Resettlement of the Baltic Germans

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Baltic German resettlers in the Baltic camp in Posen, 1940

The resettlement of the Baltic Germans was an action initiated by the German Reich at the beginning of the Second World War , through which most of the Baltic Germans left their homeland and were largely settled in the areas of Poland annexed by the Reich. From October to December 1939, 14,000 people left Estonia and 52,500 people from Latvia . When relocating at the beginning of 1941, around 17,000 people from these countries followed. This marked the end of more than 700 years of German culture in the Baltic States.

The resettlement of the German-Baltic is part of a broader Nazi resettlement policy under the slogan " Home to the Reich " to see from the other countries German as South Tyrol , Wolhyniendeutsche , Bessarabia German , Bukovina German , Dobrujan Germans , Galicia German , Lithuania German and Gottscheer were affected.

prehistory

The German population in the Baltic States went back to the German eastern settlement in the Middle Ages, but there it was limited to the urban bourgeoisie and the aristocratic and ecclesiastical upper class in the country. Until the 19th century, the Germans were able to maintain their leadership role and privileges under changing rulers ( Sweden , Poland-Lithuania , Russian Empire ). However , this was called into question by the Russification and the "national awakening" of the Estonians and Latvians. Emigration, the First World War and the following revolutionary events led to a sharp decline in the German-Baltic population. In 1881 around 180,000 Germans lived in what was then the Russian Baltic Sea provinces, at the beginning of the 1920s it was only less than half in the new republics of Estonia and Latvia. The establishment of the republics after the First World War led to the Baltic Germans being downgraded from a leading class to a national minority; in particular, the aristocratic landowners were expropriated. However, the minorities enjoyed extensive cultural autonomy in both states.

Reason and reasons

The German-Soviet non-aggression pact (Hitler-Stalin Pact) of August 23, 1939 contained a secret additional protocol which, contrary to international law, divided the areas between the two powers into spheres of interest. Estonia and Latvia were left to the Soviet Union . Via this additional protocol, the “Land Leader of the Movement ” in Latvia, Erhard Kroeger , was inaugurated on September 25 by Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler . In this conversation Kroeger claims to have given the impetus not only to evacuate a small group of people who could be particularly endangered by a possible Soviet occupation, but the entire German ethnic group.

Hitler , to whom the request was forwarded, declared himself in agreement with the resettlement, provided that it would take place by mutual agreement with the USSR. In an additional protocol to the German-Soviet border and friendship treaty dated September 28, an agreement was finally reached between the two countries on the relocation of Reich citizens and people of German origin from the Soviet to the German areas of interest or to Germany.

The newly annexed Polish areas were chosen as settlement areas for the purpose of their "Germanization". The resettlement therefore no longer had the character of a rescue operation for endangered Germans abroad, but became an instrument of the National Socialist race and national politics . The new settlers were also welcome as workers and soldiers.

Implementation of the resettlement

Naturalization certificate from the Lodsch Central Immigration Office, 1940

The resettlement plans became known to the general public through a speech in the Reichstag by Adolf Hitler on October 6, 1939, in which he named the destruction of the Polish state and the “new order of ethnographic conditions” as goals. The very next day Heinrich Himmler was entrusted with the "consolidation of German nationality" by Führer decree , who in turn instructed Reinhard Heydrich on October 8, 1939 , to create an office with which the Germans to be resettled were to be registered and naturalized. This immigrant central office started its work immediately. The first resettlement ship left the port of Tallinn on October 18 . On October 15 and 30, respectively, resettlement agreements were concluded between the German Reich and the republics of Estonia and Latvia. In the "Treaty on the Resettlement of Latvian Citizens of German Belonging to the German Reich of October 30, 1939" between the Reich Government and the Latvian Government, Article 1 was agreed:

"The Latvian government undertakes to release those Latvian citizens of German ethnicity from Latvian citizenship who voluntarily declare their decision by December 15, 1939 to resign from Latvian citizenship for all time and to leave their permanent residence in Latvia."

A similar protocol had already been signed on October 15, 1939 by the Estonian Free State and the Imperial Government.

The Umsiedlungs-Treuhand-Aktiengesellschaft (UTAG) in Latvia and the German Treuhand-Verwaltung (DT) in Estonia were established as trust agencies of the Reich to handle the assets . The proceeds from this property should benefit the German Reich; the “compensation” for the resettlers was made, as it turned out, from expropriated Polish and Jewish property (see below).

Formally, the decision to move was voluntary for everyone. However, a large-scale bait and threat campaign ensured that most of them submitted to the measures without resistance, followed the so-called “call of the leader” and gave up their Latvian or Estonian citizenship. The resettlers were not only promised a full settlement of assets, but they were also declared to be the bearers of a “new Eastern task”. The propaganda spoke of “return”, although the ancestors of the Germans had been resident in the Baltic States for centuries and had never lived in the areas intended for settlement. Anyone who stayed behind was branded as a "traitor to Volkstum" and threatened with the loss of German ethnicity:

“Anyone who breaks away from their ethnic group these days in order to stay in the country separates themselves from the German people for all time. He must know that, because his decision applies to children and grandchildren. And it is irreversible. "

In addition, there was fear in the air of coming under the control of the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in the Baltic States , even if there was no official mention of such a danger out of consideration for the allies and connections with the alliance agreements with the USSR that were imposed on the Baltic states at the same time were denied.

For those who nevertheless wanted to stick to their homeland, staying there became unattractive because the Germans lost their minority status when the many others left, so that the institutions of cultural self-government had to close and there was no longer any entitlement to native-language schooling.

One of the few who left neither in 1939 nor when the resettlement took place in 1941 is the minority politician and journalist Paul Schiemann , who stated in an interview with a Swedish newspaper:

"We consider it an injustice to leave our homeland at such a critical time ... We do not want to travel to a country whose citizens are forced to adopt a worldview that is contrary to our ideas of religion, lifestyle and law."

Settlement in annexed areas

Propaganda poster

The settlement took place in the Polish areas annexed after the start of the war , i. H. the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and in particular the Reichsgau Wartheland , which was to become a "model district". Since the resettlement was part of the National Socialist racial policy, its implementation was entrusted to the SS , which installed a central office for migrants . Parallel to the settlement of Germans, there was a massive expulsion of Poles and Jews to the Polish General Government, whose expropriated assets were used to “compensate” for the private property of the resettlers that they had to leave behind in the Baltic States. The so-called "returnees" were quartered by the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle , an SS organization, in apartments which, according to contemporary witnesses, had often just been left hastily by their previous residents.

Since it would have contradicted the settlement mission planned for the Baltic Sea , after the German attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, a return to the now German-occupied Baltic States was prohibited. Due to the forced flight of the Baltic Germans to the West towards the end of the war, their stay in the “Warthegau” ultimately remained an episode. The war casualties among them amount to almost 8,000 people.

Post-relocation

For the Baltic Germans who had stayed in their homeland in 1939/40, a resettlement was organized in early 1941. Estonia and Latvia had since been annexed by the Soviet Union. In contrast to the first resettlement, this time also Estonians and Latvians were included, who had campaigned for German interests and feared Soviet reprisals. The resettlers did not come to the annexed Polish areas, but to the "Old Reich" within the borders of 1937 . The resettlement involved around 7,000 people from Estonia and 10,000 from Latvia, including up to 3,500 Estonians and Latvians. This time, Lithuanian Germans were also included. In contrast to the resettlers of 1939/40, the subsequent resettlers were not promised any compensation.

Effects on the home states

The departure of the Baltic Germans went hand in hand with the closure of companies and educational institutions and meant a demographic, economic and cultural bloodletting for the states. For many Estonians and Latvians it also increased the fear of the Soviet threat. Nonetheless, the resettlement was welcomed by many, as the Baltic Germans continued to be seen as centuries-old oppressors. In authoritarian Latvia, the editor Jānis Lapiņš, who positively assessed the role of the Baltic Germans and considered their legacy worth preserving, was removed from office by the head of state Kārlis Ulmanis . In a speech, Ulmanis hurled “Goodbye!” At Latvians willing to leave, which the press referred to the Baltic Germans.

The independence movement at the end of the 1980s, however, shaped a more nuanced picture of the Baltic Germans. Their historical existence was seen as evidence that the Baltic countries belong to the West. In 1999 the Estonian President Lennart Meri called on the Baltic Germans from Estonia to return. In 2018, a privately donated resettlement monument was inaugurated in Saka, northeast Estonia .

literature

  • Jürgen von Hehn : The resettlement of the Baltic Germans - the last chapter in Baltic German history (=  Marburg East Research. Volume 40). J.-G.-Herder-Institut, Marburg 1982, ISBN 3-87969-169-X .
  • Dietrich A. Loeber : Dictated option. The resettlement of the Baltic Germans from Estonia and Latvia 1939–1941. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1972, ISBN 3-529-06142-5 .
  • Michael Garleff : The Baltic Germans as a national minority in the independent states of Estonia and Latvia. In: Gert von Pistohlkors (ed.): German history in Eastern Europe. Baltic countries. 2nd Edition. Siedler, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-88680-774-6 , pp. 452-550.
  • Lars Bosse: From the Baltic States to the Reichsgau Wartheland. In: Michael Garleff (Ed.): Baltic Germans, Weimar Republic and Third Reich. Volume 1, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-412-12199-1 , pp. 297-388.
  • Eckhart Neander and Andrzej Sakson (eds.): Resettled - Displaced. Baltic Germans and Poland 1939–1945 in the Warthegau (=  conferences on East Central European research. Volume 29). Herder Institute, Marburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-87969-367-2 .

Fiction

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Garleff: The Baltic Germans as a national minority in the independent states of Estonia and Latvia. In: Gert von Pistohlkors (ed.): German history in Eastern Europe. Baltic countries. 2nd Edition. Siedler, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-88680-774-6 , p. 430.
  2. ↑ Wilfried Schlau: Die Deutschbalten (=  study book series of the Ostdeutscher Kulturrat Foundation. Volume 6). Langen Müller, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7844-2524-0 , p. 33.
  3. ↑ Michael Garleff: The Baltic Germans as a national minority ... In: Gert von Pistohlkors (Ed.): German history in the east of Europe. ISBN 3-88680-774-6 , p. 492.
  4. ↑ Michael Garleff: The Baltic Germans as a national minority ... In: Gert von Pistohlkors (Ed.): German history in the east of Europe. ISBN 3-88680-774-6 , p. 537.
  5. ↑ Alexander Schmidt: History of the Baltic States. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-492-11518-7 , p. 285.
  6. ↑ Quoted from: Max Domarus: Hitler - Reden und Proklamationen, Würzburg 1963, Vol. 2, p. 1383 / Hitler's speech before the Reichstag, 4th session, October 6, 1939
  7. ^ Decree of October 7, 1939, printed as document PS-686 in IMT: The Nuremberg Trial against the Major War Criminals ... , fotomech. Reprint Munich 1989, vol. 26, ISBN 3-7735-2521-4 , pp. 255-257.
  8. ^ Andreas Strippel: National Socialist Politics and the Reorganization of Europe - Race Political Selection of the Central Immigration Office of the Head of the Security Police and the SD (1939-1945), Paderborn 2011, ISBN 978-3-506-77170-4 , p. 74.
  9. ↑ Alexander Schmidt: History of the Baltic States. Munich / Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-492-11518-7 , p. 298.
  10. ↑ Treaty on the resettlement of Latvian citizens of German ethnicity in the German Reich of October 30, 1939. In: Rigasche Rundschau. No. 248 of October 30, 1939, p. 1 (f.) (In: periodika.lv. Accessed June 30, 2016).
  11. ↑ Protocol on the resettlement of the German ethnic group of Estonia in the German Reich of October 15, 1939. (PDF; 22 kB) (quoted in the monthly bulletins for foreign policy. Vol. 7, 1940, issue 1, pp. 24-27) .
  12. ↑ Dietrich A. Loeber: Dictated option. The resettlement of the Baltic Germans from Estonia and Latvia 1939–1941. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1972, ISBN 3-529-06142-5 , p. 24; Michael Garleff: The Baltic Germans as a national minority ... In: Gert von Pistohlkors (Hrsg.): German history in Eastern Europe. ISBN 3-88680-774-6 , p. 540.
  13. ↑ Dietrich A. Loeber: Dictated option. Neumünster 1972, ISBN 3-529-06142-5 , p. 40.
  14. ^ Alfred Intelmann, Erhard Kroeger: Call for "German Volksgenossen!" In: Rigasche Rundschau. No. 248 of October 30, 1939, p. 1 (In: periodika.lv, accessed June 30, 2016).
  15. ↑ Dietrich A. Loeber: Dictated option. Neumünster 1972, ISBN 3-529-06142-5 , p. 38.
  16. ^ In: Sydsvenska Dagbladet. November 11, 1939, cit. after: Michael Garleff: The Baltic Germans as a national minority ... In: Gert von Pistohlkors (Hrsg.): German history in Eastern Europe. ISBN 3-88680-774-6 , p. 542.
  17. ↑ Jacek Kubiak, Klaus Salge / rbb, ARTE: A blonde province - Poland and the German racial madness. Retrieved April 6, 2016 (description).
  18. ↑ Dietrich A. Loeber: Dictated option. Neumünster 1972, ISBN 3-529-06142-5 , p. 29.
  19. ↑ Dietrich A. Loeber: Dictated option. Neumünster 1972, ISBN 3-529-06142-5 , p. 46.
  20. ↑ Jana Elena Bosse: Seventy years after the resettlement - German Baltic witnesses remember. In: Eckhart Neander and Andrzej Sakson (eds.): Resettled - Displaced. Baltic Germans and Poland 1939–1945 in the Warthegau (=  conferences on East Central European research. Volume 29). Herder-Institut publishing house, Marburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-87969-367-2 , p. 32 f.
  21. ↑ Michael Garleff: The Baltic Germans as a national minority ... In: Gert von Pistohlkors (Ed.): German history in the east of Europe. ISBN 3-88680-774-6 , p. 547.
  22. ↑ Michael Garleff: The Baltic Germans as a national minority ... In: Gert von Pistohlkors (Ed.): German history in the east of Europe. ISBN 3-88680-774-6 , p. 541.
  23. ↑ Alexander Schmidt: History of the Baltic States. Munich / Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-492-11518-7 , p. 299 f.
  24. ↑ Dietrich A. Loeber: Dictated option. Neumünster 1972, ISBN 3-529-06142-5 , p. 47.
  25. ↑ Michael Garleff: The Baltic Germans as a national minority ... In: Gert von Pistohlkors (Ed.): German history in the east of Europe. ISBN 3-88680-774-6 , p. 541.
  26. ↑ Nordost-Institut: Introductory remarks by Detlef Henning on the subject of 'The resettlement of the Baltic Germans from Estonia and Latvia 1939–1941 in Latvian history and historical journalism'. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
  27. ↑ Michael Garleff: The Baltic Germans as a national minority ... In: Gert von Pistohlkors (Ed.): German history in the east of Europe. ISBN 3-88680-774-6 , p. 541.
  28. ^ Hans Heckel: 50th Homeland Day: No more looking the other way - BdV honors Estonia's President Meri / Steinbach criticizes Naumann and praises Schily. In: The Ostpreußenblatt . September 11, 1999, accessed March 11, 2010.
  29. ↑ Frank von Auer: Now we are a monument. In: Messages from Baltic life. 3/2018, p. 2 f.