De l'Allemagne: language and borders

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 This is my second part of my (brief) reflection on Germany after my travel there (Rheine and Hamburg). It's called 'de l'Allemagne' after Madame de Staël's book.

I have always wondered about the difference between a state and its limits and the official language of that state, during conversations made with complete strangers in trains or other places, I've discovered there are Swedish speaking communities in Norway and Finland - not to mention the USA, Hungarian speaking communities in Slovakia and Serbia, Russian speakers in Ukraine and Belarus (and of course Paris!), and so many others.

But the one European speaking community that I have found a bit everywhere is... the German speaking one. They are, or they were, everywhere: Belgium, France, Russia, Ukraine, most other countries in East Europe. Some were invited by countries, some invited themselves. This is well explained in MacGregor's Germany: memory of a nation (chapter 3: lost capitals)

Walking in Hamburg, I was struck sometimes with similarities I could find with Vienna, Budapest but also Odessa... for example this "schlagsahne feel" I get when I see buildings like this: 

 

I have met Germans from Ukraine and also one German from Russia - whose family was sent by trains to Samarkand with many dying on the way during WWII. Most of these ethnic Germans were forced to go to Germany after WWII. I remember seeing a documentary about Alsace and most Germans departing with one suitcase, some by foot. And most dragging a handcart behind them, handcart then made famous by Brecht and Steffin's play Mother Courage and her children (chapter 26: The German expelled). 

So I guess the picture I took at Hamburg's train station of a smiling man with a suitcase won't do the trick...


 But somehow yes, that picture does the trick. Noone speaks about this in Germany, I've never heard anyone complain about this - apart from that evening last week when I brought the subject up with a German friend. 

All these ethnic Germans coming from outside of Germany, who had nothing to do with Germany's politics, suddenly had to pay the price of being German, and were also not welcomed by their fellow Germans. They had to move where there were jobs. 

It is estimated that about 10 million refugees came to live in West Germany and 4 million in the GDR.   Katja Hoyer, the GDR specialist, had a grand-father from Könisberg -now Kaliningrad the city where one of the most famous German philosophers was living: monsieur Kant. More about this story here

All those are family histories not talked about much, MacGregor thinking that somehow, Germans of the time felt they had to be punished. 

I knew there was a lot of population movements after the war but didn't realise to what extend with the Germans!

 

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