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The German Expellee Organizations: Unity, Division, and Function

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Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar Germany and France

Abstract

In the early twenty first century, the German expellee organizations (Vertriebenenverbände) are typically portrayed as a united entity, at least in the wider public realm. The dominance of the umbrella group Bund der Vertriebenen (BdV) tends to foster the perception that the German expellee lobby is a homogeneous and cohesive bloc, focused on promoting shared political goals. This has been evident, for instance, in the media coverage of the prolonged controversy about the proposed establishment of a Center Against Expulsions in Berlin, in which the BdV’s statements have generally been taken to represent the expellee movement as a whole.1

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  1. Sylvia Schraut, ‘Die westlichen Besatzungsmächte und die deutschen Flüchtlinge’, in Dierk Hoffmann and Michael Schwartz, eds, Geglückte Integration? Spezifika und Vergleichbarkeit der Vertriebenen-Eingliederung in der SBZ/DDR (Munich, 1999), 33–46.

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© 2016 Pertti Ahonen

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Ahonen, P. (2016). The German Expellee Organizations: Unity, Division, and Function. In: Borutta, M., Jansen, J.C. (eds) Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar Germany and France. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137508416_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137508416_6

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-70150-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-50841-6

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

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