Description
This book looks at the aftermath of the Second World War in West Germany and Eastern Europe. It discusses the problems faced by the Federal Republic of Germany, both domestically and externally, due to the large number of people who were forced to leave their homes in Central and Eastern Europe as a result of the war. The book also discusses the consequences of the forced integration of these people into the country, and how it had a negative impact on West German efforts to develop good relations with Eastern Europe.
This book breaks new ground by connecting two central problems faced by the Federal Republic of Germany prior to reunification in 1990, both of them rooted in the Second World War. Domestically, the country had to integrate eight million expellees forced out of their homes in Central and Eastern Europe as a result of the lost war. Externally, it had to re-establish relations with Eastern Europe, despite the burdens of the Nazi past, the expulsions, and the ongoing East-West struggle in the Cold War. This study shows how the long-term consequences of the expellee problem significantly hindered West German efforts to develop normal ties to the East European states. In particular, it emphasizes a point largely overlooked in the existing literature: the way in which the political integration of the expellees into the Federal Republic had unanticipated negative consequences for the country's Ostpolitik.
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