The Federal Ministry of Displaced Persons, Refugees and War Victims () was part of the West Germany, West German federal government from 1949 till 1969.
Before the formation of the ''Federal Republic of Germany'' on the territory of the three western (American, British and French) Allied-occupied Germany, allied zones, the individual States of Germany, state governments were in charge of the care for displaced persons. Initially the Office for Displaced Persons () was formed for the social policy task of coordinating the integration of displaced persons and refugees, caring for war victims and providing compensation and initial aid. When the new ministry was formed in September 1949 after the West German federal election, 1949, parliamentary elections, it took over this office.
The first minister was Hans Lukaschek, member of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union (Germany), Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and former president of the ''Zentralverband vertriebener Deutscher'', an organisation of displaced Germans. Before the war he was responsible for organising propaganda against the Poles in Upper Silesia. He had eight successors, until in 1969 the ministry was dissolved and its competences were distributed among other federal ministries. The ministry was target of several scandals and controversies as Lukaschek's successor Theodor Oberländer was a former active Nazi, responsible for supporting ethnic cleansing of Jews and Poles and forced to resign due to his Nazi past. Another minister, Hans Krüger, also a former Nazi, was also forced to resign after his involvement in atrocities in occupied Poland was revealed. As for Lukaschek, it was speculated that his departure was the result of intrigues made by former Nazis
The ministry initially drafted the ''Lastenausgleichsgesetz'' and the Federal Expellee Law, Bundesvertriebenengesetz (passed in 1952 and 1953, respectively). These laws became the basis of its further activities.
The ministry also mandated a multi-volume documentation of the expulsion of Germans after World War II (''Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa''), which was prepared by a large Schieder commission, scientific commission led by former Nazi activist Theodor Schieder. The research project took roughly ten years to complete. A crucial role in this commission was played by the ''Königsberger Kreis'' led by former Nazis Theodor Schieder and Werner Conze as well as nationalist historian Hans Rothfels; it had previously provided ideological justifications for the Third Reich's aggressive eastbound Volkstum#Third Reich, Volkstum politics.
Im Interview: Wolfgang J. Mommsen
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Ministers
Political Party:
Footnotes
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1949 establishments in West Germany
1969 disestablishments
Former ministries, Germany, Displaced Persons, Refugees and War Victims
Federal government ministries of Germany, Displaced Persons, Refugees and War Victims