In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Vertreibung der Vertriebenen? Der historische deutsche Osten in der Erinnerungskultur der Bundesrepublik (1961–1982)
  • Alfred J. Rieber
Manfred Kittel, Vertreibung der Vertriebenen? Der historische deutsche Osten in der Erinnerungskultur der Bundesrepublik (1961–1982). Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2007. 206 pp.

In the continuous process of “coming to terms with the past,” German intellectuals and the media have increasingly turned their attention to the question of the expulsion of the German populations from the East in the closing years of the Second World War and the immediate postwar period. In the 1950s and 1960s public concern over the fate of the expellees and their place in West German society was muted and ambivalent when it existed at all. As Manfred Kittel points out in his comprehensive monograph, the situation changed in 1969 as a result of the coming to power of the Grand Coalition of parties and the somewhat delayed effects of détente. The structure of the book, divided into roughly two parts, reflects his thesis. The first part focuses on the period from the second Berlin crisis to Willy Brandt’s opening to the East; the second part ends with the era of Helmut Kohl. Kittel analyzes the roles of the press, television, film, national and local politicians, and, to a lesser extent, the historical profession in shaping what he calls a “culture of memory.” Although he refers in the introduction to the work of Maurice Halbwachs and Pierre Nora as theorists of collective memory, his book does not show much evidence of their influence. Despite occasional references to symbols and monuments commemorating the East in West Germany, Vertreibung der Vertriebenen? is largely a study of elite opinion.

At the height of the Cold War a broad consensus existed among the parties, exemplified by the view of Konrad Adenauer that although the East was lost to the Soviet sphere, this could not be stated publicly. Not only did the millions of expellees in the West constitute an influential voting bloc, but the lost territories could also be used as leverage in dealing with the Soviet bloc. Even in the intellectual milieu the forced expulsions were widely regarded as a form of expiation for the crimes of the Hitler period. But the condition of the expellees and the place of the East in German history were kept alive in the so-called Knowledge of the East Studies (Ostkunde) in local schools and in the mass media. The gradual shift in opinion in the 1960s, albeit contested, ran parallel to the growing sense of guilt over the crimes of the Nazi period and the uneven progress of détente. Brandt’s Ostpolitik led to a sharp break between the Social Democrats and the Association of Expellees and a polarization of opinion. The government cut funding for the expellees. But by this time many expellees and their children had become integrated into West German society. The younger generation, which had formed the German Youth of the East in the early postwar years, changed its name in 1974 to the German Youth in Europe. New perspectives came out of this group. For example, Günter Grass was more interested in embracing East German history and culture than redeeming the lost territories.

Kittel endorses the view that the policy of realism rightly brought to an end the empty Symbolpolitik of the late 1960s. But he deplores the repressive and distorting effect that it had on the place in memory of the terror and suffering that accompanied [End Page 202] the flight and expulsions of the German populations from the East. He concludes that the German East has nearly disappeared from the political and social consciousness of the united Germany. He attributes the continuous “repression of memory” to the complete integration of Germany into the West. This conclusion appears somewhat exaggerated, considering the extensive literature on the topic, such as the recent book by Michael Schwartz, Vertriebene und ‘Umsiedlerpolitik’: Integrationskonflikte in den deutschen Nachkriegs-Gesellschaften und die Assimilationsstragtegien in der SBZ/DDR 1945–1961 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2004), as well as works by Sylvia Schraut and Susanne Spulbeck not included in Kittel’s bibliography. Given Kittel’s concerns, it is curious that his book...

pdf

Share