Description

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.

Features

• Major contribution to our understanding of West Germany's role in the Cold War
• First scholarly study of the biggest single forced migration in modern European history
• Reveals the long-term consequences of the settlement in West Germany of Germans expelled from central and eastern Europe

Reviews

"Ahonen's conclusions are convincingly argued, and his book on the whole offers a clear and compelling narrative of the development of expellee organizations and their influence on policy up to 1969, covering the period after 1969 in a brief concluding chapter....Ahonen's work will be essential reading for all students and scholars of postwar West German politics and diplomacy."--American Historical Review

Product Details

328 pages; ISBN13: 978-0-19-925989-2ISBN10: 0-19-925989-5

About the Author(s)