It was only later that the term “flight and expulsion” became established. During and at the end of the Second World War, the refugees and displaced persons fled, were evacuated, deported or expelled from the eastern territories of the German Reich and a number of countries in Central and Eastern Europe as a result of Nazi rule. As part of the extensive European forced migrations at the end of the Second World War, they are the largest group of immigrants that the Federal Republic of Germany has received in the course of its history. They contributed significantly to the fact that the Federal Republic was a country of immigration from the very beginning.
Divided into the areas of history, research and remembrance, the project explores fundamental questions on the subject in a series of case studies. What was the genesis of flight and expulsion? How did the research on flight and expulsion develop? How did the public debate on flight and expulsion take place?
With a broad approach in terms of content, theory, methodology and sources, the project aims to reveal the great significance of the forced migration of Germans at the end of the Second World War and its consequences to the present day - in Germany and abroad.