Arrived

The integration of the displaced in Germany

May 22, 2015 - September 20, 2015

Within a few years, more than 12 million German refugees and displaced persons from Eastern Europe streamed into the devastated Germany. Their integration is rightly valued as a great achievement of post-war society.

Millions of German refugees and expellees from Eastern Europe have streamed into destroyed Germany since the end of World War II. The locals struggled with their own problems and often met them with suspicion and rejection. Initially, hardly anyone believed that the integration of the displaced would be a success story and that the maintenance of their cultural assets would become an integral part of German identity.

The exhibition was a reminder of how long and difficult the path to the “miracle of integration” was. Everyday life in refugee camps, conflicts between “old and new citizens”, the tension between the hope of returning and a new beginning, the Federal Expellees Act and the equalization of burdens were just as much a topic as how to deal with flight, expulsion and integration today.

The DZM supplemented the touring exhibition of the Center against Expulsions with objects from its own collection. We focused on Danube-Swabian experiences from arriving in Ulm and the surrounding area, but also on the emergence of Danube-Swabian aid organizations and political interest groups.

An exhibition by the Center against Expulsions Foundation, presented by the Association of Expellees. The presentation of the exhibition was funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior.