Wilfried Heller (ed.)
Disappeared Places – Forced Resettlements, Resettlements and Disappeared Places in Formerly German Settlement Areas of East Central Europe.
With contributions by David Kovařík, Sandra Kreisslová, Wolf-Dieter Hamperl, Franz Worschech, Krystian Heffner/Agniezka Latochka, Dawid Smolorz, Ulrich Mai, and Yuri Kostyashov
Now in a greatly expanded 2nd edition with sections on Silesia and northern East Prussia (Königsberg [Kaliningrad] region)
Paperback in A 5 format (21 x 14,7 cm), 168 pages, with 64 illustrations including six maps, in German
ISBN: 978-3-945127-230
14,80 €
The expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War had a dramatic, hardly known consequence: far more than 3200 localities have completely disappeared from the map. To this day, no one knows the exact number, as no scientist has yet compiled a complete list of these deserts. Economic and social upheavals and a profound transformation of cultural landscapes are the consequences of the mass demise of formerly German villages.
Particularly affected is the Sudetenland, where, according to Czech sources, over 2400 rural settlements no longer exist. In November 2016, an international symposium led by Prof. Dr. Wilfried Heller undertook to examine this “white spot” using the Sudetenland and Masuria (southern East Prussia) as examples. This German-Polish-Czech conference “Eger / Cheb Talks” was sponsored by the Bavarian State Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Family and Integration. The brochure “Disappeared Places – Forced Resettlements, Resettlements and Disappeared Places in Former German Settlement Areas in East Central Europe” documents the papers presented in writing.
The cover of the book shows the blasting of the church of the village of Kapellen in the Bohemian Forest on July 4, 1959, a unique pictorial document from the holdings of the former Czechoslovak security service.