Objekt des Monats
Jedes Objekt in der Sammlung des Deutschen Auswandererhauses erzählt eine ganz persönliche Auswanderungs- oder Einwanderungsgeschichte. In dieser Rubrik stellen wir Ihnen jeden Monat ein anderes Objekt vor – eine Fotografie, ein Dokument oder ein persönliches Erinnerungsstück.
December 2024
Workbook, 1935
Historical Context
The city of Poznań has belonged to Prussia since the second partition of Poland in 1793 by Prussia, Austria, and Russia, and from 1871 also to the newly founded German Empire, now known in German as Posen. As part of the imperial German ‘Germanization policy’, the Polish language is prohibited, among other things, and economic opportunities for the Polish population are restricted.
After World War I, a new Polish state emerges. The majority Polish population of the region fights in the so-called Greater Poland Uprising of 1918/19 for reintegration into Poland and achieves a military success. The German population must then decide: either they take Polish citizenship or leave the area. Between 1919 and 1923, about 50,000 of the 60,000 German-speaking residents leave the region heading west and lose their property.
With the arrival of the displaced, mainly in eastern German regions, there are associated social, economic, and political crises, as the situation in the housing and labor market is tense and inflation exacerbates the situation.
Short Biography
Kurt Kühn was born in Posen in 1912. His parents, Hermann and Pauline Kühn, left the city with him in 1919 heading towards Cottbus. Due to the housing crisis in Cottbus, refugees from the east were accommodated at the former military airfield. Their life in the barracks at that time was marked by hardship and misery. Kurt completed an apprenticeship as an electrician at the Municipal Works in Cottbus in 1931 and was initially employed there before being drafted for labor service in 1934. The electrical work in various companies that supply the city with electricity kept him safe from frontline deployment in World War II as well as later from deportation to the Soviet Union. Kurt married in 1941. He and his wife Charlotte became parents of a son.
Significance of the object
Kurt Kühn’s work book was issued on August 26, 1935, by the Cottbus Employment Office. Work books became a ubiquitous document in the German Reich in the mid-1930s, recording not only personal data but also professional history. The information collected in this document regarding the training and work experience of employees served the Nazis in the targeted management of the workforce to deploy them in relevant areas for war preparation. Workers had to leave the work book at their job, and if terminated by the employees, it could be withheld by the employer, making it nearly impossible to find a new job. Thus, the Nazi agencies took over the administration of labor placements and dismantled workers’ rights.
You can currently see a photo of the Kühn family in front of their store in Posen until January 5, 2025, in the special exhibition “You don’t have to go far across the border.” Polish-German stories from 1871 to the present.
Do You Also Have …
… a story of emigration or immigration in your family that you would like to share with the German Emigration Center together with the related objects and documents for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau by phone at +49 471 / 90 22 0 – 0
or by e-mail at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de