Author	Lattimore, Bertram Gresh. author
Title	The Assimilation of German Expellees into the West German Polity and Society Since 1945 [electronic resource] : A Case Study of Eutin, Schleswig-Holstein / by Bertram Gresh Lattimore
Imprint	Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands, 1974
Connect to	http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-7642-2
Descript	171 p. online resource

The expulsions of German nationals from former Reich territories east of the Oder-Neisse Rivers and of German minority communities from various Eastern European nations following the collapse of the Nazi regime in 1945 constitute one of the least appreciated consequences of the Second World War. Numbering some ten million people, this group formed nearly a fifth of the total population of the new West German state which emerged in 1949 and presented a grave threat to its early stability. The state (Land) which received the greatest number of these largely destitute expellees in proportion to its indigenous population was Schleswigยญ Holstein: in the years between 1945 and 1948 its population doubled. This predominately agrarian area underwent severe strains in accommodating these newcomers, and its handling of the expellee problem provided a bench mark for the evaluation of the assimilation process throughout the Federal Republic. While the tracing of the assimilation of the expellees into the West German polity and society has been voluminously documented l at the national level, much less research into the process has been conducted at the state and local levels. The principal reason for this seems to lie in the belief that the process has been successยญ fully completed at these lower levels and may be considered a 1 The classic treatment of the first decade and a half of the assimilation process from the national level is Eugen Lemberg and Friedrich Edding, eds

I The Altered Framework (1945โ{128}{147}1947) -- The Potsdam Expulsions -- Schleswig-Holstein -- 1945: The Year of Collapse -- 1946: First Postwar Elections -- 1947: First Expellee Legislation -- Conclusion -- II New Realities (1948โ{128}{147}1950) -- 1948: Expellee Organizations and Elections -- The Expellee Committee (1948โ{128}{147}1950) -- 1950: New Expellee and Indigenous Parties -- Conclusion -- III The High Tide of Local Expellee Politics(1951โ{128}{147}1954) -- 1951: Confrontation -- 1952: Clues That Point Toward Trends -- The Expellee Committee -- 1953: A Respite -- 1954: Landtag Politics and Patenschaften -- Conclusion -- IV The Disintegration of the BHE (1955โ{128}{147}1959) -- 1955โ{128}{147}1956: Redefining the Political Environment -- The Expellee Committee (1955โ{128}{147}1959) -- Expellee Organizations -- 1957-1958: Emasculation of the BHE -- 1959: Economic Recovery Attained -- Conclusion -- V The Political Effects of Assimilation (1959โ{128}{147}1962) -- 1959: Election Ironies -- The Expellee Committee -- 1960: The Decade for Appraisal -- 1961: 1957 Revisited -- 1962: The Political Acknowledgement of Assimilation 106 Conclusion -- VI Epilogue (1963โ{128}{147}1970) -- The Demise of the GDP -- The Expellee Committee (1963โ{128}{147}1965) -- The Local Elections of 1966 -- The Expellee Committee (1966โ{128}{147}1970) -- Continuing Evolution (1967โ{128}{147}1970) -- Conclusion -- VII Conclusion -- The Main Periods of the Assimilation Process -- The Return of Stability -- Political Assimilation -- An Appraisal of Assimilation in Schleswig-Holstein