“Starting anew, but how?”
Espelkamp and other ‘Refugee Cities’ in the 1950s
Special exhibition on the phenomenon of ‘Refugee Cities’ in the 1950s, using the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Espelkamp as an example: A piece of migration history of the Federal Republic that is rarely told as such.
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Federal Republic, the Migration Museum Deutsches Auswandererhaus addressed an important question of the early republic, which shaped life politically, socially, economically, but also artistically and ethically: ‘Starting anew, but how?’“ After the atrocities of the Holocaust and World War II, which resulted in over 70 million deaths worldwide, everyday actions and essential future planning typically took place in the early Federal Republic, without looking back at the period between 1933 and 1945.
The exhibition initially looked at urban planning projects that helped accommodate millions of refugees and displaced persons from the East in the war-torn country. In addition to Hanover and Bremen, special attention was given to the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Espelkamp. It developed largely on the grounds of a former armaments factory and a corresponding former storage facility primarily for Russian forced laborers and soon gained the reputation of a “model city.”
Displayed were concrete, personal responses to the question of how refugees and displaced persons shaped their new beginnings in the 1950s: Interviews with various generations from Espelkamp and unique objects from all over the Federal Republic that tell of the time become striking personal documents of individual and collective new beginnings.
The objects and documents from that time ranged from traditional garments preserved during flight to modern acquisitions like a family-owned NSU Quickly moped. Conversations with witnesses and their descendants revolved around the search for the place and form of personal new beginnings, such as the undeniable “Before” or the estrangement between newcomers and long-term residents.
The traveling exhibition was initially shown in Espelkamp, where it was on display from March 14 to April 18 and was inaugurated in the presence of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. In Bremerhaven, it will be on display from April 26 to June 9, 2024, in the Ditzen-Blanke Hall of the Deutsches Auswandererhaus.
The exhibition was part of the exhibition and educational project ‘Your Story’, funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community. It explores various ways to present German migration history through four participatory special and traveling exhibitions and present migration as part of German history.