Federal Ministry for displaced persons, refugees and war victims

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The Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims ( BMVt ) was established in 1949 and dissolved in 1969. Until the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, the care of the refugees in the western zones was the responsibility of the state governments . The new Federal Ministry then took on the socio-political task of coordinating the integration of the displaced and refugees , taking care of the affairs of those injured in the war , and taking care of compensation and start-up aid as part of the burden sharing.

history

The Federal Ministry of Expellees was set up by the former ZvD chairman and Christian Democrat MP Hans Lukaschek . Another eight federal ministers followed, until the Federal Ministry of Displacement was dissolved in 1969 and responsibilities were distributed to other federal ministries. In the early days, the Federal Ministry of Expellees drafted the Burden Equalization Act , which was passed in 1952, and the Federal Expellees Act (BVFG), which came into force in 1953. They formed the basis for his later work.

On behalf of this ministry, a multi-volume documentation of the expulsion of the Germans from East Central Europe was developed and published by numerous scientists - on the basis of documents and testimony. In this project, which ran for about ten years, a so-called "Königsberg Circle" under the leadership of Theodor Schieder , Werner Conze and Hans Rothfels played a decisive role, they were authors or editors. Other authors were Adolf Diestelkamp , Rudolf (von) Laun and Peter Rassow . During the Nazi era, Schieder and similar historians supported the national struggle with arguments with a “fine-grained ideological justification of German domination in the East”, as Wolfgang J. Mommsen put it. Under Theodor Oberländer , around 75 percent of the posts were occupied by former members of the NSDAP .

In 1969, as part of Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik , the ministry was dissolved under strong criticism from the associations of expellees . Since then, responsibilities have been divided between several ministries, including the Federal Office of Administration , which is responsible for accepting repatriates.

Federal Minister 1949 to 1969

During his brief term in office, Hans-Joachim von Merkatz was also Federal Minister for Affairs of the Federal Council and the Länder .

For more information on the reasons for Hans Krüger's very short term of office (1963/64) see here .

No. Surname Life dates Political party Beginning of the term of office Term expires
Federal Minister for Affairs of the Displaced Persons
1 Hans Lukaschek 1885-1960 CDU September 20, 1949 October 20, 1953
2 Theodor Oberländer 1905-1998 GB / BHE October 20, 1953 January 31, 1954
Federal Minister for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims
2 Theodor Oberländer 1905-1998 GB / BHE (until 1955)
CDU (from 1955) 		February 1, 1954 May 4th 1960
3 Hans-Joachim von Merkatz 1905-1982 CDU October 27, 1960 November 14, 1961
4th Wolfgang Mischnick 1921-2002 FDP November 14, 1961 October 15, 1963
5 Hans Kruger 1902-1971 CDU 17th October 1963 7th February 1964
6th Ernst Lemmer 1898-1970 CDU 19th February 1964 October 26, 1965
7th Johann Baptist Gradl 1904-1988 CDU October 26, 1965 1st December 1966
8th Kai-Uwe von Hassel 1913-1997 CDU 1st December 1966 5th February 1969
9 Heinrich Windelen 1921-2015 CDU 7th February 1969 October 21, 1969

Official State Secretaries

literature

  • Mathias Beer : Politics and Contemporary History in the Beginnings of the Federal Republic. The major research project "Documentation of the Expulsion of Germans from Eastern Central Europe". In: VfZ 46, 1998, no. 3, pp. 345–389 ( online ; PDF)
  • Heinz Hoffmann (editor): The Federal Ministries 1949–1999. Designations, official abbreviations, responsibilities, organizational structure, management personnel (=  materials from the Federal Archives . Issue 8). Wirtschaftsverlag NW GmbH, Bremerhaven 2003, ISBN 3-86509-075-3 , p. 401-410 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 5 volumes, partly in several partial volumes; also 3 supplements from contemporary witnesses, u. a. Hans Graf von Lehndorff , Bh. 3; 1 place register (1963). 1954ff (1954 still undated, from 1957: dated volumes, until 1961) The four volumes on the CS (S) R, Romania, Hungary and "east of the Oder-Neisse" (of which part 1, 1954, as well as Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia are linked online, see web links), were also published and distributed in English by the ministry. The conception of the volumes, which appeared from 1955, is the actual masterpiece of Oberländer, who ensured that the preparatory work by Fritz Valjavec had been based on since 1951. The Ministry itself operated as a publisher, also a “Verlag Christ on the move”, Bonn (on commission), or “Hayn's Erben”, Berlin. There were always new editions, also as TB, as well as in a mass publisher (Weltbild), with which the products were widely used until 1994.
  2. ↑ In the interview: Wolfgang J. Mommsen . For criticism, see Ingo Haar : Murder for a career. A scandalous source in the planned center against eviction. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 17, 2005.
  3. ↑ a b Henning Burk, Erika Fehse, Marita Krauss, Susanne Spröer, Gudrun Wolter: Fremde Heimat - The fate of the expellees after 1945 . 1st edition 2011. Rowohlt Berlin Verlag GmbH, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-8389-0164-0 , pp. 266 .