“Flight from, in, and to Germany, 1918-2018.” “Refugee Women from the Eastern Parts of Germany, 1944/45. Personal Experience, Coping, and Interpretation in Communication Processes between Individual and Collective Memories”

• Applicant: Dr. Francesca Weil
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 572285394

The topic of flight and expulsion of Germans continues to be considered as a phenomenon affecting mostly women. However, this was true only for flights after 1944/45 and for early expulsions. After 1946, the ratio of males to females balanced out. Despite this development, however, museums and the media persist in depicting flight during this period as a characteristically female experience while historical research has not addressed why and how it should be considered as such. Based on this discrepancy, the proposed project examines the relationship between individual perspectives on the personal experience of flight and expulsion, on the one hand, and collective interpretations of these same events in research, in the media, and in political discourse, on the other. This research will draw on ego-documents. Because of the significance of emotions for preserving memory, the project will engage methodological and theoretical concepts drawn from the history of emotions, particularly in reflecting on personal experiences. As a methodological tool for the second part of the study, the project will turn to historical discourse analysis. Both methodological approaches will be complemented by a perspective taken from memory studies in order to explore both the historical consciousness of women who fled and contemporary discourses about their plight. The focus will be on the 1940s and 1950s because the public in that period remained aware of the female experience of flight. The aim of the project is to identify what historical narratives were developed by individuals and by the public for the flight and expulsions, what individual experiences carried over into general observations and perspectives, what discourses preserved such narratives, and how competing perspectives were negotiated in the context of the early Cold War.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants