Focus area: “Historical memory and cultural heritage: displaced persons and ethnic German repatriates in Hesse since 1945”

This priority area aims to contribute to research on the history of Hesse and to integrate the topic of the integration of displaced persons and ethnic German repatriates into comparative migration research. The focus will be on displaced persons in the immediate post-war period as well as the various waves of ethnic German repatriates (including Jewish quota refugees).

The project explores the topic from the perspective of social and local history, oral history, memory politics, cultural heritage research, and digital humanities. Part of the activities therefore involve working with contemporary witnesses and researching cultural traditions.

This allows for the development of special teaching concepts and initiatives in the field of history education that have an impact on the local and regional area. Among other things, this will support the work of the Meisenbornweg learning and remembrance center, which is currently being established in Giessen. Since 1946, this site has served first as a refugee camp, transit camp, and emergency reception center, then as a federal reception center, and finally as the central initial reception facility for the state of Hesse.

Markus Krzoska:
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In September 1954, the municipal authorities of Giessen, represented by Mayor Hugo Lotz, took on the sponsorship of the town and district of Mohrungen (now Morąg) in former East Prussia. Officially, this symbolic connection continues to this day. In 1965, the “Mohrunger Stuben” was established as a refuge and meeting place for the elderly in the Giessen town hall, and in 1981 a memorial stone was erected in the Wieseck-Aue.
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The focus area “Historical Memory and Cultural Heritage. Displaced Persons and Late Repatriates in Hesse after 1945,” launched in the fall of 2022 and funded for four years by the Ministry of Science and Art of the State of Hesse, deals with such interrelationships. It is supported by the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe – Institute of the Leibniz Association and the Justus Liebig University Giessen.
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Johann Gottfried Herder was born in Mohrungen on August 25, 1744._

Justus Liebig University Giessen and the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe are collaborating on a joint project to scientifically examine the culture and history of displaced persons and ethnic German repatriates. The focus area “Historical Memory and Cultural Heritage – Displaced Persons and Ethnic German Repatriates in Hesse since 1945” will be funded from 2022 to 2026.

This tradition is in danger of being lost due to the generational change that will take place in the coming years. The looming transition from the generation that experienced these events to the generation that remembers them opens up a final window of opportunity for research in the field of memory culture and work with contemporary witnesses for about another ten years. In addition, it is important to document this cultural heritage for the first time and place it in its specific historical context.