Ethnic Germans in Poland and the Czech Republic: a comparative evaluation*

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the British Academy (LRG-35361) in the preparation and writing of this article. They would also like to thank Andrzej Dybczński and Zdenek Hausvater for their invaluable assistance in the preparation of this article.

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the British Academy (LRG-35361) in the preparation and writing of this article. They would also like to thank Andrzej Dybczński and Zdenek Hausvater for their invaluable assistance in the preparation of this article.

1. See S. Auer, “Nationalism in Central Europe—A Chance or a Threat,” East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2000, p. 251.

2. Ehe authors are fully aware that in Europe compulsory and forcible population transfer was first established as a legitimate means of creating ethnically homogeneous states as early as 1922 in order to bring the Greek–Turkish conflict to a halt. However, space precludes any wider examination of the wider phenomenon.

3. See H. Lemberg, “Die Entwicklung der Pläne für die Aussiedlung der Deutschen aus der Tschechoslowakei,” in J. Hoensch and H. Lemberg, eds, Begegnung und Konflikte (Essen: Klartext Verlag, 2001), p. 200.

4. See V. Houžvička, The Czech Academy of Science, interview with Z. Hausvater, 19 January 2004.

5. M. Kučera, “Statistische Berechnungen der Vertreibungsverluste-Schußwort oder Sackgasse,” in J. Hoensch and H. Lemberg, eds, Begegnung und Konflikte (Essen: Klartext Verlag, 2001), p. 231ff.

6. M. Kučera, “Statistische Berechnungen der Vertreibungsverluste-Schußwort oder Sackgasse,” in J. Hoensch and H. Lemberg, eds, Begegnung und Konflikte (Essen: Klartext Verlag, 2001), Ibid., p. 241ff.

7. S. Stane˘k, “Vertreibung und Aussiedlung der Deutschen aus der Tschechoslowakei 1945–1948,” in J. Hoensch and H. Lemberg, eds, Begegnung und Konflikte (Essen: Klartext Verlag, 2001), p. 225.

8. S. Rouček, Die Tschechoslowakei und die Bundesrepublik Deutschland (München: tuduv-Verlag, 1990), p. 201.

9. VR. Hoffmann, Die Anfänge der Emigration aus der Tschechslowakei 1948 (Prague: Insitute for Conemporary History, 1996), p. 91.

10. L. Rouček, Die Tschechoslowakei und die Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pp. 202–203.

11. L. Rouček, Die Tschechoslowakei und die Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pp. 202–203. Ibid.

12. P. Uhl, Human Rights Commissioner of the Czech(oslovak) Government, 1991–2001, interview with Z. Hausvater, 20 January 2004.

13. Auer, “Nationalism in Central Europe—A Chance or a Threat,” p. 257.

14. In comparison with Poland, emigration from Czechoslovakia to Germany was much smaller in absolute terms. Just over 100,000 ethnic Germans left the country for the Federal Republic between 1950 and 1990, with more than one-third of them leaving between 1967–1969. From the second half of the 1990s, fewer than a hundred ethnic Germans from the Czech Republic migrated annually to Germany.

15. K. Larischová, The Friedrich Ebert Siftung, Prague, interview 4 February 2004

16. T. Kafka, Director of the Czech-German Future Fund, interview with Z. Hausvater, 12 January 2004.

17. In January 1991 The 1968 Law on the Status of National Minorities was superseded by the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms which, in December 1992, became part of the Czech constitution according to Article 3 of the Constitutional Law of the Czech National Council. Apart from general non-discrimination clauses in Articles 3 and 24, the Charter also details specific minority rights: autonomous cultural development; mother-tongue communication and reception of information, the right to form ethnic associations, education in the mother tongue, the use of their mother tongue in public affairs, and participation in the handling of affairs concerning national and ethnic minorities.

18. J. Kovanic, The Czech Circle of Expellees, interview with Z. Hausvater, 18 January 2004.

19. Report, 1999, accessed 27 March 2003, available from http.www.humanrights.coe.int/minorities/Eng/FrameworkConvention/StateReports/[Czech Republic].

20. Uhl, 2004.

21. V. Žák, The Czech-German Future Fund, Prague, interview with K. Cordell, 2 February 2004.

22. Süddeutscher Zeitung, 8 August 2003.

23. Report, 1999.

24. Report, 1999. The Report also notes that Czech history text books largely ignore the fact that for centuries the Czech lands had been jointly and peacefully inhabited by large populations of Czechs, Germans and Jews, and that the contributions of the latter two groups to the development of the area are widely disregarded.

25. V. Handl, The Institute of International Relations, Prague, interview with Z. Hausvater, 19 January 2004.

26. U. Stemke, electronic interview with Stefan Wolff, delivered 25 November 2003.

27. Uhl, 2004.

28. K. Born, “Polish and Czech Silesia under Communist Rule,” in K. Cordell, ed, The Politics of Ethnicity in Central Europe (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000), pp. 182–185.

29. Just how the Polish authorities could actually differentiate Germans from Volksliste 1 from those on Volksliste 2 is a matter of conjecture. The corresponding identity card made no mention of grade, and in both cases the identity card was the same shade of blue.

30. W. Czapliński, interview with A. Dybczyński, 10 March 2004.

31. P. Eberhardt, Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-Century Central-Eastern Europe (London: M. E. Sharpe, 2003), p. 173.

32. K. Franzen, Die Vertriebenen (München: Ullstein Verlag, 2001), p. 305.

33. Smaller numbers of designated Germans lived elsewhere in Poland, primarily in and around the Pomeranian city of Koszalin.

34. Neubach, 1998, p. 26.

35. B. Ihme-Tuchel, Die DDR und die Deutschen in Polen (Berlin: Helle Panke e.V., 1997), p. 12.

36. B. Ihme-Tuchel, Die DDR und die Deutschen in Polen (Berlin: Helle Panke e.V., 1997), Ibid., p. 15ff.

37. At the time both German states employed the 1913 Reichs Citizenship Act.

38. Ihme-Tuchel, p. 42ff.

39. Between 1950 and 1956, fewer than 60,000 ethnic Germans had been allowed to leave Poland, but in 1957, 98,290 emigrated, and in 1958 117,550 did so. During the following two decades until 1979, over 300,000 ethnic Germans left, and by 1990, another more than 800,000 came to Germany, almost two-thirds of them between 1988–1990.

40. J. Rogall, Die deutschen Minderheit in Roten Heute, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 26 November 1993.

41. A. Sakson, interview with A. Dybczyński, 10 March 2004.

42. B. Ociepka, Institute of International Relations, University of Wrocław, interview with A. Dybczyński , 4 May 2004.

43. E. Stadtmüller, Institute of International Relations, University of Wrocław, interview with A. Dybczyński, 30 March 2004.

44. W. Góralski interview with A. Dybczyński, 9 March 2004.

45. K. Rossmanith, MdB, interview with K. Cordell, 12 February 2004.

46. K. Rossmanith, MdB, interview with K. Cordell, 12 February 2004. Ibid.

47. Paweltziki and Kirstein, 1998, p. 16.

48. J. Sułek, Former Political Director of the Polish Foreign Ministry, interview with A. Dybczyński, 13 and 21 April 2004.

49. After emigration peaked between 1988–1990 with more than half a million ethnic Germans leaving in just three years, numbers went down to around 1,000 emigrants per year for the second half of the 1990s.

50. M. Tomala, Former Polish Deputy Ambassador to the GDR, interview with A. Dybczyński, 15 March 2004.

51. A. Hajnicz, Polens Wende und Deutschlands Vereinigung (Paderborn: Schöningh, 1995), p. 114.

52. R. Starr, ed., Transition to Democracy in Poland (New York: St Martin's Press, 1993), p. 243.

53. Sułek, 2004.