German Diasporic Experiences: Identity, Migration, and Loss

24 “Ich will nach Amerika, mir eine neue Heimat suchen”: The Emigration of Expellees in Post-1945 West German Film

TWENTY- FOUR “Ich will nach Amerika,mir eine neue Heimat suchen”* The Emigration of Expellees in Post-1945 West German Film
Hanno Sowade 293 293 In the first years of the Federal Republic of Germany (frg), 230,000 refugees and expellees emigrated. Compared to the eight million refugees and expellees in the country at the time, this is a relatively small number. Nevertheless, the topic of emigration is generally underrepresented in West German film of this period. The contemporary reception of films such as the very popular Grün ist die Heide (1951) and Ännchen von Tharau (1954), but also the realistic comedy Mamitschka (1955), allows us to draw conclusions about the impact of the emigration experience. It is remarkable that some films found favour with local audiences and expellees alike, whereas others were appreciated by neither group. Whether or not emigration was shown in a positive light did not seem to matter for audiences of the 1950s; it was more important that emigration was depicted in accordance with contemporary social norms that were also in line with the general behaviour encouraged by the government. Thus, the picture painted of emigration in these films reflects the economic circumstances of the country and societal views held by the wider viewing public. Millions of Germans were on the move at the end of World War ii and shortly afterward. A census in the frg on 13 September 1950 counted 7,977,000 people from the former German territories in the east, Czechoslovakia, and other countries from which they were expelled, * Grün ist die Heide. 294 HA NNO SOWADE constituting 16.1 percent of the population. In the course of the following two decades this number rose to almost 9.6 million—excluding the refugees from the German Democratic Republic (gdr)—because of births and late migration. At first the British and American Allied authorities assumed responsibility for the refugees and expellees (from hereon referred to simply as expellees) in West Germany because repatriation was not an option. The camps and temporary accommodations that housed millions of people had the potential for social unrest. The American Military Government Regulations of 1946 stated how the problem must be addressed: “These persons [refugees and expellees] will be absorbed integrally into the German communities.”1 Thus the creation of new minorities had to be avoided. The emigration of expellees, at least to abate the situation, was prevented by the American and British authorities. Only certain groups, mainly displaced persons (DPs) and applicants who had relatives abroad, received permission to emigrate. German clerical and political organizations welcomed a “planned” emigration in principle, but raised concerns about the exit of young, qualified personnel because it would threaten the rebuilding of Germany. They argued for the emigration of whole family units so that people unfit for work would not be left behind and become a burden for the social networks in Germany. The church in particular viewed the emigration of single women as especially dangerous. However , there appears to have been “ein sehr großer Drang” among expellees to emigrate.2 The commitment in the Military Government Regulations to integrate expellees in German postwar society was also implemented as a requirement for the early movie production under the direction of the American and British authorities.The Anglo-American newsreel Welt im Film depicted expulsion and flight only in passing in order to avoid giving expellees a special status in society.In the annual reviews of the year’s events (1946–48), the topic was only touched upon in two reports of one minute’s duration. The large migration of expellees was consequently not mentioned; instead they foregrounded the successful rebuilding of Germany and the achievements of the Allied powers. The topic of expulsion was also not part of the concept of documentary films, of which about one hundred and twenty were planned in 1946–47. Only two documentaries by the Allied powers focused on flight and expulsion and their consequences: Asylrecht (1949/50) and Eine Kleinstadt hilft sich selbst (1950). Emigration as a path to finding a new livelihood did not play a role in either of them. As the title Eine Kleinstadt hilft sich selbst suggests, this film demonstrated how a small town in southern Germany successfully overcame post-war problems. Here the situation of expellees was a sub-topic of the film: they were significantly worse off than the local...