20 Results
Special exhibition

"Skoro damoi!" Hope and despair

Starting in January 1945, large numbers of Transylvanian Saxons were deported to the Soviet Union to do forced labor. The exhibition showcases personal objects, photographs and documents that shed light on this central chapter of the recent history of Transylvanian Saxons.
Webdocu

"We, too, are stepping down from our role"

Web documentary about the German Drama Theater in Temirtau and the Germans in the Soviet Union between staying and leaving.
Background article

Agata, Dorota, Iwona, Jolanta

"What luck that we had this kindergarten!" All four say. That was in the early 1970s. Agata and Jolanta now live in Germany, Dorota and Iwona have stayed in Masuria. Lehndorff Castle, the "Pałac", was a place they all felt happy. In those stately rooms they had a feeling of security and comfort, they played among the old oaks, went swimming in the lake. It was a microcosm away from the adult world with its worries and traumas.
Research project

Bucovina – Jewish Perspectives

Until the Second World War, the historical Bukovina was known as an extremely multi-ethnic and multi-religious region. Nevertheless, the (German-speaking) public perception is often dominated by accounts published in the context of the "Landsmannschaft der Buchenlanddeutschen" (Landsmannschaft of...
Research institute | Cultural center | Library | Archive

Bukovina Institute at the University of Augsburg e.V.

The Bukovina Institute at the University of Augsburg is an affiliated institute of the University of Augsburg and is dedicated to researching and communicating knowledge about the culture and history of the historical region of Bukovina as well as about Eastern, East Central and Southeastern Europe.
Museum

Danube Swabian Museum

Migration has always been an important part of European history and continues to be an issue of great significance today. The Danube Swabians are a German minority in Eastern Europe, whose ancestors emigrated to Hungary in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Danube Swabian Museum in Ulm is not only...
Documentation center

Documentation Center for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation

The Documentation Center offers exhibitions, a library and a testimony archive, tours, workshops and events. The Center provides information about the causes, dimensions and consequences of displacement, expulsion and forced migration in the past and present. Particular focus is on the displacement...
Oral history project | Film project

Donauschwäbische Zeitzeugen erzählen ("Danube Swabian eyewitnesses tell their stories")

Multiethnic coexistence, war and loss are formative experiences that affect a whole generation of people and can have a lasting impact on their children and grandchildren. The four-part film series "Donauschwäbische Zeitzeugen erzählen" ("Danube Swabian eyewitnesses tell their stories") gives...
Introduction

Emigration, Forced Migration, and the Iron Curtain

Eastern Europe has been a "migration hot spot" since the late 19th century: Initially as a core area of overseas emigration, then of ethnic forced migration after the end of World War I. Emigration during the Cold War was nearly impossible. Today, many countries in this region benefit from the European Union's Freedom of Movement policy.
Holding

Holdings and collections of the Danube Swabian Museum

From a refugee’s suitcase to a popcorn maker, from the jacket of a forced laborer to a perennial Christmas tree: the holdings of the Danube Swabian Museum convey Danube-Swabian culture and history in a multifarious and eclectic way. An unexpected and special feature of the collection is that many...
Holding

Holdings and collections of the Documentation Center for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation

The scientific library of the Documentation Center for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation includes German and foreign language books, newspapers and magazines as well as digital media on the topic of forced migrations in the 20th and 21st centuries in Europe. In addition to a contemporary...
Biography

Maria Zarębska

When Maria Zarębska was born, in July 1948, the village of Sztynort was still scarred by war. A few Masurian families had remained living there, but most of the inhabitants – like Maria's parents – were newcomers. Everyone was struggling to survive, to get along with each other, to find their way in socialist Poland. For a child like Maria, all this was "normal." The curious girl later became an avid and perceptive chronicler.
Travelling exhibition

My name is Eugen

"Thirteen young Russian Germans bear the name Eugen. They have never met each other, yet they share a striking experience: they were all formerly called Evgenij. Their stories and experiences are unique. The author Eugen Litwinow travelled with them into the past, sharing long conversations about...
Journal

Nordost-Archiv

The "Nordost-Archiv" is published in the form of annual volumes on selected topics.
Biography

On foot and by train from Silesia to West Germany

In a report, 24-year-old Hilda J.-S. describes her resettlement from Rohnstock (Silesia) to Rosellen on the Lower Rhine area in the summer of 1946.
Background article

Russian-German history as migration history

Russian Germans are a global minority. Their history is often characterized by migration within and outside the Russian Empire spanning several generations. In the last third of the 19th century, popular migration destinations included North and South America as well as new settlement areas in Siberia and Kazakhstan. It was here that all Russian Germans were then exiled during and after the Second World War. Since the latest period of resettlement in the 1980s and 1990s, most Russian Germans have settled in Germany.
Biography

The Four Lehndorff Daughters

"I lost my home," Vera von Lehndorff once said, "but lost childhood is a better description." When her father was executed on September 4, 1944, she was five years old. Her sister Eleonore, "Nona," was six and a half, and Gabriele was two. Catharina was only 19 days old; she was born in the Torgau prison hospital. The Nazis had taken the girls and their mother Gottliebe into custody, a practice known in German as "Sippenhaft” or “kin liability". It was a traumatic time and was by no means over when the war ended in 1945.
Background article

The History of the German-speaking Volhynians as Part of a Global Migration History

From the mid-nineteenth century onward, innovations such as steam navigation and the advent of the railroad led to a sharp increase in global migration movements. The German-speaking Volhynians were part of this development, which moved between the ideal-typical poles of voluntary and forced migration and was significantly influenced by the enforcement of the ethnonational principle. This article focuses on the emigration movements of this group from the Russian governorate of Volhynia in the period between the 1860s and the First World War. The subsequent forced migrations of the German-speaking Volhynians are also briefly discussed.
Background article

The Uprooted Ones – Lemkos in Galicia and abroad

The small, private Museum of Lemko Culture in Zyndranowa is situated on the far periphery of southeastern Poland, yet it is a destination for many travelers, mainly from western and northern Poland, but also from other parts of the country and from abroad. For many, a visit here is connected with questions of identity and with the search for traces of family history. At the open-air museum, visitors can experience, among other things, the farm of the Gocz family and learn a great deal about the life of the villagers.
Special exhibition

Zürich an der Wolga ("Zurich on the Volga")

How did a village with the name "Zurich" come to be built on the Volga? And did Swiss people actually live there?