In 1945/46, after the surrender of Germany in the Second World War, approximately twelve million ... more In 1945/46, after the surrender of Germany in the Second World War, approximately twelve million German civilians living in Central and Eastern Europe were expelled (or fled before they received the inevitable expulsion order) mostly to Germany in what R.M. Douglas termed the “largest forced population transfer [...] in human history.” Even though these events occurred over sixty years ago, the recollections of these expellees suggest the ongoing immediacy of their experiences. For this phenomenological-historical ethnography, I collected more than eighty life stories and oral histories specifically from ethnic Germans expelled from Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia (Sudeten Germans). Through the lenses of musical practice and musical repertoire, I investigate how these Sudeten Germans used and still continue to use music as a tool for both remembrance and adaptation in their new environments. I seek to understand music’s significances for social and political integration in the S...
Erinnerungsmedien und -praktiken spielen eine wichtige Rolle bei der Konstruktion und Vermittlung... more Erinnerungsmedien und -praktiken spielen eine wichtige Rolle bei der Konstruktion und Vermittlung kollektiver Erinnerungen an die Zwangsmigration der Deutschen infolge des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Das Handbuch gibt erstmals einen umfassenden Überblick über die vielfältigen Medien und Praktiken, die den deutschen Vertreibungsdiskurs seit Jahrzehnten wesentlich mitbestimmen. Ob Ausstellungen oder Denkmäler, Presse oder Literatur, Film oder Fernsehen, Gedenktage, Heimattreffen oder Straßennamen sie alle sind nicht nur Speicher, Bühnen oder Vehikel, sondern auch Mitproduzenten von Erinnerung. Von verschiedenen Akteuren werden sie mit unterschiedlichen Zielen verwendet, besitzen aber auch bestimmte Eigenlogiken und wirken auf spezifische Weise, wenn auch oft in intermedialen Bezügen. In Form eines Kompendiums dieser Medien und Praktiken bietet der Band tiefe Einblicke in die Konjunkturen und Konflikte der deutschen Erinnerungsgeschichte nach 1945.
Musical practice offers valuable insight into the ways people build and rebuild lives in extraord... more Musical practice offers valuable insight into the ways people build and rebuild lives in extraordinary times. This past year I gathered seventy stories from Sudeten Germans who were born in the border regions of former Bohemia, Moravia, and Sudetensilesia.1 They were expelled from those regions mainly to Germany at the end of Wold War II. I visited these Sudeten Germans to investigate how they used music and how that usage impacted their lives. The narrators, between 70 and 93 years old, vividly described their musical practices before the expulsion, the social upheaval and personal trauma of the expulsion, and the role that music played and continues to play in their efforts to come to terms with these experiences.
European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire, 2015
Based on an analysis of musical childhood memories from over 80 Germans from the Bohemian lands a... more Based on an analysis of musical childhood memories from over 80 Germans from the Bohemian lands and historical evidence, this article investigates processes of social and political integration and assimilation of German children and young adults who, in the aftermath of the Second World War, were either expelled to Germany or remained in their Bohemian homelands. Memories of Germans expelled to West Germany disclose the various ways in which musical repertoire and musical practices are able to mitigate both the loss of the homeland and the distressing overall effects of expulsion, as well as reveal how music facilitates the building of a new sense of belonging in the face of geographic displacement and material dispossession. The study further highlights how the reframing and even silencing of musical practices on the other side of the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia affected processes of social-identity reconstruction until and after the 1989 fall of Communism. Results of this study foreground that individual musical experiences reveal new historical narratives of how German expellees used and still use musical practices to negotiate intercultural power relationships and rebuild a sense of belonging in their respective post-war environment in West Germany or Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic.
In 1945/46, after the surrender of Germany in the Second World War, approximately twelve million ... more In 1945/46, after the surrender of Germany in the Second World War, approximately twelve million German civilians living in Central and Eastern Europe were expelled (or fled before they received the inevitable expulsion order) mostly to Germany in what R.M. Douglas termed the “largest forced population transfer [...] in human history.” Even though these events occurred over sixty years ago, the recollections of these expellees suggest the ongoing immediacy of their experiences. For this phenomenological-historical ethnography, I collected more than eighty life stories and oral histories specifically from ethnic Germans expelled from Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia (Sudeten Germans). Through the lenses of musical practice and musical repertoire, I investigate how these Sudeten Germans used and still continue to use music as a tool for both remembrance and adaptation in their new environments. I seek to understand music’s significances for social and political integration in the S...
Erinnerungsmedien und -praktiken spielen eine wichtige Rolle bei der Konstruktion und Vermittlung... more Erinnerungsmedien und -praktiken spielen eine wichtige Rolle bei der Konstruktion und Vermittlung kollektiver Erinnerungen an die Zwangsmigration der Deutschen infolge des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Das Handbuch gibt erstmals einen umfassenden Überblick über die vielfältigen Medien und Praktiken, die den deutschen Vertreibungsdiskurs seit Jahrzehnten wesentlich mitbestimmen. Ob Ausstellungen oder Denkmäler, Presse oder Literatur, Film oder Fernsehen, Gedenktage, Heimattreffen oder Straßennamen sie alle sind nicht nur Speicher, Bühnen oder Vehikel, sondern auch Mitproduzenten von Erinnerung. Von verschiedenen Akteuren werden sie mit unterschiedlichen Zielen verwendet, besitzen aber auch bestimmte Eigenlogiken und wirken auf spezifische Weise, wenn auch oft in intermedialen Bezügen. In Form eines Kompendiums dieser Medien und Praktiken bietet der Band tiefe Einblicke in die Konjunkturen und Konflikte der deutschen Erinnerungsgeschichte nach 1945.
Musical practice offers valuable insight into the ways people build and rebuild lives in extraord... more Musical practice offers valuable insight into the ways people build and rebuild lives in extraordinary times. This past year I gathered seventy stories from Sudeten Germans who were born in the border regions of former Bohemia, Moravia, and Sudetensilesia.1 They were expelled from those regions mainly to Germany at the end of Wold War II. I visited these Sudeten Germans to investigate how they used music and how that usage impacted their lives. The narrators, between 70 and 93 years old, vividly described their musical practices before the expulsion, the social upheaval and personal trauma of the expulsion, and the role that music played and continues to play in their efforts to come to terms with these experiences.
European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire, 2015
Based on an analysis of musical childhood memories from over 80 Germans from the Bohemian lands a... more Based on an analysis of musical childhood memories from over 80 Germans from the Bohemian lands and historical evidence, this article investigates processes of social and political integration and assimilation of German children and young adults who, in the aftermath of the Second World War, were either expelled to Germany or remained in their Bohemian homelands. Memories of Germans expelled to West Germany disclose the various ways in which musical repertoire and musical practices are able to mitigate both the loss of the homeland and the distressing overall effects of expulsion, as well as reveal how music facilitates the building of a new sense of belonging in the face of geographic displacement and material dispossession. The study further highlights how the reframing and even silencing of musical practices on the other side of the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia affected processes of social-identity reconstruction until and after the 1989 fall of Communism. Results of this study foreground that individual musical experiences reveal new historical narratives of how German expellees used and still use musical practices to negotiate intercultural power relationships and rebuild a sense of belonging in their respective post-war environment in West Germany or Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic.
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Papers by Ulrike Präger