The refugees from the former German eastern provinces and settlement areas soon organised themselves in order to assert themselves politically and culturally as a minority in their new environment and to deal with their fate and loss in communal exchange.
The focus was on the cultivation of local customs. The efforts ranged from baked goods and dishes such as Königsberg meatballs in a creamy white caper sauce to singing, dancing and traditional costume groups to handicrafts such as weaving, sewing and pottery. Dialect and lecture evenings were also held.
The rooms in which such groups met became East German “homeland parlours” decorated with memorabilia. Some of these grew into small local museums, mostly run on a voluntary basis, with collections of rescued cultural artefacts and hand-made memorabilia. With the age-related shrinking of the "generation with personal experience", many of these collections have been endangered or even already dissolved.
Illustrations:
1.) Silesian marriage market in Dahlenburg, district of Luneburg, 20th May 1950.
"Wullt ihr Huxt mach'n?" (Do you want to get married? in Silesian vernacular) the registrar asked the young people who had written their names on a heart and were then drawn by lots. For one day, those married by marriage certificate danced and celebrated at this Silesian folk festival, which was originally intended to enable the rural youth to get to know each other in an informal way. It was reintroduced in Dahlenburg (in the district of Luneburg) in 1946 and in 1951. 8,000 people, some of whom had travelled on special trains from Hamburg and Hanover, stormed the local clubhouse there. A custom that also brought refugees and locals closer together.
picture alliance/akg
2.) Labiau collection in the gatehouse in Otterndorf
Insight into the East German “homeland parlour” of the district community Labiau (today Polessk)/East Prussia in Otterndorf in the 1970s. Hometowns of the displaced people referred to places and regions in the respective regions of origin or generally to the "East German" homeland.