Country team of Silesia

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The country team leads the Silesian Eagle

The Landsmannschaft Schlesien - Nieder- und Oberschlesien e. V. is an association of expellees . The association has the headquarters of the federal management in the premises of the House of Silesia in Königswinter near Bonn . It was founded on March 28, 1950 in the Bonn Ministry of Expellees . On October 3, 1950, the state of Lower Saxony took over the patronage of the Silesians. The Silesian Landsmannschaft is a member of the Association of Displaced Persons (BdV), and Stephan Rauhut has been its federal chairman since 2013 . The country team Silesia award, the highest distinction the Silesian shield . The monthly Silesian News is its official organ of the association. Until 1988 Der Schlesier was the central organ of the Landsmannschaft. Since the separation from the magazine Der Schlesier, the Landsmannschaft founded its own monthly magazine Schlesische Nachrichten. According to its own information, the Silesian Landsmannschaft currently has around 200,000 members nationwide. Every two years - in recent years always in Hanover - the Germany meeting of the Silesians is held, to which tens of thousands of visitors come.

Organization and tasks

The Landsmannschaft Schlesien is the Landsmannschaft of the Silesians and a Landsmannschaft for Silesia.
The wording says:
We, the Silesian Landsmannschaft

  • represent the interests of Silesia and the Silesians politically, legally and culturally
  • are a democratic organization - non-partisan and non-denominational - in which Silesians and friends of Silesia have come together
  • are the home contact for our compatriots and friends in Germany and around the world
  • act as democrats and patriots for our people and fatherland
  • share responsibility for the freedom and justice of the German people
  • call for the right to self-determination and the right to a home, including the right to property
  • stand up for the rights of our compatriots at home and are their advocates against nationalism and chauvinism
  • support our compatriots in the Silesian Lausitz in rediscovering the Silesian identity that was forcibly suppressed for decades
  • work with the youth for the youth, because Silesia and all of Germany are the common task of all generations.

Federal Chairperson

Association seat of the House of Silesia in Königswinter

Regional associations

The Federal Association of Landsmannschaft Schlesien - Lower and Upper Silesia e. V. is divided into 12 regional associations.

  • Baden-Württemberg regional association
  • Regional Association of Bavaria
  • Regional Association Berlin | Mark Brandenburg
  • Regional association Bremen / Bremerhaven
  • Hamburg working group
  • State Association of Hesse
  • Lower Saxony regional association
  • Regional association of North Rhine-Westphalia
  • Regional association of Rhineland-Palatinate
  • Regional association of Saxony / Silesian Lusatia
  • Schleswig-Holstein regional association
  • Regional Association of Thuringia

Existence of two Silesian country teams

For historical reasons there is also a Landsmannschaft of the Upper Silesians in addition to the Landsmannschaft Silesia . In the beginning, this separation related to the Upper Silesians who lived in the Polish Silesian Voivodeship in the interwar period .

Controversy about the motto of the Silesians meeting in 1985

At the Silesians meeting in 1985 of the Silesian Landsmannschaft under the leadership of Herbert Hupka, the motto “40 years of expulsion - Silesia remains ours” was named, which was publicly discussed extremely controversially and sharply criticized by numerous politicians. Above all, the claims of ownership implied in their opinion in the motto were criticized. As a result of these disputes, Federal Chancellor Kohl, who was to be the guest speaker, initially canceled his appearance at the event, which in turn led to a debate in the Federal Republic of Germany about the goals and leitmotifs of the country teams. After massive pressure in front of and behind the scenes, the board of the association finally withdrew the motto and replaced it with "Silesia remains our future in a Europe of free peoples".

Silesian youth

The Silesian Youth is an independent youth organization of the Silesian Landsmannschaft. Founded in 1948, the aim of the members is to preserve the heritage of Silesia with its culture and landscapes. The focus of the work of the Silesian Youth is on cultural and political education. One of the federal chairmen of the Silesian Youth was the CSU politician Hartmut Koschyk . The accusation of links between the Silesian Youth - Federal Group and as a right-wing extremist classified boy Landsmannschaft East Germany , and to also far-right NPD led 2011 excluding the Silesian Youth - Federal group from the country team Silesia. However, the exclusion was lifted on February 1, 2012 by the Koenigswinter District Court. The court declared the proceedings to be unlawful and therefore invalid. On March 10, 2012, the federal board of the Silesian Landsmannschaft decided to expel the Silesian Federal Youth Group again. At the state level z. B. in North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria youth and country team still together, whereby the mentioned regional groups of the Silesian youth are not part of the federal group of the Silesian youth.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schlesische Landsmannschaft elects Rauhut as new chairman. Focus , November 9, 2013, accessed October 26, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Schlesische Nachrichten: Zeitschrift für Schlesien. Retrieved October 26, 2017 .
  3. ^ The Silesian Landsmannschaft. Retrieved October 26, 2017 .
  4. ^ Displaced persons: Breslauer Nachrichten . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 1985, pp. 21st f . ( online ).
  5. ^ Dietrich Strothmann: The last contingent . In: Die Zeit , No. 5/1985
  6. ↑ Young Displaced Persons in Twilight ( Memento from June 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Silesian youth continues to be a member of the Silesian Landsmannschaft ( Memento from February 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive )