German exodus from Eastern Europe

The German exodus from Eastern Europe refers to the exodus of the German populations to the east of Germany's and Austria's post-World War II borders. Several stages may be distinguished in this process.

Background

Part of the background for the German exodus from Eastern Europe following World War II is based on events in the history of Germany and Europe, especially Eastern Europe. Migrations that took place over more than a millennium led to pockets of Germans living throughout Eastern Europe as far east as Russia. The existence of these pockets were used by German nationalists, most notably the Nazis, to justify wars of aggression which led up to World War II.

The expulsions at the end of World War II were part of negotiated agreements between the victorious Allies to redraw national borders and arrange for "orderly population transfers" to remove ethnic minorities that were viewed as troublesome.

Ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe

The presence of ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe is rooted in centuries of history. Prior to the rise of European nationalism in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, Central and Eastern Europe was organized into many city-states which contained multi-ethnic populations.

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, Hamburg, and along the river Elbe and its tributary Saale further south. After Christianization, the superior organization of the Roman Catholic Church enabled further German expansion, known as the medieval Drang nach Osten.

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 developed large, relatively wealthy German populations.

Thus, over the course of several hundred years, groups of Germans migrated to 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. 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.

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.

It is useful to contrast the mass migrations and forced expulsion of ethnic Germans out of Eastern Europe with other massive transfers of populations, such as exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey and population exchange that occurred after the Partition of India. In all cases those expelled suffered greatly.

Territorial claims of German nationalists

By World War I, there were isolated groups of Germans or so-called Schwaben as far southeast as the Bosphorus (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 constituted sizable minorities in various countries.

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 Nazis negotiated a number of population transfers with Joseph Stalin and others with Benito Mussolini so that both Germany and the other country would increase their ethnic homogeneity. However, these population transfers were not sufficient to appease the demands of the Nazis. The "Heim ins Reich" rhetoric of the Nazis 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.

Support of Nazi invasion by German population in invaded countries

As Nazi Germany invaded first Czechoslovakia and later Poland, some members of German minorities in those countries aided the invading forces and the subsequent Nazi occupation. These acts would cause enmity against Germans and later be used as part of the justification for the expulsions.

Czechoslovakia

According to the 1920 Czechoslovakian constitution, German minority rights were carefully protected; their educational and cultural institutions were preserved in proportion to the population. Local hostilities were engendered, however, by policies intended to protect the security of the Czechoslovak state and the rights of Czechs. There were also economic tensions, as Sudeten Germans suffered more during the Great Depression, because they were more dependent on foreign trade and economic conditions in Germany.

Sudeten German nationalist sentiment affected their politics during the early years of the republic. In 1926, however, Chancellor Gustav Stresemann of Germany, advised Sudeten Germans to cooperate actively with the Czechoslovak government. In consequence, most Sudeten German parties changed from negativism to activism, and a number of Sudeten Germans accepted cabinet posts. By 1929, only a small number of Sudeten German deputies--most of them members of the German National Party (propertied classes) and the Sudeten Nazi Party (Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei)--remained in opposition.

On October 1, 1933, Konrad Henlein created a new political organization, the Sudeten German Home Front (Sudetendeutsche Heimatfront) professed loyalty to the Czechoslovak state but championed decentralization. It absorbed most former German Nationals and Sudeten Nazis. In 1935 the Sudeten German Home Front became the Sudeten German Party (Sudetendeutsche Partei - SdP) and embarked on an active propaganda campaign. In the May election the SdP won more than 60 percent of the Sudeten German vote at the expense of the German Agrarians, Christian Socialists, and Social Democrats who each lost approximately half of their constituencies. ^*

The SdP became the fulcrum of German nationalist forces. The party represented itself as striving for a just settlement of Sudeten German claims within the framework of Czechoslovak democracy. Henlein, however, maintained secret contact with Nazi Germany and received material aid from Berlin. The SdP endorsed the idea of a führer and mimicked Nazi methods with banners, slogans, and uniformed troops. Concessions offered by the Czechoslovak government, including the transfer of Sudeten German officials to Sudeten German areas and possible participation of the SdP in the cabinet, were rejected. By 1937, most SdP leaders supported Hitler's pan-German objectives. ^*

Poland

To fully appreciate the strength of this enmity towards the German minority in Poland, it is important to be aware of the actions of ethnic Germans living in Poland after the German invasion of Poland. During the war, the National Socialist (Nazi) party had categorized Poles as "inferior to animals". ^* Activists from Deutscher Volksverband and Jungdeutscher Partei before the war opposed any form of co-existence within Polish state, and condemned speaking in Polish or contact with Polish culture. Polish national events were boycotted and Germans who didn't act in required manner were branded as traitors and renagades by German minority organisations. Such organisations also distributed propaganda films and brochures with anti-Polish statements.

One Polish historian estimates that 25% of the German population in Poland belonged to Nazi-sponsored organizations that supported the Nazi conquest of Poland.^* Selbstschutz and German nationalist organisations created in Poland and Czechoslovakia by Germans took part in various actions (sabotage, etc.) against Polish population. For example, Selbstschutz took part in and conducted itself mass executions of Poles in Operation Tannenberg. As Selbstschutz counted 82,000 members out of 741,000 Germans living in Poland, over 10 % of Germans living in Poland were members of this organisation(this percentage would increase if one would count only fit male members of German community, who were able to enlist in Selbstschutz, rather then whole population).

Polish historians estimate that, in areas that were incorporated to the Third Reich, 40,000 Poles were murdered and 20,000 were sent to concentration camps during the so-called Intelligenzaktion, in which Selbstschutz also took part. Only a few percent of those sent to concentration camps survived. In the early days of occupation, 90% of those who were sent to concentration camps were targeted by German nationals ^* The overwhelming majority of those victims were selected by local Germans who identified them as enemies of Reich Polacy - wysiedleni, wypędzeni i wyrugowani przez III Rzeszę" Doctor Maria Wardzyńska Warsaw 2004" Created on order of Reichsfuhrer SS H.Himler from German minority, terrorist organisation called Selbstschutz co-worked in mass executions during „Intelligenzaktion”, made alongside operational groups of security policy, by pointing out local Poles and interning them . Germans living in Poland made lists of Poles targeted for execution and hunted down and captured Poles. "Polacy - wysiedleni, wypędzeni i wyrugowani przez III Rzeszę" Doctor Maria Wardzyńska Warsaw 2004 At the time of expulsions many Germans still supported Nazism. For example according to polls conducted in American Zone of Occupation among Germans from November 1945 till December 1947, the percentage of German population that supported the view that "National Socialism was a good idea, but badly implemented" was on average 47%, while in August 1947 the percentage increased to 55% Rocznik Polsko-Niemiecki Tom I "Polska a Niemcy; ludność, odbudowa, przemiany polityczne w pierwszych latach powojennych" Edmund Dmitrów Warszawa 1992

Nazi-Soviet population transfers

Main article: Nazi-Soviet population transfers.

Germans were resettled from territories which were occupied by Soviet Union in 1940 due to the August 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, notably Bessarabia and the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia, all of which traditionally had large German minorities. Notably, the majority of the Baltic Germans had already been resettled in late 1939, prior to the occupation of Estonia and Latvia by Soviet Union in June 1940. The Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) were then resettled in place of expelled Poles both in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany and in Zamość County in line with Generalplan Ost.

The Allies decide 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.

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.

Originally, Germany was to retain Stettin while the Poles were to annex East Prussia with Königsberg. ^*. Eventually, however, Stalin decided that he wanted Königsberg as a year-round warm water port for the Soviet Navy and argued that the Poles should receive Stettin instead. The wartime Polish government in exile had little to say in these decisions. ^*

The Potsdam 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.

Evacuation

Main article: World War II evacuation and expulsion.

Nazi authorities were late to order the evacuation of areas close to the advancing front, before they were overrun by the Red Army. While both many citizens of Germany () and ethnic Germans () were successfully evacuated (around 5 million people) by German Navy over the Baltic Sea, many lost their lives either because of severe winter conditions or when their vessels were torpedoed (as in the case of the Wilhelm Gustloff).

Expulsion

Main article: Expulsion of Germans after World War II.

The remaining German inhabitants were expelled or fled from present-day Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, today's Kaliningrad Oblast, and other East European countries. Up to 16.5 million Germans of the post-war population were forced to leave. Those who fled in fear of the Red Army were banned from returning. Even though some German dwellers were persecuted because of their activities during the war the only reasons for their expulsion was their ethnicity as Germans. They were sent to makeshift camps or cities in western Germany, mostly according to their Landsmannschaft.

According to some German sources, more than 2.5 million lost their lives during this process. other German, Czech and Polish sources give a much lower estimate (Czech historians arguing that most of estimated population drop is because of soldiers killed at the front). The actual population transfer included about 7 million from former eastern Germany, 1.5 million from Poland in the borders of 1938 (total of 5.075 million from new borders, see Oder-Neisse Line), 2.5 million from Czechoslovakia, around 2 million from the Soviet Union, 240,000 from Hungary, 300,000 from Romania, and another 1 million from other Eastern European regions.

The eviction of Germans from Eastern Europe was tolerated by the Potsdam Agreement, but it stated that it should be undertaken in a "humane" and "orderly" manner. It didn't however create any detailed rules or supervision service to prevent the crimes.

Emigration of Germans from Eastern Europe

Main article: Emigration of Germans from Eastern Europe.

Between 1950 and 1990, 1.4 million people emigrated from Poland to Germany claiming German ancestry (770 000 of them in the 1980s).

Between 1970 and 1990 Communist Romania allowed the migration of ethnic Germans (Danube Swabians, Carpathian Germans and Transylvanian Saxons) to West Germany and Romanian Jews to Israel in exchange for hard currency. After the Romanian Revolution, this migration has continued.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, large numbers of Russian Germans (Wolgadeutsche) took advantage of Germany's liberal law of return to leave the harsh conditions of the Soviet successor states. By 1999 about 1.7 million former Soviet citizens of German origin had immigrated to Germany. About 6,000 settled in Kaliningrad Oblast (former East Prussia).

References

Aftermath of World War II | Forced migration | History of Germany

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