The Centre Against Expulsions (german: Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen, ZgV) was a planned
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
documentation centre for
expulsion
Expulsion or expelled may refer to:
General
* Deportation
* Ejection (sports)
* Eviction
* Exile
* Expeller pressing
* Expulsion (education)
* Expulsion from the United States Congress
* Extradition
* Forced migration
* Ostracism
* Persona non ...
s and
ethnic cleansing, particularly the
expulsion of Germans after World War II
Expulsion or expelled may refer to:
General
* Deportation
* Ejection (sports)
* Eviction
* Exile
* Expeller pressing
* Expulsion (education)
* Expulsion from the United States Congress
* Extradition
* Forced migration
* Ostracism
* Persona ...
.
Since March 19, 2008 the name of the project is Sichtbares Zeichen gegen Flucht und Vertreibung.
The project was initiated by the
Federation of Expellees, who dedicated a "Foundation Centre Against Expulsions" to the centre.
This foundation is based in
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
, and headed by
CDU politician and president of the Federation of Expellees,
Erika Steinbach
Erika Steinbach (, born 25 July 1943) is a German right-wing politician. She previously served as a member of the Bundestag from 1990 until 2017.
She was a member of the Christian Democratic Union from 1974 to 2017, and served as a member of t ...
. The other head of the foundation was
SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been t ...
politician
Peter Glotz
Peter Glotz (6 March 1939 – 25 August 2005) was a German social democratic politician ( Social Democratic Party) and social scientist.
Peter Glotz was born in Cheb, Czechoslovakia, to a German father and a Czech mother. His father, an insuranc ...
who died in 2005.
Since late 2008, the project is forwarded by the Federal Republic of Germany, when the federal government and parliament passed a law calling for the constitution of a ''Foundation German Historical Museum'' subordinate to the federal government, which in turn shall hold a ''Foundation Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation'' which shall take on the actual documentation in Berlin.
[German federal government release of 03.09.2008]
/ref> The project has been subject to criticism, especially in Poland.
"Foundation Centre Against Expulsions" of the Federation of Expellees
The Federation of Expellees (german: Bund der Vertriebenen, BdV) is the German non-governmental head organization of various organized groups of German refugees and expellees. The federation is committed to document the post- World War II flight and expulsion of Germans as well as other forced displacements, and maintains an exhibition for this purpose shown in changing locations of Germany. To expand this exhibition and to find a permanent place for it, the Federation of Expellees set up the "Foundation Centre Against Expulsions" (german: Stiftung Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen, ZgV)) on 6 September 2000.[Centre Against Expulsions, foundation website, "Our Foundation"]
Objectives
The foundation Centre Against Expulsions defines four objectives:
# To document the history of settlement, culture, post-World War II deportation and expulsion, forced labour, torture, and later emigration of Germans from various countries of Central, Eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
and Southeastern Europe
Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (a ...
, in a modern museum. The museum shall provide room for the documentation and "additional space for sadness, sympathy and forgiveness" in a requiem rotunda.
# To document and to evaluate the impact of the integration of millions of uprooted Germans into the post-World War II German society.
# To document the "expulsion and genocide of other peoples, especially in Europe", arguing that "''displacement, expulsion and genocide can never be justified, ..are always a crime, contradicting human rights and carried out by following the archaic thinking of the bloody vendetta.''"
# To donate a '' Franz Werfel Human Rights Award''[Centre Against Expulsions, foundation website, " Franz-Werfel-Human Rights Award]
to people who "sharpen the sense of responsibility through their actions is one of the foundation's tasks".
"Foundation Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation"
On 11 November 2005, the largest German political parties SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been t ...
and CDU signed a coalition. One stated goal of the coalition is the establishment of a centre termed "Visible Sign" (german: Sichtbares Zeichen).[German Federal Government, Appointee for Culture and Media, center conception, press release 19 March 200]
On 3 September 2008 the German federal government passed a law calling for the establishment of a center against expulsions in the ''Deutschlandhaus'' building of the Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof, Anhalter Bahnhof site in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
-Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990 it ha ...
.[German Federal Government, press release, 3 September 200]
(including link to the law (pdf file) The law passed the Bundestag, German parliament and was enacted on 29 December 2008.[full text of German law to establish a foundation "German Historical Museum": Gesetz zur Errichtung einer Stiftung „Deutsches Historisches Museum“ (DHMG) vom 21. Dezember 2008 in der Fassung der Bekanntmachung vom 29.Dezember 2008 (BGBl. I Nr. 64, S. 2891]
(pdf file)(html file)
/ref> The center is to be run by a "Foundation Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation" (german: Stiftung Flucht, Vertreibung, Versöhnung) subordinate to the governmental "Foundation German Historical Museum" (german: Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum).
"Foundation German Historical Museum" of the German federal government
The purpose of this foundation is stated in §16 of the above-mentioned law as follows:
(1) The purpose of the non-autonomous foundation is to ensure in the spirit of reconciliation the remembrance of flight and expulsion in the 20th century in the historical context of the Second World War and the Nazi expansion and extermination policy and their aftermaths.
(2) This purpose shall be fulfilled especially by the following measures:
*(2.1) Establishment, maintenance and expansion of a permanent exhibition documenting flight and expulsion in the 20th century, the historical background and contexts as well as the European dimension and effects.
*(2.2) Development of singular exhibitions for special aspects of the overall context.
*(2.3) Distribution of research results and scientific findings.
*(2.4) Gathering, documentation and scientific evaluation of respective sources and materials, also and especially eyewitness accounts.
*(2.5) Cooperation with German and international museums and research centers.[full text of §16, law for establishment of a foundation "German Historical Museum": Gesetz zur Errichtung einer Stiftung „Deutsches Historisches Museum“ § 16
Stiftungszweck]
*(1) Zweck der unselbständigen Stiftung ist es, im Geiste der Versöhnung die Erinnerung und das Gedenken an Flucht und Vertreibung im 20. Jahrhundert im historischen Kontext des Zweiten Weltkrieges und der nationalsozialistischen Expansions- und Vernichtungspolitik und ihrer Folgen wachzuhalten.
*(2) Der Erfüllung dieses Zweckes dienen insbesondere:
**1. Errichtung, Unterhaltung und Weiterentwicklung einer Dauerausstellung zu Flucht und Vertreibung im 20. Jahrhundert, den historischen Hintergründen und Zusammenhängen sowie europäischen Dimensionen und Folgen;
**2. Erarbeitung von Einzelausstellungen zu speziellen Aspekten der Gesamtthematik;
**3. Vermittlung von Forschungsergebnissen und wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen;
**4. Sammlung, Dokumentation und wissenschaftliche Auswertung einschlägiger Unterlagen und Materialien, insbesondere auch von Zeitzeugenberichten;
**5. Zusammenarbeit mit deutschen und internationalen Museen und Forschungseinrichtungen
People and supporters
The scientific advisory board includes or included Jörg Baberowski, Arnulf Baring, Peter Becher, Lothar Gall, Bernhard Graf, Helga Hirsch, Walter Homolka
Walter Homolka (born 21 May 1964 in Landau an der Isar) is a German rabbi.
Homolka studied in Munich, London, Lampeter and Leipzig and has a PhD from King's College London. He is an adjunct full professor at the University of Potsdam and rec ...
, Eckart Klein, Hilmar Kopper, Rudolf Kucera, Otto Graf Lambsdorff
Otto Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von der Wenge Graf Lambsdorff, known as Otto Graf Lambsdorff (20 December 1926 – 5 December 2009), was a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP).
Early life and education
Lambsdorff was bo ...
, Horst Möller
Horst Möller (born 12 January 1943 in Breslau) is a German contemporary historian. He is Professor of Modern History at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and, from 1992 to 2011, Director of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte.
Edu ...
, Christoph Pan, Rüdiger Safranski
Rüdiger Safranski (born 1 January 1945) is a German philosopher and author.
Life
From 1965 to 1972, Safranski studied philosophy (among others with Theodor W. Adorno), German literature, history and history of art at Goethe University i ...
, Christoph Stölzl, Christian Tomuschat
Christian Tomuschat (born 23 July 1936 in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland)) is a German jurist. He is emeritus professor of public international law and European law at the Humboldt University in Berlin and is a former member of the UN Hu ...
, Krisztián Ungváry
Krisztián Ungváry (born 30 October 1969) is a Hungarian historian of 20th century political and military history. He wrote about the siege of Budapest in World War II and researched the work of the secret service under the communist period o ...
, Georg Wildmann, Michael Wolffsohn
Michael Wolffsohn (born 17 May 1947) is a German historian. Wolffsohn was born in Tel Aviv, in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine and today is Israel. His parents were German Jews who fled in 1939.
In 1954, the Wolffsohns moved to ...
, Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas (born 31 May 1947) is a Cuban-born American lawyer and writer, active in the field of human rights and international law. From 1 May 2012 to 30 April 2018, he served as the first UN Independent Expert on the Promotion o ...
and Zoran Ziletic.
The United Nations' first High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...
Dr. José Ayala Lasso, German chancellor Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...
, Nobel literature laureate and Holocaust survivor Imre Kertész
Imre Kertész (; 9 November 192931 March 2016) was a Hungarian author and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history". He was ...
, Joachim Gauck
Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician and civil rights activist who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in E ...
, Milan Horáček, former Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n crown prince Otto von Habsburg
Otto von Habsburg (german: Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xaver Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius, hu, Ferenc József Ottó Róbert Mária Antal Károly Max Heinrich Sixtus Xaver Felix Renatus Lajos Gaetan ...
, and historians such as Guido Knopp
Guido Knopp (born 29 January 1948 in Treysa, Hesse) is a German journalist and author. He is well known in Germany, mainly because he has produced a great number of TV documentaries, predominantly about the "Third Reich" and National Socialism, b ...
, Hungarian novelist György Konrád, and Christian Tomuschat
Christian Tomuschat (born 23 July 1936 in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland)) is a German jurist. He is emeritus professor of public international law and European law at the Humboldt University in Berlin and is a former member of the UN Hu ...
, have also voiced their support for the centre.
Criticism
In a petition initiated by Hans Henning Hahn, Eva Hahn, Alexandra Kurth, Samuel Salzborn and Tobias Weger in 2003, signed by several hundred people, primarily German, Czech, and Polish historians, opponents of the proposed form of Centre expressed concerns the centre would "establish and popularize a one-sided image of the past, without historical context", and see the dangers of "de-contexualizing the past" and "ethnification of social conflicts". German-Jewish writer Ralph Giordano
Ralph Giordano (23 March 1923 – 10 December 2014) was a German writer and publicist.
Life and career
Giordano was born to a Sicilian father and a German Jewish mother in Hamburg. He attended the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums from 1933 to ...
withdrew his initial support for the same reason, but defended Steinbach against the latest personal accusations from Poland, which he called defamation. Former German Foreign minister Joschka Fischer
Joseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer (born 12 April 1948) is a German retired politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens. He served as the foreign minister and as the vice-chancellor of Germany in the cabinet of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005. Fi ...
said "This can't be a museum of German war victims. Germans can't point fingers at others".
Criticism in Poland
Critics in Poland oppose the idea of the centre claiming that it would equate German suffering with that of the Jews and Poles and will suggest a moral equivalence between the victims of war and their oppressors.[Mark Landler, International Herald Tribune, 31 August 2006,]
Poles riled by Berlin exhibition, Germans’ expulsion after the war is its focus
/ref> Marek Edelman
Marek Edelman ( yi, מאַרעק עדעלמאַן, born either 1919 in Homel or 1922 in Warsaw – October 2, 2009 in Warsaw, Poland) was a Polish political and social activist and cardiologist. Edelman was the last surviving leader of the ...
, the last living leader of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; pl, powstanie w getcie warszawskim; german: link=no, Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany' ...
, criticized the project as nationalistic, arrogant and serving to realize political ambitions of the backers of the project. According to Edelman other nations subject to German expulsions didn't establish any comparable monuments, even as they faced a harsher fate than Germans.
The Polish government opposes the involvement of Erika Steinbach
Erika Steinbach (, born 25 July 1943) is a German right-wing politician. She previously served as a member of the Bundestag from 1990 until 2017.
She was a member of the Christian Democratic Union from 1974 to 2017, and served as a member of t ...
in any issues related to Polish-German history and at the same time supports an international net of centers dedicated to remembrance of totalitarian regimes and their victims called "European Network Remembrance and Solidarity".
See also
*Expulsion of Germans after World War II
Expulsion or expelled may refer to:
General
* Deportation
* Ejection (sports)
* Eviction
* Exile
* Expeller pressing
* Expulsion (education)
* Expulsion from the United States Congress
* Extradition
* Forced migration
* Ostracism
* Persona ...
* Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II
References
External links
Portal "Foundation Centre against Expulsions" in English
Centre against Expulsions at Federation of Expellees site
"Border Dispute"
(2003)
Portal "Federal Foundation Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation" in English
{{Authority control
Proposed museums
Museums in Berlin
Proposed buildings and structures in Germany
Post–World War II forced migrations