Migration and the construction of German identities, 1949-2004

Author / Creator

Hicks, Bethany Erin, author

Available as

Physical

Summary

Migration, in its many forms, has often been found at the center of public and private discourse surrounding German nationalism and identity. It significantly influenced how both states construct c...

Migration, in its many forms, has often been found at the center of public and private discourse surrounding German nationalism and identity. It significantly influenced how both states construct conceptions of what "being German" at any given place and time means. The attempt at constructing an ethnically homogeneous Third Reich was shattered by the movement of refugees, expellees, and soldiers in the aftermath of the Second World War, and the contracting of foreign nationals (Gastarbeiter in the Federal Republic and Vertragsarbeiter in the German Democratic Republic) in the 1960s and 70s diversified the ethnic landscape of both German states during the latter half of the Cold War even further. Bethany Hicks shows how the regional migration of East Germans into the western federation states both during and after German unification challenged essential Cold War assumptions concerning the ability to integrate two very different German populations--back cover.

Show More