Migration 12

(…) the refugees have to be thrown out, and the farmers have to help out.

Der Spiegel 16/1947: Preußen-Attacke.

Jakob Fischbacher (1886-1972) founded the Bavarian Party in 1946, which saw itself as a meeting place for conservatives and separatists for an independent Bavaria. Central to the party’s project was defence against German refugees from the East.

After the Second World War, there was not only transnational migration, but large parts of the population also migrated within the new states. In Germany, 14 million expelled Germans migrated west from the eastern areas occupied during fascism, and from former parts of Germany. In Bavaria in the years up to 1950, the population increased by almost 30%. Although the Eastern refugees were included in the “völkisch” notion of German identity, they were vehemently repelled for reasons of radical redistribution. Andreas Schachner of the Bavarian Party said that so many foreigners were using Bavarian mangers "that pogroms would be necessary to restore justice" (Hoefer 2015). These slogans are echoed in current discussions that have accompanied the movements of refugees and migrants to Europe since the early 2010s.

*Carsten Hoefer (2015): "Die Flüchtlinge müssen hinausgeworfen werden."

1947