AFTER THE EXPULSIONS: THE LOST GERMAN HEIMAT IN MEMORY, MONUMENTS AND MUSEUMS Jenny Graaf, MA, MBA Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy MARCH 2014 2 ABSTRACT This comparative thesis explores how museums and monuments in postwar east and west Germany commemorate the eastern territories that were lost after 1945. I focus on the concept of Heimat which spans aesthetics and politics, psychological and political identity and emerges from a condition of loss, thus it features highly in my attempt to understand the development and current state of memorialisation. The centrality of the notion of Heimat in expellee memorialisation is a field as yet little explored in research on the expulsions, particularly in east Germany. Following chapters on the historical context, Heimat, and cultural memory, Chapter Three discusses monuments erected between 1947 and 1989 by expellees who resettled in West Germany which are used to mourn, replace, reflect on and revere the old Heimat. I compare post-unification west and east German memorials, discussing key differences resulting from the former taboo on expellee commemoration in East Germany. I additionally examine changing sites of memory, memorials that illustrate a shifting integration process and investigate the use of symbolism. Chapter Four considers the interaction between eyewitnesses, historians and curators in the portrayal of history in museums and Heimatstuben at Görlitz, Greifswald, Lüneburg, Regensburg, Molfsee, Gehren, Rendsburg and Altenburg, in addition to the Altvaterturm in Thuringia. Chapter Five discusses the contentious Berlin Stiftung Flucht Vertreibung Versöhnung Centre, first mooted in 1999 by the Bund der Vertriebenen as a Centre against Expulsions. The tension between ‘German victims’ and ‘victims of the Germans’ is a recurring theme in this thesis. My conclusions highlight how memorialisation 3 is framed clearly within the contemporary socio-political context, demonstrate the durability and flexibility of the term Heimat and illustrate the resilience of the regard for the lost territories, not only for expellees; the idea of the German East persists in German cultural memory. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council for providing funding for this project. I also wish to thank my supervisors Rachel Palfreyman and Karl Wilds for their support and expertise. Thanks also go to my fellow postgraduate students at the University of Nottingham, especially Dagmar Paulus and Hidde van der Wall. I am indebted to my interviewees and many helpful staff in archives and museums. Amongst numerous people I owe special thanks to are Michael Eggert, Paul Grogan, Georg Leisner, George Mosel, Silke Raeth, Helfried Wermbter and especially Heidrun Schneider-Voß and Fritz Voß who kindly transported me to view many monuments and seemingly never tired of the theme Heimat. 5 FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS Tables, Photographs and Charts 7 Abbreviations 9 Introduction: The Expulsions and Aftermath 10 1. Overview of Thesis 17 2. Research to date on the Expulsions and Aftermath 20 3. From the Old Heimat to the New 27 3.1 Similarities: Accommodation, Work, Discrimination 30 3.2 Differences: Assimilation and Heimat Identity 36 Chapter 1: Heimat, Loss and the Second Heimat 42 1. The Concept of Heimat 43 2. Heimat and the Expellees 52 Chapter 2: Germany’s Cultural Memory Landscape 67 1. Theories of Cultural Memory 70 2. German Cultural Memory: 1945 to date 76 2.1 West Germany: 1949-56 76 2.2 West Germany: Mid 1950s to late 1970s 82 2.3 West Germany: The 1980s 87 2.4 East Germany: 1945 to mid-1971 91 2.5 East Germany: Mid-1971 to 1989 99 2.6 Post-Wende: East and West Germany 102 3. Waves of Memory: Trauma, Taboos and Generations 109 4. Conclusion 123 Chapter 3: Expellee Monuments as Realms of Memory 126 1. Pre-Wende West German Memorialisation 133 2. Post-Wende: Changing Sites of west German Memory 150 3. Post-Wende: The Lost Heimat in east German Commemoration 162 4. Expellee Monuments and Integration 171 4.1 From Marginalisation to Recognition: Kiel Eichhof Cemetery, Schleswig-Holstein, 1952 172 4.2 From Victims to Honoured Citizens: Mallersdorf Cemetery, Bavaria, 1995 175 4.3 From Taboo to Invisible Commemoration: Pirna, Saxony, 2004 178 4.4 From Forgetting to Acknowledging: Freiberg Flüchtlingsfriedhof, Saxony, 2002 179 5. Symbols of the Heimat 182 5.1 Heimat Loss and Heimat Pride 182 5.2 Passive Victim or Active Agent? The Female Form in Four 6 Expellee Monuments 198 5.2.1 Mutter Osten, Flintbek Cemetery near Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, 1952 203 5.2.2 Berlin Christus Cemetery, assume 1960s 204 5.2.3 Erfurt Cemetery, Thuringia, 1994 206 5.2.4 Landshut, Podewilsstraße, Bavaria, 2001 211 6. Cultural Memory and Monuments 215 Chapter 4: The Lost Heimat in Heimatstuben and Ostdeutsche 219 Museums 1. Heimatstuben and Ostdeutsche Museums 226 2. Loss, Flight and Expulsion: Three Approaches in Museums at Lüneburg, Görlitz and Greifswald 234 2.1 Ostpreußisches Landesmuseum, Lüneburg 236 2.2 Schlesisches Museum, Görlitz 244 2.3 Pommersches Landesmuseum, Greifswald 257 3. Art and the Lost Heimat: the Ostdeutsche Galerie in Regensburg 264 4. Integration and Exclusion: Exhibitions in Gehren and Molfsee 277 4.1 Freilichtmuseum Molfsee, near Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Fremdes Zuhause Exhibition 30 May 2009 - 26 December 2010 278 4.2 Vertreibung und Integration in the Heimatstube in Gehren, Thuringia 282 5. Heimat as Spectre: Heimatstuben in Rendsburg and Altenburg 286 5.1 Gerdauen Heimatstube, Rendsburg, Schleswig-Holstein 287 5.2 Altenburg Heimatstube, Saxony 295 6. The Hybrid Monument and Museum: Der Neue Altvaterturm 299 7. The Phantom Heimat 306 Chapter 5: The ‘Stiftung Flucht Vertreibung Versöhnung’: a 311 Suitable Vehicle for Rapprochement? 1. Communicative and Cultural Memory 316 2. Myths and Memories: Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic 319 3. Expellees, the BdV and Germany’s Neighbours 327 4. The BdV Proposal and the Controversies 333 5. The SFVV Centre 340 Conclusion: Yearning for the Heimat 347 Appendices 354 Bibliography 362 7 TABLES, PHOTOGRAPHS AND CHARTS Expellees as % of East German Population as of 19 April 1949 29 Expellees in FRG according to Federal State in 1950 and 1955 30 Percentage of expellees in Bavaria according to pop’n distribution, 1949 31 Ages of Expellees and Years in which a Monument was erected 125 Fig 1. Forchheim old Cemetery 135 Fig 2. Regensburg Protestant Cemetery 137 Fig 3. Regensburg Catholic Cemetery 137 Fig 4. Kronach, Spurenweg 138 Fig 5. Eckernförde Pommernstein 142 Fig 6. Forchheim 144 Fig 7. Rendsburg Fockbek 146 Fig 8. Landshut Kapelle outside 148 Fig 9. Landshut Kapelle inside 148 Fig 10. Schwandorf Falkenau Kreiskarte 149 Fig 11. Timmendorfer Strand 152 Fig 12. Ingolstadt Luitpold Park 154 Fig 13. Ingolstadt, Niemes memorial 155 Fig 14. Ingolstadt, ‘Den Toten des Ostens’ 155 Fig 15. Oberschleißheim, 2010 157 Fig 16. Bamberg Hain Schillerwiese 159 Fig 17. Mölln Stadthaus 161 Fig 18. Outside Jena North Cemetery 165 Fig 19. Arnstadt Cemetery 167 Fig 20. Dresden Station 168 Fig 21. Dresden close-up 168 Fig 22. Radeberg crossroads 169 Fig 23. Kiel , Eichhof Cemetery 175 Fig 24. Mallersdorf 177 Fig 25. Pirna, ‘Gegen das Vergessen’ 178 Fig 26. Freiberg Cemetery 180 Fig 27. Augsburg West Cemetery 183 Fig 28. Augsburg Wittelsbacher Park 185 Fig 29. Bamberg, Rübezahl 188 Fig 30. Straubing, Nepomuk 192 Fig 31. Apolda Cemetery 194 Fig 32. Rendsburg Westerrönfeld 196 Fig 33. Flintbek, Mutter Osten 203 Fig 34. Berlin Christus-Cemetery 205 Fig 35. Cemetery tags 205 Fig 36. Erfurt Cemetery 207 Fig 37. Erfurt close-up 207 Fig 38. Landshut Frau 212 Fig 39. Ostpreußisches Landesmuseum, Lüneburg 243 Fig 40. Schlesisches Museum, Görlitz 248 Fig 41. Pommersches Landesmuseum, Greifswald 257 Fig 42. Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg 265 Fig 43. Molfsee exhibition house 280 8 Fig 44. Molfsee exhibition - Heimaterde 281 Fig 45. Gehren Heimatstube 283 Fig 46. Gerdauen Heimatstube artefacts 288 Fig 47. Gerdauen Heimatstube – coathangers 289 Fig 48. Gerdauen Heimatstube – photographs 291 Fig 49. Altenburg Heimatstube 295 Fig 50. Altvaterturm 301 Locations of Monuments 354 Main Focus of Monuments 355 Illustrative Monument Erection in East and West Germany – Expellee Numbers and Monuments 356 Monuments – East and West 1946-2009 358 Monument Numbers 1990-2009 358 Total Monument Numbers Schleswig-Holstein, Bavaria, Thuringia and Saxony 359 Main Focus of Monuments – East% 360 Main Focus of Monuments – West% 360 Locations of Monuments – East% 361 Locations of Monuments – West% 361 9 ABBREVIATIONS ARD Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, ‘Das Erste’ BdV Bund der Vertriebenen – Vereinigte Landsmannschaften und Landesverbände BHE Bund der Heimatvertriebenen und Entrechteten BKM Der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien BVFG Bundesvertriebenengesetz CDU Christlich-Demokratische Union CSU Christlich-Soziale Union DHM Deutsches Historisches Museum FRG Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany, from 1949-1990) GDR German Democratic Republic (East Germany, from 1949-1990) SBZ Sowjetische Besatzungszone SED Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands SFVV Stiftung Flucht Vertreibung und Versöhnung SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands ZgV Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen 10 INTRODUCTION: THE EXPULSIONS AND AFTERMATH ‘Heimat ist Heimat nur in Heimatlosigkeit’1 In the sixty-eight years since the forced transfer of around twelve million ethnic Germans