History of German settlement in Eastern Europe

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This article is part of the series: Territorial changes of Germany History of Germany
Background
History of German settlement in Eastern Europe
World War I
Treaty of Versailles
Silesian Uprisings
Polish corridor
Interbellum
Return of the Saar region
Rhineland Remilitarization
Anschluss (Austria)
Munich Agreement
World War II
Großdeutschland
Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
Yalta Conference
Potsdam Conference
Post-World War II
Territorial changes of Germany after World War II
Treaty of Zgorzelec
Treaty of Warsaw
Treaty of Prague
Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany
Recovered Territories
Former eastern territories of Germany
Oder-Neisse line
See also
Territorial changes of Poland

Historically, large populations of ethnic Germans have been concentrated in Central and Eastern Europe. In German, these populations are commonly referred to as Volksdeutsche. The number of ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe dropped dramatically as the result of the German exodus from Eastern Europe. However, there are still a substantial number of ethnic Germans in the countries that are now Germany and Austria's neighbors to the east—Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia. In addition, there are or have been significant populations in such areas as Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, and Russia.

The German presence in Central and Eastern Europe is rooted in centuries of history, that of Prussia, Austria-Hungary, Bukovina, Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), Bessarabia and of a fractious Germany and eastward parts of Europe made up of many city states, whose royal families ruled over multi-ethnic populations.

Every city of even modest size as far east as Russia had a German quarter and a Jewish quarter (though, of course, there were relatively few Jews east of the Pale of Settlement). Travellers along any road would pass through, for example, a German village, then a Czech village, then a Polish village, etc., depending on the region.

Contents 1 Migration Period 2 Middle Ages 2.1 Hanseatic League 3 Teutonic Knights 4 Ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe 5 18th century 5.1 Partitions of Poland 6 19th century 6.1 The rise of European nationalism 7 Historical eastern Germany 7.1 German Empire 7.2 World War I 7.3 Treaty of Versailles 7.4 Polish corridor 7.5 Nazi claims to Lebensraum 7.6 Danzig and the Danzig corridor 7.7 World War II 7.7.1 Nazi occupation of Poland 7.7.2 Support of Nazi invasion by German minorities 7.7.3 Evacuation, flight and expulsion of Germans during World War II 8 Determining the postwar German-Polish border 8.1 The Yalta Conference 8.2 The Postdam Conference 8.3 Expulsion of Germans from eastern Europe after World War II 8.3.1 Czechoslovakia 8.3.2 Hungary 8.3.3 Soviet Union 8.3.3.1 Kaliningrad Oblast 8.3.3.2 Memel Territory 8.4 The results 8.5 Summary of German expellee population 9 Legacy of the expulsion 9.1 Expelled Germans in postwar Germany 9.2 Polish-German relations 9.2.1 Status of the German minority in Poland 9.2.2 Finalization of the Polish-German border 9.2.3 Restricting sale of property to foreigners 9.3 German minority in the Czech Republic 9.3.1 Czech-German relations 9.4 German minority in Hungary 10 References 11 Notes

[edit] Migration Period

Main article: Migration Period

Near the end of the Migration Period (300-900 AD) that brought the Germanic and Slavic tribes as well as the Huns, etc., to what is now Central Europe, Slavs expanded westwards at the same time as Germans expanded eastwards. The result was German colonization as far east as Romania, and Slavic colonization as far west as present-day Lübeck (on the Baltic Sea), Hamburg (connected to the North Sea), and along the river Elbe and its tributary Saale further south.

The migration movement may be divided into two phases; the first phase, between AD 300 and 500, largely seen from the Mediterranean perspective, put Germanic peoples in control of most areas of the former Western Roman Empire. (See also: Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Burgundians, Alans, Langobards, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Suebi, Alamanni). The first to formally enter Roman territory -- as refugees from the Huns -- were the Visigoths in 376. Tolerated by the Romans on condition that they defend the Danube frontier, they rebelled, eventually invading Italy and sacking Rome itself (410) before settling in the Iberia and founding a 200-year-long kingdom there. They were followed into Roman territory by the Ostrogoths led by Theodoric the Great, settling in Italy itself.

In Gaul, the Franks, a fusion of western Germanic tribes whose leaders had been strongly aligned with Rome, entered Roman lands more gradually and peacefully during the 5th century, and were generally accepted as rulers by the Roman-Gaulish population. Fending off challenges from the Allemanni, Burgundians and Visigoths, the Frankish kingdom became the nucleus of the future states of France and Germany. Meanwhile Roman Britain was more slowly conquered by Angles and Saxons.

The second phase, between AD 500 and 700, saw Slavic tribes settling in Eastern Europe, particularly in eastern Magna Germania, and gradually making it predominantly Slavic. The Bulgars, who were present in far eastern Europe since the second century, in the seventh century expanded their kingdom to eastern Balkan territory of the Byzantine Empire.

The Arabs tried to invade Europe via Asia Minor in the second half of the seventh century and the early eighth century, but were eventually defeated at the siege of Constantinople by the joint forces of Byzantium and Bulgaria in 717-18. At the same time, they invaded Europe via Gibraltar, conquering Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula) from the Visigoths in 711 before finally being halted by the Franks at the Battle of Tours in 732. These battles largely fixed the frontier between Christendom and Islam for the next three centuries.

During the eighth to tenth centuries, not usually counted as part of the Migrations Period but still within the Early Middle Ages, new waves of migration, first of the Magyars and later of the Turkic peoples, as well as Viking expansion from Scandinavia, threatened the newly established order of the Frankish Empire in Central Europe.

[edit] Middle Ages

Main article: Ostsiedlung

The medieval German Ostsiedlung or ("east colonization") refers to the expansion of German culture, language, states, and settlement eastern European regions inhabited by Slavs and Balts.

After Christianization, the superior organization of the Roman Catholic Church led to further German expansion, known as the medieval Drang nach Osten. By 1100 or so, various rulers were often inviting ethnic Germans to their territories as craftsmen, miners, or farmers.

Population growth during the High Middle Ages stimulated movement of peoples from the Rhenish, Flemish, and Saxon territories of the Holy Roman Empire eastwards into the less-populated Baltic region and Poland. These movements were supported by the German nobility, the Slavic kings and dukes, and the medieval Church. The majority of this settlement was peaceful, although it sometimes took place at the expense of Slavs and pagan Balts (see Northern Crusades).

Settlement in the East (German: Ostsiedlung), also known as German eastward expansion, refers to the eastward migration and settlement of Germans into regions inhabited since the Great Migrations by Balts, Romanians, Hungarians and, since about the 8th century, the Slavs.^[1]

Ostsiedlung began around the 12th century, during the High Middle Ages, but accelerated along the Baltic with the advent of the Teutonic Order.^[2] In German scholarship^{[citation needed]}, it refers especially to the reassertion of Saxon authority over Sorbian or Wendish areas, especially Brandenburg by Albert the Bear.

The Medieval Ostsiedlung began when Germans settled east of the Elbe and Saale rivers, regions largely inhabited by Polabian Slavs. Likewise, in Styria and Carinthia, German communities took form in areas inhabited by Slovenians. The emigration of the inhabitants from the Valais canton in Switzerland to the areas that had been settled before by the Romans had to some extent the same preconditions as the colonisation of the East, for example, Romania.

In the middle of the 14th century, the settling progress slowed as a result of the Black Death; in addition, the most arable and promising regions were largely occupied. Local Slavic leaders in late Medieval Pomerania and Silesia continued inviting German settlers to their territories.

[edit] Hanseatic League

Main article: Hanseatic League

At the same time, trade in the Baltic Sea and Eastern Central Europe became dominated by Germans through the Hanseatic League. Along the trade routes, Hanseatic trade stations became centers of Germanness with large, relatively wealthy German populations and their influence on the worldly powers.

The Hanseatic League (German: die Hanse, Dutch: de Hanze, Estonian: hansa, Polish: Hanza, Russian: Ганза (Ganza), Danish: Hansestæderne, Swedish: Hansan) was an alliance of trading guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly over the Baltic Sea, to a certain extent the North Sea, and most of Northern Europe for a time in the later Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, between the 13th and 17th centuries.

Historians generally trace the origins of the Hanseatic League to the foundation of the Northern German town of Lübeck, established in 1158/1159 after the capture of the area from the Count of Schauenburg and Holstein by Henry the Lion, the Duke of Saxony.

Exploratory trading adventures, raids and piracy had occurred earlier throughout the Baltic (see Vikings) — the sailors of Gotland sailed up rivers as far away as Novgorod, for example — but the scale of international economy in the Baltic area remained insignificant before the growth of the Hanseatic League.

German cities achieved domination of trade in the Baltic with striking speed over the next century, and Lübeck became a central node in all the sea-borne trade that linked the areas around the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The 15th century saw the climax of Lübeck's hegemony. (Visby, one of the midwives of the Hanseatic league in 1358, declined to become a member. Visby dominated trade in the Baltic before the Hanseatic league, and with its monopolistic ideology, suppressed the Gotlandic free-trade competition.)

[edit] Teutonic Knights

Main article: Teutonic Knights

From the latter half of the 13th century to the 15th century, the crusading Teutonic Knights ruled over the lands of Prussia through their monastic state. The Knights' expansionist policies brought them into conflict with the newly-reunited Kingdom of Poland and embroiled them in several wars, culminating in the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War, whereby the united armies of Poland and Lithuania, bolstered by Bohemian mercenaries, defeated the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Tannenberg in 1410. Its defeat was formalised in the Second Treaty of Thorn in 1466 ending the Thirteen Years' War, leaving western Prussia under Polish control as the province of Royal Prussia and eastern Prussia remaining under the knights, but as a fief of Poland.

The Teutonic Order lost eastern Prussia when, with the advance of Lutheranism, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach secularized the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Order in 1525, after having converted to Lutheran Protestantism, establishing himself as Duke Albert of Prussia and a vassal of the Polish crown (see Prussian Homage). Walther von Cronberg, the next Grand Master, was enfeoffed with the title to Prussia after the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, but the Order never regained possession of the territory. Elector and Duke Frederick William succeeded in revoking Polish sovereignty over the largely Germanized Duchy of Prussia in 1660.

[edit] Ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe

Thus some of the people whom we today often consider "Germans", with a common culture and worldview very different from that of the surrounding rural peoples, colonized as far north of present-day Germany as Bergen (in Norway), Stockholm (in Sweden), and Vyborg (in Russia). At the same time, it is important to note that the Hanseatic League was not exclusively German in any ethnic sense. Many towns who joined the league should not at all be characterized as "German"; they were outside of the Holy Roman Empire, which even in itself was not in any way exclusively German.

It is thus that some groups, such as the Baltic Germans, the Volga Germans, and the Transylvanian Saxons, had established residence in the eastern Baltic, southern Russia, and what is now Romania, respectively. By the 1500s, much of Pomerania, Prussia, the Sudetenland, Bessarabia, Galicia, South Tyrol, Carniola, and Lower Styria had many German cities and villages. Numerous transfers and migrations occurred later.

[edit] 18th century

[edit] Partitions of Poland

After the Partitions of Poland by the Kingdom of Prussia, Austria, and the Russian Empire in the late 18th century, Prussia gained much of western Poland. Russia and Sweden eventually conquered the lands taken by the Livonian Order in Estonia and Livonia.

[edit] 19th century

By the 1800s, every city of even modest size as far east as Russia had a German quarter and a Jewish quarter. Travellers along any road would pass through, for example, a German village, then a Czech village, then a Polish village, etc., depending on the region.

Certain parts of Eastern Europe, especially those close to the border of Germany contained areas in which ethnic Germans constituted a majority.

[edit] The rise of European nationalism

The expulsion of Germans after World War II must be interpreted in the context of the evolution of global nationalism in general and European nationalism in particular.

The latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century saw the rise of nationalism in Europe. Previously, a country consisted largely of whatever peoples lived on the land that was under the dominion of a particular ruler. Thus, as principalities and kingdoms grew through conquest and marriage, a ruler could wind up with peoples of many different ethnicities under his dominion.

The concept of nationalism was based on the idea of a "people" who shared a common bond through race, religion, language and culture. Furthermore, nationalism asserted that each "people" had a right to its own nation. Thus, much of European history in the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century can be understood as efforts to realign national boundaries with this concept of "one people, one nation".

Much conflict would arise when one nation asserted territorial rights to land outside its borders on the basis of a common bond with the people living on that land. Another source of conflict arose when a group of people who constituted a minority in one nation would seek to secede from the nation either to form an independent nation or join another nation with whom they felt stronger ties. Yet another source of conflict was the desire of some nations to expel people from territory within its borders on the ground that those people did not share a common bond with the majority of people living in that nation.

[edit] Historical eastern Germany

Main article: Historical eastern Germany

[edit] German Empire

East Brandenburg, Silesia, the Province of Prussia (later split into East Prussia and West Prussia), Pomerania and Province of Posen were incorporated into the German Empire by Otto von Bismarck in 1871. In some areas, such as the Province of Posen or the southern part of Upper Silesia, the majority population was Polish, while in others it was predominantly German.

[edit] World War I

By World War I, there were isolated groups of Germans or so-called Schwaben as far southeast as the Bosporus (Turkey), Georgia, and Azerbaijan. After the war, Germany's and Austria-Hungary's loss of territory and the rise of communism in the Soviet Union meant that more Germans than ever were minorities in various countries, though on the whole they still enjoyed fairly good treatment.

Under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk the Germans gained a controlling interest in many western territories of the former Russian Empire, that the Soviet Union was forced to surrender as a price for peace. However this control was short-lived as the controlling interest in territories was removed either by the direct actions of the national groups in those territories, or by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

[edit] Treaty of Versailles

The provisions of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I obliged Germany to transfer some territory to other countries. In Central Europe, these included:

• Most of Greater Poland ("Province of Posen") and Pomerelia (parts of West Prussia), mostly what the Kingdom of Prussia had taken in the Partitions of Poland was handed over to the re-established Polish state after the Greater Poland Uprising (this land comprised an area of 53,800 km² 4,224,000 inhabitants (1931) including 510 km² and 26,000 inhabitants from Upper Silesia). ^[3]
• The Hlučín Area of Moravian-Silesian Region to Czechoslovakia (316 or 333 km² and 49,000 people),
• The eastern part of Upper Silesia (including Katowice), to Poland (area 3,214 km² and 965,000 people),
• The area of Działdowo (Soldau) in East Prussia to Poland (area 492 km²),
• The northeastern part of East Prussia, named Memel Territory, which was placed under the control of France (and was later annexed by Lithuania, as the Klaipėda Region),
• A few villages in the eastern part of West Prussia and in the southern part of East Prussia (Warmia and Masuria) to Poland, after a plebiscite.
• The city of Danzig (Polish Gdańsk) with the delta of the Vistula river at the Baltic Sea, was made the Free City of Danzig under the League of Nations and partially Polish authority (area 1893 km², 408,000 inhabitants 1929).

[edit] Polish corridor

After World War I, the creation of the Polish Corridor cut off the East Prussian land connection from the rest of Weimar Germany.

[edit] Nazi claims to Lebensraum

In the 19th century, the rise of romantic nationalism in Germany led to the concepts of Pan-Germanism and Drang nach Osten, which in part gave rise to the concept of Lebensraum.

German nationalists used the existence of large German minorities in other countries as a basis for territorial claims. Many of the propaganda themes of the Nazi regime against Czechoslovakia and Poland claimed that the ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) in those territories were persecuted. The status of ethnic Germans, and the lack of contiguity of German majority lands resulted in numerous repatriation pacts whereby the German authorities would organize population transfers (especially the Nazi-Soviet population transfers arranged between Adolf Hitler) and Joseph Stalin, and others with Benito Mussolini's Italy) so that both Germany and the other country would increase their homogeneity.

However, these population transfers were considered but a drop in the pond, and the "Heim ins Reich" rhetoric over the continued disjoint status of enclaves such as Danzig and Königsberg was an agitating factor in the politics leading up to World War II, and is considered by many to be among the major causes of Nazi aggressiveness and thus the war. Adolf Hitler used these issues as a pretext for waging wars of aggression against Czechoslovakia and Poland.

[edit] Danzig and the Danzig corridor

As a result of the Versailles treaty after World War I, Danzig became a free city under the protection of the League of Nations. Its predominantly German population had no right of self-determination in a referendum as in other disputed parts of the former German Empire. When Poland regained its independence after World War I, the Poles hoped to regain the city to provide the free access to the sea which they had been promised by the Allies on the basis of Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points". However, since the population of the city was predominantly German, it was not placed under Polish sovereignty, but became the Free City of Danzig, an independent quasi-state under the auspices of the League of Nations, governed by its predominantly German residents but with its external affairs largely under Polish control. The Free City had its own constitution, national anthem, parliament (Volkstag), and government (Senat). It issued its own stamps and currency, bearing the legend "Freie Stadt Danzig" and symbols of the city's maritime orientation and history.

The vast majority of the city's population favoured eventual return to Germany. In the early 1930s the Nazi Party capitalized on these pro-German sentiments, and in 1933 garnered 38 percent of vote for the Danzig Volkstag. Thereafter, the Nazis under the Bavarian Gauleiter Albert Förster achieved dominance in the city government - which, nominally, was still overseen by the League of Nations' High Commissioner.

Nazi demands, at their minimum, would have seen the return of Danzig to Germany and a one kilometer, state-controlled route for easier access across the Polish Corridor, from Pomerania to Danzig (and from there to East Prussia).^[4] Originally, the Poles had rejected this proposal, but later appeared willing to negotiate (as did the British) by August.^[5] By this time, however, Hitler had Soviet backing and had decided to attack Poland. Germany feigned an interest in diplomacy (delaying the Case White deadline twice), to try to drive a wedge between Britain and Poland.^[6]

[edit] World War II

The status of ethnic Germans, and the lack of contiguity resulted in numerous repatriation pacts whereby the German authorities would organize population transfers (especially the Nazi-Soviet population transfers arranged between Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, and others with Benito Mussolini's Italy) so that both Germany and the other country would increase their homogeneity. However, this was but a drop in the pond, and the Heim ins Reich rhetoric over the continued disjoint status of enclaves such as Danzig and Königsberg was an agitating factor in the politics leading up to World War II, and is considered by many to be among the major causes of Nazi aggressiveness and thus the war.

The actions of Germany ultimately had extremely negative consequences for most ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe, who often fought on the side of the Nazi regime - some were drafted, others volunteered or worked through the paramilitary organisations such as Selbstschutz, which supported the German invasion of Poland and murdered tens of thousands of Poles. In places such as Yugoslavia, Germans were drafted by their country of residence, served loyally, and even held as POWs by the Nazis, and yet later found themselves drafted again, this time by the Nazis after their takeover. Because it was technically not permissible to draft non-citizens, many ethnic Germans ended up being (oxymoronically) forcibly volunteered for the Waffen-SS. In general, those closest to Nazi Germany were the most involved in fighting for her, but the Germans in remote places like the Caucasus were likewise accused of collaboration. The territorial changes following World War II can be very roughly understood as the following: Russia became bigger, Germany became smaller, and Poland was forced west. This anecdotal summary (minus the plight of the Poles) can be extended to Germany's borders with France and Czechoslovakia as well.

[edit] Nazi occupation of Poland

On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland, triggering the outbreak of World War II. Upon the defeat of Poland, the territories were occupied and annexed by Nazi Germany. These annexations were not recognised by the Allied governments, that after the 1942 Declaration by the United Nations were also known as the United Nations.

[edit] Support of Nazi invasion by German minorities

German minority organisations assisted the German Reich in its invasion in Czechoslovakia and took part in the September 1939 Campaign in Poland. Selbstschutz and German nationalist organisations created in Poland and Czechoslovakia by Germans took part in various actions (sabotage, etc.) against Polish population.

[edit] Evacuation, flight and expulsion of Germans during World War II

By late 1944 the after the Soviet success of In the wake of the Belorussian Offensive in August 1944, the Eastern Front became relatively stable. Romania and Bulgaria had been forced to surrender and declare war on Germany. The Germans had lost Budapest and most of the rest of Hungary. The plains of Poland were now open to the Soviet Red Army. Starting on January 12, 1945, the Red Army began the Vistula-Oder Offensive which was followed a day later by the start of the Red Army's East Prussian Offensive.

German populations in Eastern Europe took flight from the advancing Red Army, resulting in a great population shift. After the final Soviet offensives began in January, 1945, hundreds of thousands of German refugees, many of whom had fled to Danzig by foot from East Prussia (see evacuation of East Prussia), tried to escape through the city's port in a large-scale evacuation that employed hundreds of German cargo and passenger ships. Some of the ships were sunk by the Soviets, including the Wilhelm Gustloff, after an evacuation was attempted at neighboring Gdynia. In the process, tens of thousands of refugees were killed.

Cities such as Danzig also endured heavy Western Allied and Soviet bombardment. Those who survived and could not escape encountered the Red Army. On 30 March 1945, the Soviets captured the city and left it in ruins.[3]

[edit] Determining the postwar German-Polish border

As it became evident that the Allies were going to defeat Nazi Germany decisively, the question arose as to how to redraw the borders of Eastern European countries after the war. In the context of those decisions, the problem arose of what to do about ethnic minorities within the redrawn borders.

[edit] The Yalta Conference

The final decision to move Poland's boundary westward was made by the US, Britain and the Soviets at the Yalta Conference, shortly before the end of the war. The precise location of the border was left open; the western Allies also accepted in general the principle of the Oder River as the future western border of Poland and of population transfer as the way to prevent future border disputes. The open question was whether the border should follow the eastern or western Neisse rivers, and whether Stettin, the traditional seaport of Berlin, should remain German or be included in Poland. The western Allies sought to place the border on the eastern Neisse, but Stalin insisted that the border should be on the western Neisse.

[edit] The Postdam Conference

At the Potsdam Conference the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union placed the German territories east of the Oder-Neisse line (Poland referred to by the Polish communist government as the "Western Territories" or "Regained Territories") as formally under Polish administrative control. It was anticipated that a final peace treaty would follow shortly and either confirm this border or determine whatever alterations might be agreed upon.

The final agreements in effect compensated Poland for 187,000 km² located east of the Curzon line with 112,000 km² of former German territories. The northerneastern third of East Prussia was directly annexed by the Soviet Union and remains part of Russia to this day.

It was also decided that all Germans remaining in the new and old Polish territory should be expelled, to prevent any claims of minority rights. Among the provisions of the Potsdam Conference was a section that provided for the Orderly transfer of German populations. The specific wording of this section was as follows:

The Three Governments, having considered the question in all its aspects, recognize that the transfer to Germany of German populations, or elements thereof, remaining in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, will have to be undertaken. They agree that any transfers that take place should be effected in an orderly and humane manner.

[edit] Expulsion of Germans from eastern Europe after World War II

Main article: Expulsion of Germans after World War II

After the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, Gdańsk was assigned to Poland, along with all other territories east of the Oder-Neisse line.

The majority of the German-speaking population east of the Oder–Neisse line that had not already been evacuated by Nazi authorities or fled from the advancing Red Army in the winter of 1944–1945 was expelled with no consideration as to whether their families had lived in the region for centuries or were recent settlers who moved there during the Second World War. At the same time, several million Poles similarly expelled from former Polish land annexed by the USSR were settled there. Although in the post-war period earlier German sources often cited the number of evacuated and expelled Germans at 16 million and the death toll at between 1.7^[7] and 2.5 million^[8], the numbers are considered by some writers to be exaggerated^[9]. Some present-day German estimates place the numbers at 14 million expelled and about 500 thousand killed^[10][9]. The exact number of civilian casualties therefore remains disputed.

[edit] Czechoslovakia

See also: Beneš decrees, Sudetenland, Ústí massacre.

Before the German annexation of Sudetenland, roughly one-third of the population in the Czech lands had been ethnic Germans. Most of the so-called Sudeten Germans, were active Nazi collaborators and supporters before and during the Second World War. After the war, the Germans living in the border regions of Czechoslovakia were expelled from the country in late 1945. Many thousands died violent deaths during the expulsion and many more died from hunger and untreated illnesses contracted during or after the massive exodus. In 1946, an estimated 1.3 million ethnic Germans were deported to the American zone of what would become West Germany. An estimated 800,000 were deported to the Soviet zone (in what would become East Germany). [4]

[edit] Hungary

In Hungary the persecution of the German minority began in 22 December 1944 when the Soviet Commander-in-Chief ordered the deportations. Five percent of the German population (appr. 20 000 people) had been evacuated by the Volksbund before that. They went to Austria, but many of them returned to their home next spring. In January 1945 the Soviet Army collected 32 000 ethnic Germans and deported them to the Soviet Union to do slave labour (malenkiy robot). Many of them died there because of the hardships and cruelties. On 29 December 1945 the new Hungarian Government ordered the deportation of every people who declared him/herself German in the census of 1941 or was a member of the Volksbund, the SS and any other armed German organisation. According to this decree mass deportations began. The first wagon departed from Budaörs (Wudersch) on 19 January 1946 with 5788 people. 185-200 000 German-speaking Hungarian citizens were deprived of their rights and all possessions, and deported to West Germany. Until July 1948 a more 50 000 people went to the eastern zone of Germany. Most of the deported Germans found a new home in Baden-Württemberg, Bayern and Hessen. In 1947 and 1948 a forced population exchange happened between Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Some 74 000 ethnic Hungarians were deported from Slovakia in exchange for about the same number of Slovaks from Hungary. They and the Székelys of Bukovina were settled in the former German villages of southeastern Transdanubia. In some parts of Tolna, Baranya and Somogy counties the original population was totally replaced by the new settlers. In 1949 only 22 455 people dared to declare themselves German, but the real numbers were certainly higher. Probably half of the German community was able to survive the dark years between 1944 and 1950 in Hungary.

[edit] Soviet Union

[edit] Kaliningrad Oblast

Main article: Kaliningrad Oblast

Ethnic Germans living in a small section of Russia were deported after the war . As agreed in the Potsdam Agreement the East Prussian region around Königsberg, the captical of East Prussia was annexed by the Soviet Union. The Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad and the region was called Kaliningrad Oblast. Today the Kaliningrad Oblast is a small Russian exclave separated from the rest of Russia by Lithuania and Belarus.

Königsberg, and it was an important city in the history of Germany, as it was the capital of Prussia. Immanuel Kant, the famous German philosopher, was in fact born there, in the present-day Russian exclave. Along with a section of Poland and a very small section of Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave formerly formed the German province (under the Nazis: Gau) of East Prussia, which from 1918 to 1939 had been an exclave too, but of Weimar Germany rather than of Soviet Russia. After the war, the remnant of Germans still living there were expelled and replaced by ethnic Russian settlers and the families of military staff. The expelled Germans mostly headed to Western Germany. Today, in Germany many descendants of Germans who were expelled from the former city of Königsberg are still alive. Though the deportation of Germans from this northern part of former East Prussia often was conducted in a violent and aggressive way by Soviet officials who sought to revenge the Nazi terror in Soviet areas during the war, present Russian inhabitants of the Kaliningrad sector (northern East Prussia) treat history less complicated. German names are even revived in commercial Russian trade. In future the name of Kaliningrad might be changed to the old Königsberg again. Because the exclave during Soviet times was a military zone which nobody was allowed to enter without special permission, many old German Prussian villages are still intact, though they have become dilapidated over the course of time. The city centre of Kaliningrad however was entirely rebuilt, as British bombs (1944) and the siege of Königsberg (Festung Königsberg in 1945 siege) had left it in ruins.

See also: Evacuation of East Prussia

[edit] Memel Territory

Main article: Memel Territory

Under the Treaty of Versailles, the northeastern part of East Prussia, named Memel Territory in the treaty, was placed under the control of France and was later annexed by Lithuania, as the Klaipėda Region. In 1939 the region reverted to German jurisdiction and 1n 1945 as a result of the decisions at the Potsdam Conference it was decreed that the former Memel Territory became a part of the Lithuanian SSR which was part of the USSR. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, it has been part of the Republic of Lithuania and contained within Klaipėda and Tauragė Counties. Memel Territory, or as it is now official called today, Klaipeda Region, is of continuing vital importance to Lithuania, acting as an important harbour, as well as an industrial and agrarian region. The Versailles border along the river remains in effect as the current boundary between Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia.

During the last year of World War II, most Germans inhabitants of the Memel Territory fled to the west, joining the exodus of the others from Königsberg and other cities south of the area. German civilian remnants were put on deportation trains in 1946. Ethnic Lithuanians from crowded villages replaced the former German population of Memel and surrounding formerly mixed German-Lithuanian areas. Memel was renamed Klaipėda definitively. You can still find descendants of Germans expelled from Lithuania. They are mostly found in former West Germany, like the Germans who fled from the rest of East Prussia. The fact that the section of Germany now in Lithuanian hands was small but important is reflected in a obsolete verse of the German national anthem - Von der Maas bis an die Memel ("From the Meuse to the Neman") is part of the song, referring to the Neman River (German: Memel or Memelfluss) that flows near Klaipėda.

[edit] The results

Up to 12.4 or even 16.5 million Germans of the postwar population were forced to leave. The estimates of people that lost their lives differ. According to Federal Statistics Bureau of Germany in 1958 more than 2.1 million had lost their lives during this process. The monumental statistical work of the Gesamterhebung zur Klärung des Schicksals der deutschen Bevölkerung in den Vertreibungsgebieten, Bd. 1-3, München 1965, confirms this figure. The standard study by Gerhard Reichling "Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen" concludes that 2,020,000 Germans perished as a result of the expulsion and deportation to slave labour in the Soviet Union. One German researcher, Rüdiger Overmans, has claimed that only 1,100,000 people lost their lives. These lower figures and the methodology for obtaining them are disputed by some scholars including Dr. Fritz Peter Habel and Alfred de Zayas, who maintain in the newest editions of their publications that the death toll was well over two millions. Czech and Polish sources give a much lower estimate (Czech historians arguing that most of the estimated population drop is because of the soldiers that were killed at the front). It is worth noting that the only detailed effort to count the casualities was made by ethnic Germans from Yugoslavia, who documented all their victims, resulting in a figure half the estimate of the Federal Statistics Bureau.

The deaths were caused by death marches ordered by Soviet officials, banditry, famine and widespread disease that accompanied postwar conditions in that part of Europe as well as appalling conditions in the concentration camps created to hold German civilians awaiting expulsion. Probably one of the worst examples of the latter was run by Salomon Morel.

A 1986 German source^[11] gives the following details of the population transfers. Population transfers included

• 7,122,000 from former eastern Germany,
• 279,000 from Danzig,
• 661,000 from Poland,
• 2,911,000 from Czechoslovakia,
• 165,000 from the Baltic states,
• 90,000 from the USSR,
• 199,000 from Hungary,
• 228,000 from Romania and
• 271,000 from Yugoslavia.

The expellee population, in total 11,926,000, increased to 12,400,000 in 1950 due to the natural growth in population. In line with nationalisation made towards all citizens in communist countries, property in the affected territory that belonged to Germany and Germans was confiscated and redistributed among the population.

Allied American numbers from 1957 give a number of about 16.5 million Germans who were subject to deportation. About 3 millions, according to this study, were 'lost on the way'.

The Potsdam Agreement called for equal distribution of the transferred Germans between American, British, French and Soviet occupation zones in Germany. In actuality, twice as many expelled Germans found refuge in the occupation zones that later formed "West Germany" than in the so-called "East Germany" (Soviet Zone), and large numbers of these Eastern German refugees went eventually to other countries of the world, including the United States, Canada and Australia.

It is worth noting that the expulsion was not always indiscriminate. In Czechoslovakia large numbers of skilled Sudeten German workmen were forced to remain to labour for the Czechs [5]. Likewise in the Opole/Oppeln region in Upper Silesia, German miners and their families were allowed to stay, though the German language remained forbidden for the next forty years. Secretly German traditions and dialect survived however, to be slowly recognized since the late 1990s.

[edit] Summary of German expellee population

German Expellee Population 1939-50
Description	Germany	Eastern Europe	Total
Population in 1939	9,500,000	7,100,000	16,600,000
Wartime Transfers In	500,000	0	500,000
Natural Increase 1939-1950	600,000	400,000	1,000,000
Military Losses 1939-45	900,000	550,000	1,450,000
Civilian Losses	800,000	500,000	1,300,000
Remaining in East Europe	1,450,000	1,500,000	2,950,000
Expellee Population 1950	7,450,000	4,950,000	12,400,000

Notes:
Germany-The pre-war eastern German provinces that became Polish in 1945 and Kaliningrad region that became Soviet
Eastern Europe- Includes ethnic Germans in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Danzig, the Baltic nations, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia. Does not include the USSR.
Population in 1939- Includes bilinguals who were listed as Germans.
Military Losses 1939-45 Research by R. Overmans has increased this total by 360,000 thus reducing civilian losses.
Wartime Transfers In -Wartime evacuation of persons from western Germany.
Civilian Losses -Losses primarily during military campaign in 1945, also includes 270,000 dead in the USSR after being deported as laborers. This table reflects the research of Reichling and Overmans that has adjusted the estimate of civilian deaths downward from the 1958 German government estimate of 2.1 million dead.
Remaining in East Europe-Primarily bilinguals except in the case of Romania. Research by G. Reichling has increased this total by 230,000 thus reducing civilian losses

Sources:
Gerhard Reichling. Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen. Bonn 1986 ISBN 3-88557-046-7.
Rűdiger Overmans. Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Oldenbourg 2000. ISBN 3-486-56531-1 Fritz Peter Habel Dokumente zur Sudetenfrage Langen Müller,Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7844-2691-3. Alfred de Zayas Die Nemesis von Potsdam Herbig, Munich 2005. ISBN 3-7766-2454-X. Newest statistical survey pp. 32-34.

[edit] Legacy of the expulsion

From the time that the policy was undertaken until the 1990s, there was little argument in Germany over the morality of the policy. Perhaps the primary reason for this is that Cold War geopolitics discouraged criticism of post-war Allied policies by the West Germans and of post-war Soviet policies by the East Germans. There was some discussion of the expulsions in the first decade and a half after World War II but serious review and analysis of the events was not undertaken until the 1990s. It can be surmised that the fall of the Soviet Union, the spirit of glasnost and the unification of Germany opened the door to a renewed examination of these events.

[edit] Expelled Germans in postwar Germany

After World War II many expellees (German: Heimatvertriebene) from the land east of the Oder-Neisse found refuge in both West Germany and East Germany. Refugees who had fled voluntarily but were later refused to return are often not distinguished from those who were forcibly deported, just as people born to German parents that moved into areas under German occupation either on their own or as Nazi colonists.

In a document signed 50 years ago the Heimatvertriebene organisations have also recognized the plight of the different groups of people living in today's Poland who were by force resettled there. The Heimatvertriebene are just one of the groups of millions of other people, from many different countries, who all found refuge in today's Germany.

Some of the expellees are active in politics and belong to the political right-wing. Many others do not belong to any organizations, but they continue to maintain what they call a lawful right to their homeland. The vast majority pledged to work peacefully towards that goal while rebuilding post-war Germany and Europe.

The expellees are still highly active in German politics, and are one of the major political factions of the nation, with still around 2 million members. The president of their organization is as of 2004 still a member of the national parliament.

Although expellees (in German Heimatvertriebene) and their descendants were active in West German politics, the prevailing political climate within West Germany was that of atonement for Nazi actions. However the CDU governments have shown considerable support for the expellees and German civilian victims.

[edit] Polish-German relations

Although relations between Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany have generally been cordial since 1991, there remain disputes about the War, the post-War expulsion, the treatment of the current German minority in Poland and the treatment of German heritage in modern day Western Poland.

[edit] Status of the German minority in Poland

The remaining German minority in Poland (152,897 people according to the 2002 census) has minority rights on the basis of the Polish - German treaty and minority law. German parties are not subject to the 5% threshold during the Sejm elections so Germans are able to obtain two seats. There are German speakers throughout Poland, but only the voivodeship of Opole/Oppeln has a larger concentration. In contrast, Poles in Germany do not have similar rights and claim that they are discriminated against, e.g. by Jugendamts.

[edit] Finalization of the Polish-German border

For decades, the CDU controlled German government considered the Oder-Neisse line to be completely unacceptable. Even the Social Democrats of the SPD initially refused to accept the Oder-Neisse line. The 1991 Polish-German border agreement finalized the Oder-Neisse line as the Polish-German border. The agreement gave to minority groups in both countries several rights, such as the right to use national surnames, speak their native languages, and attend schools and churches of their choice. These rights had been denied previously on the basis that the individual had already chosen the country in which they wanted to live.

[edit] Restricting sale of property to foreigners

In November 2005 Der Spiegel published a poll from Allensbach Institut which estimated that 61 % of Poles believed Germans would try to get back territories that were formerly under German control or demand compensation[6],[7].

There are also some worries among Poles that rich descendants of the expelled Germans would buy the land the Polish state confiscated in 1945. It is believed that this may result in large price increases, since the current Polish land price is low compared to Western Europe. This led to Polish restrictions on the sale of property to foreigners, including Germans: special permission is needed. This policy is comparable to similar restrictions on the Baltic Åland Islands. These restrictions will be lifted 12 years after the 2004 accession of Poland to the European Union, i.e on May 1, 2016. The restrictions are weak, they aren't valid for companies and certain types of properties.

The attempts by German organisations to build a Centre Against Expulsions dedicated to German people's alleged suffering during World War II has led Polish politicians and activists to propose a Center for Martyrology of Polish Nation (called also Center for the Memory of Suffering of the Polish Nation) that would document the systematical oppression conducted on Polish people by German state during World War II and which would serve to educate German people about atrocities their state and regime conducted on their neighbours. However this proposal was attacked and rejected by German politicians[8].

[edit] German minority in the Czech Republic

There are about 40,000 Germans remaining in the Czech Republic. Their number has been consistently decreasing since World War II. According to the 2001 census there remain 13 municipalities and settlements in the Czech Republic with more than 10% Germans.

The situation in Slovakia was different from that in the Czech lands, in that the number of Germans was considerably lower and that the Germans from Slovakia were almost completely evacuated to German states as the Soviet army was moving west through Slovakia, and only the fraction of them that returned to Slovakia after the end of the war was deported together with the Germans from the Czech lands.

The Czech Republic has introduced a law in 2002 that guarantees the use of native minority languages (incl.German)as official languages in municipalities where autochthonous linguistic groups make up at least 10% of the population. Besides the use in dealings with officials and in courts the law also allows for bilingual signage and guarantees education in the native language. The law so far only exists on paper and has not been implemented anywhere, neither in the Polish speaking Tesin/Cieszyn area nor in Western and Northern Bohemia where a hand full of towns still have in excess of 10% German speakers.

The remaining tiny German minority in the Czech Republic has been granted some rights on paper, however the actual use of the language in dealings with officials is usually not possible. There is no bilingual education system in Western and Northern Bohemia, where the German minority is most concentrated. The Czech authorities have enacted a unique hurdle in their minority act.

Many representatives of expelees organizations support the erection of bilingual signs in all formerly German speaking territory as a visible sign of the bilingual linguistic and cultural heritage of the region. While the erection of bilingual signs is technically permitted if a minority constitutes 10% of the population, the minority is also forced to sign a petition in favour of the signs in which 40% of the adult minority population must participate.

[edit] Czech-German relations

On 28 December 1989, Václav Havel, at that time a candidate for president of Czechoslovakia (he was elected one day later), suggested that Czechoslovakia should apologise for the expulsion of ethnic Germans after World War II. Most of other politicians of the country didn't agree, and there was also no reply from leaders of Sudeten German organizations. Later, the German President Richard von Weizsacker answered this by apologizing to Czechoslovakia during his visit to Prague on March 1990 after Václav Havel repeated his apology characterizing the expulsion as "the mistakes and sins of our fathers". However, the Beneš decrees continue to remain in force in Czechoslovakia.

In Czech-German relations, the topic has been effectively closed by the Czech-German declaration of 1997. One principle of the declaration was that parties will not burden their relations with political and legal issues which stem from the past.

However, some expelled Sudeten Germans or their descendants are demanding return of their former property, which was confiscated after the war. Several such cases have been taken to Czech courts. As confiscated estates usually have new inhabitants, some of whom have lived there for more than 50 years, attempts to return to a pre-war state may cause fear. The topic comes to life occasionally in Czech politics. Like in Poland, worries and restrictions concerning land purchases exist in the Czech Republic. According to a survey by the Allensbach Institut in November 2005, 38 % of Czechs believe Germans want to regain territory they lost or will demand compensation.

[edit] German minority in Hungary

Today the German minority in Hungary have minority rights, organisations, schools and local councils but spontaneous assimilation is well under way. Many of the deportees visited their old homes after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990.

[edit] References

1. ^ Wallbank and Schrier, Living World History, pp. 193
2. ^ Sebastian Haffner, The Rise and Fall of Prussia, pp. 6–10.
3. ^ the German population in those areas in 1921 was 16.7% in the Poznań region (1910: 27.1%), and 18.8% in the area of Polish Pomorze (1910: 42.5%). [1]
4. ^ See Documents Concerning the German Polish Relations and the Outbreak of Hostilities between Great Britain and Germany on September 3, 1939. See also the Soviet archived, Documents Relating to the Eve of the Second World War Volume II: 1938-1939 (New York: International Publishers), 1948.
5. ^ See Documents Concerning the German Polish Relations and the Outbreak of Hostilities between Great Britain and Germany on September 3, 1939 See also the Soviet archived, Documents Relating to the Eve of the Second World War Volume II: 1938-1939 (New York: International Publishers), 1948.
6. ^ See Documents Concerning the German Polish Relations and the Outbreak of Hostilities between Great Britain and Germany on September 3, 1939. Hitler's change of position is well reflected in Goebbel's personal diary. See also the Soviet archived, Documents Relating to the Eve of the Second World War Volume II: 1938-1939 (New York: International Publishers), 1948.
7. ^ (German) Hans-Ulrich Wehler (2003). Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte Band 4: Vom Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges bis zur Gründung der beiden deutschen Staaten 1914-1949. Munich: C.H. Beck Verlag. ISBN 3-406-32264-6. 
8. ^ (English) Dagmar Barnouw (2005). The War in the Empty Air: Victims, Perpetrators, and Postwar Germans. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 143. ISBN 0-253-34651-7. 
9. ^ ^{a b} (English) Frank Biess (2006). "Review of Dagmar Barnouw, The War in the Empty Air: Victims, Perpetrators, and Postwar Germans" (pdf). H-Net Reviews: 2. 
10. ^ (German) Rüdiger Overmans (2004). Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg (German Military Losses in WWII). Munich: Oldenbourg, 298-300. ISBN 3-486-56531-1. 
11. ^ Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen. Gerhard Reichling. 1986 ISBN 3-88557-046-7

[edit] Notes