‘We should no longer sit on packed suitcases’: German expellees’ emotions in post-war West Germany

ABSTRACT

This article examines the integration into West Germany of those Germans expelled from Silesia, Pomerania and East Prussia after the Second World War through an emotional perspective. The focus on evangelical communities serves here the purpose of exploring the significant role of evangelical churches and pastors in comforting the expellees, as well as their wishes and expectations. Since expellees used to share existential and intimate questions with their pastors, this correspondence provides a closer look at their multifaced emotional universe, which often diverged from the stereotypical image proposed by the expellee political representatives. The discrepancy between these two images reflected the political rupture that occurred between the expellees and their political leaders from the mid-1950s. The article’s aim is to show that significant emotional reasons underlie this progressive political detachment that deals both with the transformation of the expellees’ idea of homeland and with the desire to look forward from the Nazi legacy.

KEYWORDS:

• German expellees
• emotions
• post-1945 West Germany
• evangelical communities
• emotional communities

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the reviewers for the opportunity to greatly improve the article thanks to their suggestions. I also thank some colleagues and friends who had the patience to read it and give me their feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Bessel and Schumann, Life after Death.

2. See, for example, Ahonen et al., People on the Move; Audenino, La casa perduta; Bade, Europa in Bewegung; Ballinger, The World Refugees Made; Reinisch and White, eds., The Disentanglement of Populations; Salvatici, Senza casa e senza paese; and Ther, Die Außenseiter.

3. Adorno, “Was bedeutet,” 555–72.

4. Moeller, War Stories.

5. A total of about 12.5 million Germans fled and were expelled from Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe. Of these, about 8 million were integrated into the FRG and the other 4.5 million into the German Democratic Republic (GDR). On the latter, see: Schwartz, Vertriebene und ‘Umsiedlerpolitik’; Schwartz, “Tabu und Erinnerung,” 85–101; and Wille, Die Vertriebenen in der SBZ/DDR.

6. Kossert, Kalte Heimat; Lehmann, Im Fremden ungewollt zuhaus; and Schulze, “Growing Discontent,” 332–49.

7. Ahonen, After the Expulsion; Demshuk, The Lost German East; Faehndrich, Eine endliche Geschichte; Gatz, “East Prussian and Sudeten German Expellees”; Lotz, Die Deutung des Verlusts; and Stickler, Ostdeutsch heißt Gesamtdeutsch.

8. Lotz, Die Deutung des Verlusts, 201–8.

9. Gatz, “East Prussian and Sudeten German Expellees,” 483–5.

10. Demshuk, The Lost German East.

11. Faehndrich, Eine endliche Geschichte.

12. The three evangelical communities selected for my analysis are those of the parishes of Geibsdorf (Silesia), Groß Schwansfeld/Falkenau (East Prussia) and Lupow (Pomerania). Their pastors, respectively Hans Saalfeld, Wilhelm Schmidt and Gerhard Gehlhoff, were also forcibly migrated to West Germany and were relocated to Ingolstadt, Bielefeld (later Hamburg) and Lippstadt (later Hornheide), respectively. The circular letters and the expellees’ replies used for this research are held at the Evangelisches Zentralarchiv (hereafter: EZA) in Berlin. Some circular letters of Pastor Gerhard Gehlhoff are held at the Stolper Heimatstube (hereafter: SH) in Bonn.

13. According to William Reddy, who introduced this neologism, these ‘emotion statements’ are not merely descriptive but performative. They are self-transformative because the mere act of expressing them has repercussions both on the subject and on the context. In this way, the agency of emotions themselves, i.e. their power to change the world, is also highlighted: Reddy, “Against Constructionism,” 327–51.

14. Barbara Rosenwein defines ‘emotional communities’ as ‘groups in which people adhere to the same norms of emotional expression and value – or devalue – the same or related emotions’. Rosenwein, Emotional Communities, 2.

15. Feiber, “Heimatbriefe als historische Quelle,” 173–98.

16. United States Department of State, A Decade of American Foreign Policy, 37.

17. Schulze-Wessel, “The Commemoration,” 15–31; Ther and Siljak, Redrawing Nations.

18. Frantzioch, Die Vertriebenen, 93–4; Reichling, Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen, 17.

19. On the expellees in the camps, see Douglas, Orderly and Humane, chapter 5.

20. Schraut, “Make the Germans,” 115–24; Stickler, Ostdeutsch heißt Gesamtdeutsch, 33.

21. On this topic, see Ahonen, After the Expulsion; Demshuk, “What was the ‘Right to the Heimat’?” 523–56; and Stickler, Ostdeutsch heißt Gesamtdeutsch.

22. Stickler, Ostdeutsch heißt Gesamtdeutsch, 42, 81–3.

23. Ahonen, After the Expulsion, 31; Stickler, Ostdeutsch heißt Gesamtdeutsch.

24. Ahonen, After the Expulsion; Stickler, Ostdeutsch heißt Gesamtdeutsch, 78–97.

25. These goals were already announced in the Charta der deutschen Heimatvertriebenen (Stuttgart: 1950), also available on the website of the Bund der Vertriebenen: https://www.bund-der-vertriebenen.de/charta (last visited 23 June 2022).

26. Lukaschek, Die deutschen Heimatvertriebenen, 19.

27. For an analysis of the different uses and meanings of the terms ‘expellee’ and ‘refugee’ see Nachum and Schaefer, “The Semantics of Political Integration,” 42–58. In this contribution, I will interchangeably use ‘expellees’, ‘Germans from the eastern regions’ and ‘newcomers’ to refer to Germans who fled or were expelled from Silesia, Pomerania and East Prussia and who integrated into West Germany after the Second World War.

28. Hans Saalfeld, 34. Gemeindebrief, Ingolstadt, 1957.

29. Kossert, Kalte Heimat; Lehmann, Im Fremden ungewollt zuhaus; and Schulze, “Growing Discontent.”

30. Oberländer, “Zum Geleit,” VI.

31. However, there were also exceptions: as early as 1950, the Social Democrat Heinrich Albertz, the minister for expellees from Lower Saxony, wrote a letter to the federal minister of labour Anton Storch, in which he asked the latter to abandon the policy of guaranteeing the expellees’ return. According to Albertz, such promises only raised vain hopes, thus maintaining ‘the psychological situation of sitting on packed suitcases’; in the regional minister’s opinion, this would also weaken their desire to work and consequently jeopardize their potential integration into society. See Schwartz, ‘Assimilation versus Incorporation,’ 84.

32. Demshuk, “What was the ‘Right to the Heimat’?” 524; Schwartz, “Assimilation versus Incorporation.”

33. Ahonen, After the Expulsion; Beer, Flucht und Vertreibung. Stickler, on the contrary, is more sceptical about the fact that the expellee associations represented an overwhelming majority in the political system of the Federal Republic. He argues, instead, that it was the parties that exerted a certain influence on the associations and limited their potential (Stickler, Ostdeutsch heißt Gesamtdeutsch, 432).

34. Demshuk, “What Was the ‘Right to the Heimat’?” 524–34; Süssner, “Still Yearning,” 10.

35. Ahonen, “The German Expellee Organizations,” 115–32; Schwartz, “Assimilation versus Incorporation,” 82.

36. Stickler cites an EMNID poll from 1961–2, commissioned by the BdV and kept hidden, for good reason, as it clearly showed that the desire to return no longer had a majority among the expellees. Nevertheless, the leadership of the expellee associations refused to accept this result: Stickler, Ostdeutsch heißt Gesamtdeutsch, 426.

37. Greschat, “Vorgeschichte,” 11.

38. Maser, “Ein schwieriger Neuanfang,” 35–41; Rudolph, Evangelische Kirche, 29–30.

39. Maurer, “Das Hilfswerk,” 254–63.

40. Teuchert, “Integration und Religion”; Maurer, “Das Hilfswerk,” 255.

41. EZA 512/148.

42. Maser, “Ein schwieriger Neuanfang,” 45; Wendebourg, “Die Evangelische Kirche,” 37–8; and Teuchert, Die verlorene Gemeinschaft, 127.

43. On the views of the Evangelical Church after the Second World War, see: Greschat, Die evangelische Christenheit und die Deutsche Geschichte nach 1945; Hockenos, A Church Divided.

44. Madajczyk, “Die Denkschrift der EKD,” 415–35; Der Rat der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland, Die Lage der Vertriebenen.

45. Stickler, Ostdeutsch heißt Gesamtdeutsch, 113–17.

46. Hans Saalfeld, 75. Geimeindebrief, Ingolstadt, May 1967.

47. Bender, Die “Neue Ostpolitik,” 124.

48. Greschat, Die Ostdenkschrift der EKD.

49. Rudolph, Evangelische Kirche.

50. Eberlein, “Zur Psychologie des Ostpfarrers,” 159.

51. EZA 797/16, letter from R.K to Hans Saalfeld, Waldkirchen, December 30, 1951.

52. Teuchert, “Integration und Religion.”

53. On the meaning’s changes of ‘nostalgia’ and its two main current interpretations see: Brauer, “Nostalgie und Heimweh.”

54. EZA 46/729, letter from A.K. to Gerhard Gehlhoff, Gingen, June 6, 1947.

55. EZA 797/7, letter from M.H. to Hans Saalfeld, Stöcken, March 26, 1950.

56. EZA 46/726, letter from Gerhard Gehlhoff to A.B., Lippstadt/Westf., August 9, 1946.

57. Cf. Demshuk, “What was the ‘Right to the Heimat’?” 553; Teuchert, Die verlorene Gemeinschaft, 341.

58. This interpretation of expulsion is shared by Hertmut Lehmann, who points out that the Germans’ violent expulsion from the homeland is perceived in the same way as the Jewish exodus, namely as a God-ordained destiny that should serve to bring the displaced closer to God. This is why in Christian societies one can also speak of the theologization of the emigration experience. Lehmann, Migration und Religion, 9.

59. SH DVD-A-088, Gerhard Gehlhoff, Heimatbriefe Lupow, Lippstadt, Palm Sunday 1947.

60. See, for example: EZA 797/17; 797/31. This aspect is also present in the Charta der deutschen Heimatvertriebenen where it is emphasized that ‘[t]o separate man forcibly from his native land means to kill him in his mind. We have suffered and experienced this fate’: https://www.bund-der-vertriebenen.de/charta-auf-englisch (last visited 23 June 2022).

61. See, as instance, EZA 797/12, letter from K.L. to Hans Saalfeld, Linse, June 18, 1948.

62. EZA 797/8, letter from G.L. to Hans Saalfeld, Hannover, December 26, 1953.

63. SH DVD-A-088, Gerhard Gehlhoff, Heimatbriefe Lupow, Lippstadt, Christmas 1949.

64. Moeller, “Germans as Victims?” 145–94.

65. Ahonen, After the Expulsion, 204–42.

66. SH DVD-A-088, letter from E.J. from Hagen-Haspe, cited by Karin Gehlhoff, Heimatbriefe Lupow, Bonn-Ippendorf, Christmas, 1967.

67. EZA 622/5, letter from M.W. to Wilhelm Schmidt, Reutlingen, October 21, 1965.

68. EZA 622/5, letter from Wilhelm Schmidt to M.W., October 28, 1965.

69. SH DVD-A-088, letters from W.H. and F.K. to Gerhard Gehlhoff, Heimatbriefe Lupow, Lippstadt, Christmas 1955.

70. Ibid.

71. See the circular letters from Pastor Saalfeld and Karin Gehlhoff, and the personal letters sent by Pastor Schmidt to his congregation from the mid-1960s onwards, respectively: EZA/Z2233; SH DVD-A-088; EZA 622/1-13.

72. Hans Saalfeld, 79. Gemeindebrief, Ingolstadt, May 1968.

73. Gaida, Die offiziellen Organe.

74. On the transmission of memory on flight and expulsion within families, see: Greiter, Flucht und Vertreibung im Familiengedächtnis.

75. EZA 622/8, letter from W.P. to Wilhelm Schmidt, Rendsburg, January 26, 1966.

76. Hans Saalfeld, 80. Gemeindebrief, Ingolstadt, August 1968.

77. Hans Saalfeld, 89. Gemeindebrief, Ingolstadt, November 1970.

78. SH DVD-A-088, Karin Gehlhoff, Heimatbriefe Lupow, Bonn-Ippendorf, Christmas 1966.

79. SH DVD-A-088, letter from Pastor Lutschewitz cited in Karin Gehlhoff’s circular letter, Heimatbriefe Lupow, Bonn-Ippendorf, Christmas 1966.

80. On this topic, see: Von Engelhardt, “Generation und historisch-biographische Erfahrung.”

81. Schmidt, “Brief an die Gemeinde.”

82. Connor, Refugees and Expellees; Schulze, “The German Refugees,” 317; and Stickler, Ostdeutsch heißt Gesamtdeutsch, 136–40.

83. EZA 622/8, letter from F.A. to Wilhelm Schmidt, Stuttgart, February 8, 1965.

84. SH DVD-A-088, letter from M.S. cited by Karin Gehlhoff, Heimatbriefe Lupow, Bonn-Ippendorf, Christmas 1970.

85. EZA 622/5, letter from G.M. to Wilhelm Schmidt, Passau, May 6, 1969.

86. Rudolph, Evangelische Kirche, 230.

87. Stickler, Ostdeutsch heißt Gesamtdeutsch, 359.

88. EZA 622/8, letter from W.P. to Wilhlem Schmidt, Rendsburg, January 26, 1966.

89. Demshuk, “What was the ‘Right to the Heimat’?” 526–37.

90. Ahonen, “The German Expellee Organizations,” 128–30.

91. SH DVD-A-088, Karin Gehlhoff, Heimatbriefe Lupow, Klein Rönnau, Bad Segeberg, Christmas 1973.

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Cecilia Molesini

Cecilia Molesini is a postdoctoral researcher at the German Historical Institute in Rome. She has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Ca’ Foscari University (Venice) and at the Luigi Einaudi Foundation in Turin, as well as a DAAD researcher at the Freie Universität in Berlin. In 2021, she received her doctorate in Historical Studies within the inter-university programme of the Universities of Padua, Venice and Verona. During her PhD she carried out several research periods in Germany, particularly in Berlin and Cologne. She is member of the editorial secretariat of the journal Ricerche di Storia Politica edited by Il Mulino. Her research interests are German history, migration history, history of psychiatry, history of emotions and oral history.