 22, 1965, BAK B 137/1295.

73 Abschrift, Auszüge aus dem Schreiben des Herrn Otto Krimmer, Stara Jamka, pocz. Lofantow, pow. Niemodlin, woj. Opole (Eingang 28.7.1965) an das Deutsche Rote Kreuz, Suchdienst Hamburg, BAK B 137/1295.

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83 For Löbe, this did not mean accepting Polish myths that, for instance, Breslau possessed a strong Polish history, and in 1956 he sustained a vague “hope” that some sort of understanding about the “injustice” could be reached. Löbe, Paul, “Erinnerungen an Breslau,” in Breslau. Hauptstadt Schlesiens in 71 Bildern, ed. Hupka, Herbert (Munich: Gräfe und Unzer Verlag, 1956), 66–67Google Scholar.

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86 “‘Akon’ fordert Abzug der Polen aus Ostdeutschland,” Dürener Nachrichten, November 10, 1964, BAK B 234/42Google Scholar.

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88 Landsberg, Ludwig, “Rückkehr ohne Illusion. Ein Beitrag zur Vertriebenenfrage,” Briegische Briefe 6, no. 2 (February 1952): 36–39, here 38Google Scholar.

89 Ibid., 36, 39. For a comparable view, see Matzke, Horst, “Ist der Begriff ‘Heimat’ Ausdruck der Vergangenheit? Gedanken aus dem Arbeitskreis ‘Europa und der Osten’ der Heidelberger Studenten-Gemeinde,” Schlesien jenseits und diesseits der Neiße. Mitteilungsblatt der Evangelischen Jugend aus Schlesien 3, no. 3/4 (March/April 1956): 8–9Google Scholar.

90 Kapitza's movement had been so insular that the same writers wrote most of the articles for its journal, the Piasten Kurier. Kapitza himself was born in Upper Silesia and spent the postwar years as a lawyer in Hildesheim. For more on the interwar Upper Silesian independence movement, see Doose, Günther, Die separatistische Bewegung in Oberschlesien nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg, 1918–1922 (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1987)Google Scholar; and Kamusella, Tomasz, The Szlonzoks and their Language: Between Germany, Poland, and Szlonzokian Nationalism (San Domenico: European University Institute, 2003)Google Scholar. Malek, Steffan G., “Das muß jeder Oberschlesier wissen!,” Piasten-Kurier. Wegweiser für die Heimkehr nach Oberschlesien 2, no. 5 (November 1952): 2Google Scholar.

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92 Dr. Braedel, A., “Der Informator der Oberschlesischen Aktion,” Gleiwitzer und Beuthener Heimatblatt 1, no. 12 (November 1951), 7–8Google Scholar.

93 Malek, “Das muß jeder Oberschlesier wissen!,” 2–3.

94 “Doppel-Agenten. Conrad und die Detektive,” Der Spiegel 19, May 6, 1953, 10–15, here 11Google Scholar.

95 Lukaschek, Hans, “Nie vergessene Heimat,” in Nie vergessene Heimat. Erinnerungsband an die Ostgebiete (Hamburg: Thordsen, 1950), 5Google Scholar.

96 Dust jacket, Nie vergessene Heimat.

97 Stickler encapsulated expellee leaders' demands as such in “Ostdeutsch heißt Gesamtdeutsch,” 433.

98 While examining the postwar use of the terms Vertriebene and Flüchtlinge, Martin Wengeler traces the first appearance of the term “Berufsvertriebenen” to a 1959 Spiegel article. Wengeler, Martin, “Multikulturelle Gesellschaft oder Ausländer raus? Der sprachliche Umgang mit der Einwanderung seit 1945,” in Kontroverse Begriffe. Geschichte des öffentlichen Sprachgebrauchs in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, ed. Stötzel, Georg and Wengeler, Martin, 711–747 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1995), 715Google Scholar. Expellee leaders responded at once. See ckp, “Schlecht gedankt,” Das Ostpreußenblatt 10, no. 38, Sept. 19, 1959, 1Google Scholar.

99 K. W., “Generalleutnant Alfred Hemmann kehrte heim. An der Zonengrenze wurde ihm die BHZ überreicht,” Bunzlauer Heimat-Zeitung 4, no. 14, October 1955, 9Google Scholar. For the shared role of POWs and expellees in contributing to the West German community of victims after World War II (in which memory of German war crimes played little part), see Moeller, War Stories.

100 For a more detailed analysis of travel experiences as a means for expellees to come to terms with loss, see Demshuk, Andrew, “‘Heimaturlauber.’ Westdeutsche Reiseerlebnisse im polnischen Schlesien vor 1970,” Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropaforschung 60, no. 1 (2011): 79–99Google Scholar.

101 Gerhard Weber, the paper editor, never ventured back to the East himself and discouraged travel in general. Weber, Gerhard, “Wie es in der Heimat aussieht,” Liegnitzer Heimatbrief 10, no. 9 (May 10, 1958): 136Google Scholar.

102 Andiel, F., “Unserer Heimat droht Gefahr,” Der Schlesier. Breslauer Nachrichten 22, no. 23, June 4, 1970, 1Google Scholar.

103 Hohn, Irene, “Letter to the Editors,” Liegnitzer Heimatbrief 23, no. 1 (Early January 1971): 3Google Scholar.

104 Aktion Widerstand. Eine antidemokratische Bewegung, dargestellt in Dokumenten (Bonn-Bad Godesberg: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 1971)Google Scholar.

105 Hupka, Herbert, “Bekenntnis zu Schlesien,” Schlesische Nachrichten 23, December 1, 2004, 3Google Scholar.

106 European Court of Human Rights, “Fourth Section Decision as to the Admissibility of Application no. 47550/06 by Preussische Treuhand GmbH & Co. KG a.A against Poland” (October 7, 2008), http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?action=html&documentId=841872&portal=hbkm&source=externalbydocnumber&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649 (accessed October 30, 2011).

107 Interview with Ruth Knaut, February 15, 2008.