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We do not know of a detailed political assessment of the political orientation of the Volksdeutsche and other German ethnic minorities in Eastern and Central Europe. And how this was affected by the rise of the NAZIs in Germany. This is a complex topics and involved a dozen or so countries. The Volksdeutsche history and situation varied from country to country as did the resoponse to the rise of the NAZIs. The most highly politicized ethic Germans were those that had lived in the German or Austro-Hungarin Empire before World War I. They were acustomed to being a part of the ruling elite and thus found themseselves a minority and reduced in status. This included communities in western Poland, Czechoslovakia, and northern Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia). The German Sudentens were strongly politicized, but this seems to have been primarily a development after Hitler's seizire of power. And the Sudeten Germans were unique in that they lived in a concentrated area along the German and Austrian border. German communities in other countries seem less politicized, but we note that ethnic Germans in the Baltics and notheastern Romania (Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina) complied with NAZI instructions to Come Home to the Reich. Volksdeutsche in the Soviet Union seem apolitical, but we are not sure just how the arrival of German troops affected their political orientation. Stalin deported the Volga Germans east, but the German advance was so rapid that Germans located further West escaped deportation. This is a topic that we have not yet researched in detail, but hope to so as our website expands.
We do not know of a detailed political assessment of the political orientation of the Volksdeutsche and other German ethnic minorities in Eastern and Central Europe. And how this was affected by the rise of the NAZIs in Germany. This is a complex topics and involved a dozen or so countries. The Volksdeutsche history and situation varied from country to country as did the resoponse to the rise of the NAZIs. The most highly politicized ethic Germans were those that had lived in the German or Austro-Hungarin Empire before World War I. They were acustomed to being a part of the ruling elite and thus found themseselves a minority and reduced in status. This included communities in western Poland, Czechoslovakia, and northern Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia). The German Sudentens were strongly politicized, but this seems to have been primarily a development after Hitler's seizire of power.
Austria aftr World War II wantd to be seen as an occupid country. In fact there was very strong pro-NAZI sentiment in the country. Pro-NAZI sentiment was not universal, but it was very strong. Under tge terms of the Versailles Treaty, Austria could not be unified with Germany which many Austrians desired. There was strong support for the NAZI Anscluss (March 1938). Austria became Ostmark and an integral part of the Reich.
German communities in the Balic dateback centuries to the medieval Northern Crusades and the Hanseatic League. In the 19th century, Tsarist Russia along with annexing much of Poland, acquired the the Baltics. The process diffred sonewhat in what bcame three countries (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). The Russians did not significanhtly alter the social structure and the German communities continued with little change under Tsarist rule. This changed after World War I when each of the countries became independent and began to change the social order, especiually breaking up large coutry estates, many of which were owned by German aristocrts. The goal was to increase land ownership among the local population. The story of the Baltic Germans shifted just before Hitler launched the War. Hitler ordered them Home to the Reich. Most complied, but the Germans were unsure of their racial and political attributes. They were put in dreary relocation camps where the SS vetted them. Categories were estblished for those who had non-German ancestors or were not reliuabbly NAZI. Hitler Youth children, mostly BDM girl, assisted in their Germanization as many did not speak pefect German. Their history shifted from the Baltics to Poland. The SS used them to take over farms seized from Poles in the areas of Westrn Poland annexed to the Reich. An exceotion here was Memel, a Baltic port that had been part of Germany before Word War I anseized by the NAZIs before the War (March 1939).
Belgium has a small ethnic German minority located in the east along the German border. In addition to the ethnic Germans, the Limburgish and Luxembourgish speak German. .
The German Sudentens in Czechoslovakia were strongly politicized, but this seems to have been primarily a development after Hitler's seizire of power. And the Sudeten Germans were unique in that they lived in a concentrated area along the German and Austrian border. Ideally the Sudetenland should have ben transferred to Austria and Germany after World War I. The Czechs argued, however, that they needed the mountaneous border area to defend the rest of Bohemia and thus at the Versailles Peace Conference, the area was designated for the new Czechoslovakian nation.
Danzig is one of the oldest Polish cities, but as part of the Hansiatic League gradully became a preddominantly German City. Napoleon described it as ‘the key to everything’ when he marched his army eastward in the early-19th century. A vibrant Jewish community developed in the 19th century as Germany emancipated Jews. Danzig at the time of World war I had a largely German population with Poles living in the villages surrounding the city. As part of the Versailles Peace Treaty, Danzig was made a free city so Poland would have access to he Baltic Sea and intenationl trade. Danzig was overseen and under the protection of the League of Nations. It was located at the north of the Polish corridor or along the Baltic coast. Its status as a free city gave Poland access to the sea. Not making the city part of Poland meant that the largely German inhabitents did not have to live under Polish rule. Both Germany and Poland felt wronged by the League of Nations’ decision. The German residents of the city did not oppose at first the city's new status. The League attempted to protect the rights of the Polish inhabitants who were at first their major concern as the Jewish community was largely Germanized. The NAZIs first won seats in the Danzig Parliament (1930). Local NAZIs took over Parliament soon after Hitler was appointed Chancellor (1933). They proceded to supress the democratic opposition, although not as rutlessly as in the Reich itself. They befgan to take actions against the city's small Jewish population, most of which fled the city. Opposition party gatherings were subject to attacks by NAZI Stormtroopers. City radio being were used for NAZI propaganda. Opposition parties were denied access. Government employees were threatened with dismissal if they didn’t support yhe NAZI Party. The Polish newspaper Gazeta Gdanska was closed. League officials innthe city protested, but were ignored. Another election was held in which saw the NAZI vote increased to 59 percent (1935). Stormtrooprs tried to burn the Synagogue, but were stopped by guards (1938). They finally suceded a few months before the War (Match 1939). Most of the city Jews had already left.
World War II actually began in Danzig when the German cruiser 'Schleswig-Holstein' shelled the Polish garrison based at Westerplatte (1939). German soldiers entering Danzig were ethusiastically welcomed by the German inhabitants. With their victory over Poland, Germany abolished the Free City and annexed the city, incorporating it into the newly formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. The new NAZI authorities revoked the citizenship of the Poles and Jews still living in the city and reclasified them as 'subjects of the state'. They were subjecting them to forced labor and expulsions. Many were arrested and interned in SS concentration camps, especially Stutthof. Much the same was going on througout Grman occupied western Poland. The whole process, however ocurred much more rapidly in Danzig than the rest of the occupied areas.
Of all thge Eastern and Central European countries, the ethnic Germans in Hungary were perhaps most assimilated in Hungary than in any other country. The country had been ruled by the Austrian Hapsburg monarchy for centuries (16th century). And the contitution of the Austrian Empire was changed after Austro-Prussian Empire (1866) to accomodate the Hungrian-creting the Autro-Hungarian Empire. Unlike other counries, there were no clusters of olksdeutsche living in small isolated community attempting to preseve their culture. Hungary had been part of the Austro-Hungarin Empire fifgting as allies with Germany in World war I. And the Hungarians became a NAZI ally in part no wanting a military confrontation with the Germans and it part because of its revanche goals. The NAZIS offered the poosibility ff regaining territory lost to the Czechs and Romaniana. As far as we know, ethnic Germans in Hungary played no significant role in World War II.
The Germnans in Italy were an anomaly. As a reward for joining the Allies in World War II, South Tyrol with a largely Germn population was assigned to Italy. Mussolini's initial concern with the NZIs was based on his fer that Hiutler would attmpt to regain the area. Hitler knew this and as part of his diplomacy with Mussolini. the Tyrolean Germans were the South Tyrol was the one area populated by ethnic Germans that Hitler did not attmpt to regain. And there was little
agitation for unification with Germany by the Turoleans. The Fascisrt ecret police cloely monitired the Tyroleans to ensure this did not occur and they received no enouragement from the NAZIs.
The eastern boundarry of Germany with the new Polish state was only partially settled by at the Versailles Peace Conference. Poland was authorized a corridor to the sea so they could use the port of Danzig whixh ws made free city.
The status of other areas was detrmined by a series of referendums by the local population. As it was finally established, Poland had a substantial German minority, located mostly in the western areas that had been prt of Germany bfore the War.
Ethnic Germans notheastern Romania (Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina) complied with Hitlers orders to Return to the Reich. This occurred after Stalin announced the annexation of these provinces (1940).
The Volkdeutsche in the Soviet Union seem apolitical, but we are not sure just how the arrival of German troops affected their political orientation. Stalin deported the Volga Germans east, but the German advance was so rapid that Germans located further West escaped deportation.
Interestingly the largest ethnic-German popultion outside Germany was in the Unitrd States. There was a huge German migration to the United States. And the Hermans were one of the most important immigrant group. The Germans came in especially large numbers with the failure of the 18i48 Revolitions in Germany. hey came in part for economic opprtunity, but opposition to Prussian militarism and conscription was another factor. And this was a factor in American isolationism which included pacifist seniment. The heavily German mid-West was the heart of the opposition to American involvement in World War II. Ethnic origins were a strong factor in attitudes toward the War. This was a major problem which President Roosevelt faced in his efforts to oppose Hitler. There was little support for Hitler anomg German mericans, but there was strong opposition to entering the Ear, at least before Pearl Harbor. Sone German-Americans engagedcin espoionage activities, but they were mostly recent emigrants.
Yugoslavia was a confederation of pre-World War I Serbia and provinces of the Austro-Hyungarian provinces. Thus the situation of the Volksdeutsche/ethnic Germans varied from province to province as did the politicl orientation of the local population. The Serbs dominated the country and this was resented by some of the other nationalities, especially the Croats and the Slovenes which had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Much of the ethnic German population was concentrate in an areaa n=known as the Banat, between Hungary and Belgrade.
The fate of the Volksdeutche is one of the many depressing stories of World War II. The irony is that while NAZIs who set out to ethnically clense newly acquired areas of the Reich, it was the Germans that were ethnically clensed from Eastern Europe. Those Germans expelled are today referred to in Germany as " Vertriebenen " (expelled ones). Nearly all lived in countries invaded and occupied by NAZI Germany. Many but not all participated in NAZI genocidal or explotive programs to colonize the occupied East. As a result, both the Russian Army and partisans targetted them as the Wehrmacht was forced to retreat. Many wisely fled with the Wehrmacht. Others were reluctant to leave the farms and towns where their families had lived for generations. After the Wehrmacht withdrew and after the end of the War, millions of these ethnic Germans were murdered, deported or otherwise ethnically cleansed. Many first hand accounts describe the violence directed at those of German ancestry. A great deal of documentation was gathered by the German Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau. (Yes, the Wehrmacht was collecting evidence of war crimes.) There are many incidents of unimagined savegery. There were women crucified in Nemmersdorf and the wholesale murder of children. [De Zayas and Barber]
The expulsion of the Volksdeutsche brought a large number of impoverished and often bitter people into Germany, primarily West German, the occupation zones of the Westrn Allies. This had an impact on German politics as they wre automtically granted German citizenship and voting rights. A German reader writes about the political impact on Germany of this massive population transfer. "This is a very complicated topic. I do not much really know much about what occurred before and during World ar II. I was born in 1935 and grew up in Stuttgart in the South-West of Germany. You will understand this remark later. Certainly, the Volksdeutsche in general were (and are) located in the political orientation more than others on the right wing of the population. I think one can only understand this considering that a Communist
state, the Soviet Union, existed and was one of the enemies and finally one of the victors of World War II. The military people back to 1918 had not forgotten the loss of WW1 and some regulations of the treaty of Versailles. Before World War 1 Germany (at this time dominated by Prussian thinking) was oriented toward the East. Volksdeutsche settled in Poland, in Czechoslovakia (Sudetenland), in the Baltics, even in (parts of) Russia. And there was the Austrian-Habsburgian branch of German in South-East Europe, Hungaria, the Ukraine (Donauschwaben), even in Southern Russia (Wolgadeutsche). At the end of World war II (1945), in most of these regions the German-speaking part of the populations were forced to leave their homes, the flight and escape to the West, to all parts of present Germany, many (most) to the Northern states in Germany (remember my remark above. In a second reply I will send you a photo of my class mates from 1951 with remarks where they came from - with additional remarks. Many (most) to the Northern part of Germany, the province of Schleswig-Holstein, Niedersachsen (only few of the refugees settled in the Soviet occupation zone - the later DDR/ GDR. There were successful
political parties in these countries. Wikipedia pages of them I will mention below. These parties were rather right-wing oriented. Of course they had also followers in the West and South, but with much less influence by voters and thus in government. Some of these parties had members even in the government and federal parliament of the BRD/FRG in Bonn; you will read it, they are listed in the Wikipedia pages. Only by about 1960 or even later these parties declined in popular appel (2 to 5 percent) in federal and lower votes. Politicians of these parties (if still living) changed membership to the CDU (it is a strong objection of the left-wing population, parties and some foreign countries that this happened).
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