Publication details
Rediscovering the German Presence in Czech Lands: Memory Activism in the Czech Republic
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | In the period between 1945 and 1947, over three million ethnic Germans were expelled from their homes in Czechoslovakia to neighboring Austria, East and West Germany. Questions about the legality and morality of these expulsions became a sensitive issue in Czech politics after the 1989 Velvet Revolution, while also having a negative effect on relations with Austria and Germany. More recently, Czech defensiveness around the expulsions of Germans have diminished somewhat. A growing number of civil society organizations and local initiatives have emerged that seek to acknowledge the historic presence of Germans in the territory of current Czechia and their contribution to the pre-WW2 economic, cultural and social development of the country. This paper explores the reasons for this shifting landscape using semi-structured in-depth interviews with 12 memory activists, tracing their motivations, visions and strategies that shape changing narratives vis-a-vis the expulsions and their place in the collective memory of the Czech society. |