The Bavarian Government and the Refugee Problem 1945-50

Abstract

As Soviet troops moved westwards during the early months of 1945, German refugees began to flee from the eastern parts of the Reich and by January 1950 almost 7,700,000 were residing in the newly established West German state.' At that time newcomers comprised 16.1 per cent of the population in the German Federal Republic, and in individual Bundesllinder this figure was considerably higher. As a result of the policies followed by the French military government, South Wurttemberg, South Baden and Rhineland-Palatinate accommodated fewer than 250,000 refugees and expellees at the beginning of 1950; and in Bremen and Hamburg, where housing had been extensively damaged by war-time bombing, the number of newcomers was also small. On the other hand, Bavaria (1,933,000), Lower Saxony (1,851,000) and Schleswig-Holstein (942,000) bore the brunt of the refugee influx, and in Schleswig-Holstein the population in January 1950 was no less than 63 per cent above the pre-war level. 2 Arriving in a country devastated by the effects of war, the newcomers had to endure acute economic distress in the period 1945-50. Few possessed the most elementary necessities of daily life when they came to the West. In fact, many refugees originating from the areas east of the Oder-Neisse line (East Prussia, Silesia, Brandenburg and Pomerania) crossed the border with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.Even the more fortunate Volksdeutsche -groups such as the Sudeten Germans who had formerly lived as minorities in foreign countries -had invariably retrieved only their most valuable belongings. As an especially impoverished social group, without connections or the opportunity to benefit from the flourishing black market, the newcomers also suffered more than other sections of the population from the severe food shortage prevailing in the Western Zones of Germany after 1945; and in Bavaria there were reports of refugees begging farmers for bread and potatoes during the second half of 1947. 3

CDU refugee policies and the landesverband oder/neiße: Electoral tool or instrument of integration?

“…Also, tension between newcomers and the native population, already significant in some areas, would be further increased. 13 A second area of concern was that refugees, 'speaking with one voice', would be more outspoken in their demand of self-determination and their right to return to their homeland. These rights, although enshrined in the Atlantic Charter or easily derived from it, were feared by the allies to contain a danger of renewed German nationalism, if not national socialism.…”