Federation of Expellees
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The Federation of Expellees (German: Bund der Vertriebenen; BdV) is a non-profit organization formed in
Since 2014 the president of the Federation has been Bernd Fabritius, who arrived in West Germany in 1984 as a Transylvanian Saxon refugee from Agnita, Socialist Republic of Romania, and who has since been elected as a Christian Social Union in Bavaria Member of the Bundestag.
History
It is estimated that in the aftermath of World War II between 13 and 16 million
Charter of the German Expellees
The Charter of the German Expellees (German: Charta der deutschen Heimatvertriebenen) of 5 August 1950, announced their belief in requiring that "the right to the homeland is recognized and carried out as one of the fundamental rights of mankind given by God", while renouncing revenge and retaliation in the face of the "unending suffering" (unendliche Leid) of the previous decade, and supporting the unified effort to rebuild Germany and Europe.
The charter has been criticised for avoiding mentioning Nazi atrocities of
Professor Micha Brumlik pointed out that one third of signatories were former devoted Nazis and many actively helped in realisation of Hitler's goals.
German laws concerning the expellees
Between 1953, when the
The German Law of Return declared refugee status to be inheritable. According to the Federal Expellee Law,[5] "the spouse and the descendants" of an expellee are to be treated as if they were expellees themselves, regardless of whether they had been personally displaced. The Federation of Expellees has steadily lobbied to preserve the inheritability clause.
Formation of the Federation
The Federation of Expellees was formed on 27 October 1957 in West Germany. Before its founding, the Bund der Heimatvertriebenen (League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights), formed in 1950, represented the interests of displaced German expellees. Intriguingly, in its first few years, the league was more successful in West Germany than in East Germany.
German reunification
Previous West German governments, especially those led by the Christian Democratic Union, had shown more rhetorical support for the territorial claims made on behalf of German refugees and expellees. Although the
In 1989–1990 the West German government realized they had an opportunity to reunify the Federal Republic of Germany and the Soviet created German Democratic Republic. But they believed that if this were to be achieved, it had to be done quickly. One of the potential complications was the claim to the historical eastern territories of Germany; unless this was renounced, some foreign governments might not agree to
2000s
In 2000 the Federation of Expellees also initiated the formation of the
Recently Erika Steinbach, the chair of the Federation of Expellees, has rejected any compensation claims.[citation needed] The vice president of the Federation Rudi Pawelka is however a chairman of the supervisory board of the Prussian Trust.
A European organisation for expellees has been formed: EUFV. Headquarters is Trieste, Italy. [citation needed]
Organization
The expellees are organized in 21 regional associations (Landsmannschaften), according to the areas of origin of its members, 16 state organizations (Landesverbände) according to their current residence, and 5 associate member organizations. It is the single representative federation for the approximately 15 million Germans who after fleeing, being expelled, evacuated or emigrating, found refuge in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Federation claims to have 1.3 million members (including non-displaced persons),[6] and to be a political force of some influence in Germany. This figure was disputed in January 2010 by the German news service DDP, which reported an actual membership of 550,000.[7] According to Erika Steinbach only 100,000 of the members contribute financially.[8]
The federation helps its members to integrate into German society. Many of the members assist the societies of their place of birth.
Presidents
From 1959 to 1964, the first president of the Federation was
- Hans Krüger (1959–1963)BdV - Der BdV - Geschichte des BdV (resigned from his post due to his Nazi past[9])
- Wenzel Jaksch (1964–1966)
- Reinhold Rehs (1967–1970)
- Herbert Czaja (1970–1994)
- Fritz Wittmann (1994–1998)
- Erika Steinbach (1998–2014)
- Bernd Fabritius (2014–)
Member organizations
Regional
- Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen
- Landsmannschaft Schlesien
- Deutsch-Baltische Gesellschaft
- Landsmannschaft der Banater Schwaben e.V.
- Landsmannschaft Berlin-Mark Brandenburg
- Landsmannschaft der Bessarabiendeutschen e.V.
- Landsmannschaft der Buchenlanddeutschen (Bukowina) e.V.
- Bund der Danziger e.V.
- Landsmannschaft der Dobrudscha und Bulgariendeutschen
- Landsmannschaft der Donauschwaben, Bundesverband e.V.
- Karpatendeutsche Landsmannschaft Slowakei e.V.
- Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Litauen e.V.
- Landsmannschaft der Oberschlesier e.V. – Bundesverband –
- Pommersche Landsmannschaft – Zentralverband – e.V.
- Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland e.V.
- Landsmannschaft der Sathmarer Schwabenin der Bundesrepublik Deutschland e.V.
- Landsmannschaft der Siebenbürger Sachsen in Deutschlande.V.
- Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft Bundesverbande.V.
- Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Ungarn
- Landsmannschaft Weichsel-Warthe Bundesverband e.V.
- Landsmannschaft Westpreußen e.V.
State
- Landesverband Baden-Württemberg
- Landesverband Bayern
- Landesverband Berlin
- Landesverband Brandenburg
- Landesverband Bremen
- Landesverband Hamburg
- Landesverband Hessen
- Landesverband Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
- Landesverband Niedersachsen
- Landesverband Nordrhein-Westfalen
- Landesverband Rheinland-Pfalz
- Landesverband Saar
- Landesverband Sachsen / Schlesische Lausitz
- Landesverband Sachsen-Anhalt
- Landesverband Schleswig-Holstein
- Landesverband Thüringen
Criticism
When in government, both CDU and SPD have tended to favor improved relations with
The refugees' claims were unanimously rejected by the affected countries and became a source of mistrust between Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. These governments argue that the expulsion of Germans and related border changes were not enacted by the Polish or Czech governments, but rather were ordered by the
Some German-speakers had been settled in occupied Poland after 1939 by the Nazis. Treating these ex-colonists as expellees under German law, Erika Steinbach included, adds to the controversy. However, the vast majority of expelled Germans were descended from families who had lived in Eastern Europe for many centuries, while the majority of German colonists in Nazi-occupied Poland were
Alleged Nazi background
During the
The Polish daily newspaper
In February 2009, the Polish newspaper Polska alleged that over one third of the Federation top officials were former Nazi activists, and based this on a 2006 article published by the German magazine Der Spiegel.[13] The German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, later revealed that Der Spiegel had written this not in respect to the Federation of Expellees, but instead about a previous organization that was dissolved in 1957.[13][14]
Notable people
- Heinz Neumeyer, German amateur historian
See also
- All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights
- Organised persecution of ethnic Germans
- Pursuit of Nazi collaborators
- German eastward settlement
- Nazi–Soviet population transfers
- History of Poland
- History of Pomerania
- History of Silesia
- History of Prussia
- History of the Czech lands
- Ethnic cleansing
- Deutsch-Baltische Gesellschaft
References
- ^ (in Polish) Beata Ociepka, "Związek Wypędzonych w systemie politycznym RFN i jego wpływ na stosunki polsko-niemieckie 1982–1992", page 235, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 1997
- ^ "Karta Wypędzonych: pojednanie czy relatywizacja? | DW | 05.08.2010". DW.COM.
- ^ "Streit über Vertriebenen-Charta zum 60. Jahrestag". abendblatt.de (in German). 5 August 2010. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
- ^ "Erika Steinbach ist keine Revanchistin". abendblatt.de (in German). 27 February 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
- ^ "Gesetz über die Angelegenheiten der Vertriebenen und Flüchtlinge" Par. 7/2. Retrieved 29 October 2017
- ^ "Bund der Vertriebenen: Rechtsform" (in German).
- ^ Reported by ARD News service in January 2010. The figure of 550,000 does not include the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The news report mentioned that an expert in the area of Expellees Prof. Matthias Stickler of the University Würzburg as saying that a decline in BdV membership is understandable because it "mirrors the death of the generation of that era"[1]
- ^ (in German) Otto Langels, "Der lange Weg der Versöhnung", deutschlandfunk (05.01.2010). Retrieved 29 October 2017
- ^ a b "League of German Expellees Unwilling to Investigate Own Past", Deutsche Welle (14 August 2006). Retrieved 29 October 2017
- ^ "Biography at spd-wiesbaden.de". Archived from the original on 19 July 2011.
- ^ tagesschau.de. "Aktuelle Nachrichten – Inland Ausland Wirtschaft Kultur Sport – ARD Tagesschau".
- ^ "Odwetowcy czy ofiary historii?". Retrieved 29 June 2007.
- ^ a b (in German) Stefan Dietrich, Erika Steinbach, Polnisches Feindbild, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, (16 March 2009).
- ^ "Dafür fehlen uns die Mittel", Der Spiegel, 14 August 2006
External links
- (in German) Bund der Vertriebenen – Official homepage
- (in German) For latest developments: Spätaussiedler und Heimatvertriebene
- United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights(1994–1997)