Search results for "German Expellees"

Erika Steinbach: The Last Charismatic Representative of the Expellees?

2015

International audience; This paper aims to show how Erika Steinbach, at the head of the BdV (Federation of Deportees) since 1998, has come to embody in person this large social group, in the eyes of the media and of various institutions. No stranger to controversy, she represents the hereditary German enemy in Poland (thus plaguing German diplomatic relations with the country) and is strongly rejected by certain parts of the population while being unconditionally supported by the deportees themselves. The ambiguous role played by this political figure will be shown through the analysis of quarrels surrounding the inauguration of a memorial to the deportees. Steinbach has been both the drivi…