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One of her main aims is to build a controversial monumental [[Centre Against Expulsions]] ({{lang-de|Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen}}) in Berlin, devoted to the victims of forced population migrations or [[ethnic cleansing]] in Europe, particularly to the Germans victims of [[Expulsion of Germans after World War II|expulsion after World War II]]. She is the chairwoman (jointly with [[Peter Glotz]]) of the recently created foundation of the Centre. The initiative, supported by the CDU/CSU faction in [[Bundestag (Germany)|German Parliament]], has caused controversy. Opponents of the proposed form of Centre object to emphasizing only German suffering; others see it as an inappropriate counter-balance to the [[Berlin Holocaust Memorial|Holocaust memorial]]. In the petition "[http://www.bohemistik.de/zentrumgb.html For a critical and enlightened debate about the past]" historians expressed concerns the centre would establish and popularize a one-sided image of the past, without historical context. Many well-known European intellectuals and politicians, including Germans [[Günter Grass]] and [[Hans-Dietrich Genscher]], in [[2003]] expressed support for a centre devoted to all expelled during the 20th century, located in some place connected with expulsions, e.g. [[Wrocław]] (Breslau). |
One of her main aims is to build a controversial monumental [[Centre Against Expulsions]] ({{lang-de|Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen}}) in Berlin, devoted to the victims of forced population migrations or [[ethnic cleansing]] in Europe, particularly to the Germans victims of [[Expulsion of Germans after World War II|expulsion after World War II]]. She is the chairwoman (jointly with [[Peter Glotz]]) of the recently created foundation of the Centre. The initiative, supported by the CDU/CSU faction in [[Bundestag (Germany)|German Parliament]], has caused controversy. Opponents of the proposed form of Centre object to emphasizing only German suffering; others see it as an inappropriate counter-balance to the [[Berlin Holocaust Memorial|Holocaust memorial]]. In the petition "[http://www.bohemistik.de/zentrumgb.html For a critical and enlightened debate about the past]" historians expressed concerns the centre would establish and popularize a one-sided image of the past, without historical context. Many well-known European intellectuals and politicians, including Germans [[Günter Grass]] and [[Hans-Dietrich Genscher]], in [[2003]] expressed support for a centre devoted to all expelled during the 20th century, located in some place connected with expulsions, e.g. [[Wrocław]] (Breslau). |
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However, while Steinbach claims the Centre will represent the suffering of other nations as well, she believes that it is an internal German affair and rejects the proposal of creating the Centre under international control. "All victims of genocide and expulsion need a place in our hearts and in the historical memory. Human rights are indivisible," the Centre points out on its official home page. The |
However, while Steinbach claims the Centre will represent the suffering of other nations as well, she believes that it is an internal German affair and rejects the proposal of creating the Centre under international control. "All victims of genocide and expulsion need a place in our hearts and in the historical memory. Human rights are indivisible," the Centre points out on its official home page. The Cenre's homepage however contains several statements and data that is inaccurate and could be considered controversial if not nationalistic: |
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*It claims Gdańsk was founded as a German city in 1224/25. In fact Gdańsk existed centuries before(first mention in 997) and was part of Poland. |
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*It speaks of Nazi colonists that were part of colonisation effort in Expulsions of Poles from [[Reichsgau Wartheland]] area as ''resettlers'', while avoiding mentioning the fact that they were part of colonisation effort during state organised expulsions of Poles from that area. |
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*It claims Partitions of Poland made by Prussia were supported by territories annexed by Prussia. |
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*It takes the lowest estimates of Poles expelled by German government while taking the highest estimates when speaking about German expelled. The number of Poles expelled is listed as 460.000, while Polish historians estimate it at around 2,478,000 milion[http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/83292_1.html]. |
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*Also absent is information of expulsion of around 200.000 Polish children kidnapped by German authorities[http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/18571_1.html] from Poland in order to be Germanised. |
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*It lists only one expulsion of Poles by German govenrment, from the [[Reichsgau Wartheland]] area. It ignores and doesn't present at all, explusions from [[Zamość]], [[Warsaw]], [[Silesia]] and [[Pomerania]]. |
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*The issue of cooperation of German minority with Nazi regime, or support during aggression of Nazi regime(see [[Selbstschutz]]) on other countries is absent from the material on history of German minorities presented by the Centre. |
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The Centre Against Expulsions have been supported by many human rights activists, historians, political scientists and politicians, including first UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [[José Ayala-Lasso ]], Nobel laureate [[Imre Kertész]], [[Joachim Gauck]], former Austrian crown prince [[Otto von Habsburg]], [[Guido Knopp]], [[György Konrád]], [[Alfred M. de Zayas]] and others. The Bavarian Prime Minister and leader of [[CSU]] [[Edmund Stoiber]] argued that "the place for a museum showing the dreadful fate of expelled Germans is in the German capital". The CDU/CSU have decided to build the center and Chancellor [[Angela Merkel]] has explicitly declared her support. |
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German Foreign minister [[Joschka Fischer]] commented on Steinbach, and her initiative for a Centre Against Expulsions to ''...have caused serious damage to German-Polish relations. Not amongst extremist nationalist forces that do exist in Poland, but amongst old friends and major agents for reconciliation between our two countries.'' |
German Foreign minister [[Joschka Fischer]] commented on Steinbach, and her initiative for a Centre Against Expulsions to ''...have caused serious damage to German-Polish relations. Not amongst extremist nationalist forces that do exist in Poland, but amongst old friends and major agents for reconciliation between our two countries.'' |
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Among the German and Polish public, dispute has sometimes been fierce. Remainders of past mass murder of Poles by Germans have surfaced. For instance, the Polish newspaper ''Wprost'' published a cover photo-montage of Erika Steinbach in an [[SS]] uniform ([http://www.wprost.pl/cover/?I=1086 photo]). However, the then Polish Prime Minister [[Leszek Miller]] condemned this and apologized to the German Chancellor. As part of the same controversy, the Federation of Expellees and Erika Steinbach sued the German journalist [[Gabriele Lesser]] for defamation related to an article published on [[September 19]], [[2003]], in the daily ''Kieler Nachrichten''. The Federation largely won the case against Lesser. |
Among the German and Polish public, dispute has sometimes been fierce. Remainders of past mass murder of Poles by Germans have surfaced. For instance, the Polish newspaper ''Wprost'' published a cover photo-montage of Erika Steinbach in an [[SS]] uniform ([http://www.wprost.pl/cover/?I=1086 photo]). However, the then Polish Prime Minister [[Leszek Miller]] condemned this and apologized to the German Chancellor. As part of the same controversy, the Federation of Expellees and Erika Steinbach sued the German journalist [[Gabriele Lesser]] for defamation related to an article published on [[September 19]], [[2003]], in the daily ''Kieler Nachrichten''. The Federation largely won the case against Lesser. |
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The attempts by German organisations to build Centre Against Expulsions dedicated to German people's alledged suffering during WW2 has led Polish politicians and activists to propose a Center for Martyrology of Polish Nation(called also Center for the Memory of Suffering of the Polish Nation) that would document genocide conducted on Polish people by German state during WW2 and that would serve to educate German people about atrocities their state and people conducted on their neighbours. However this proposal was attacked and rejected by German politicians. |
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Steinbach was re-elected as president of the Bund der Vertriebenen by an overwhelming majority on [[May 8]], [[2004]]. [http://www2.bund-der-vertriebenen.de/presse/index.php3?id=94] |
Steinbach was re-elected as president of the Bund der Vertriebenen by an overwhelming majority on [[May 8]], [[2004]]. [http://www2.bund-der-vertriebenen.de/presse/index.php3?id=94] |
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==Exhibition on expulsions in 2006== |
==Exhibition on expulsions in 2006== |
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Steinbach's organisation will hold an exhibition on expulsions in the Berlin Kronprinzenpalais for 3 months during the fall of 2006. The exhibition will show expulsions from the genocide on the Armenians until the ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia in the 1990s. It will deal with the expulsion of Germans (a major exhibition on this was also held in 2005 in Bonn), and, for the first time in Germany, also on the expulsion of Poles from what is now Ukraine and Belarus after 1945. It is unknown if Steinbach exposition will deal with expulsions of milions of Poles from Polish areas by Germany during the war such as the 'ethnic cleansing' program to rid the [[Warthegau]] area of Poles and to resettle the 'cleansed' areas with ethnic Germans. It is unknown if Steinbach exposition will deal with expulsions of milions of Poles from Polish areas by Germany during the war such as the 'ethnic cleansing' program to rid the [[ |
Steinbach's organisation will hold an exhibition on expulsions in the Berlin Kronprinzenpalais for 3 months during the fall of 2006. The exhibition will show expulsions from the genocide on the Armenians until the ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia in the 1990s. It will deal with the expulsion of Germans (a major exhibition on this was also held in 2005 in Bonn), and, for the first time in Germany, also on the expulsion of Poles from what is now Ukraine and Belarus after 1945. It is unknown if Steinbach exposition will deal with expulsions of milions of Poles from Polish areas by Germany during the war such as the 'ethnic cleansing' program to rid the [[Warthegau]] area of Poles and to resettle the 'cleansed' areas with ethnic Germans. It is unknown if Steinbach exposition will deal with expulsions of milions of Poles from Polish areas by Germany during the war such as the 'ethnic cleansing' program to rid the [[Reichsgau Wartheland]] area of Poles and to resettle the 'cleansed' areas with ethnic Germans. |
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== External links == |
== External links == |
Revision as of 18:12, 14 February 2006
Erika Steinbach (born July 25, 1943 as Erika Hermann) is a German conservative politician who has been representing the CDU and the state of Hesse as a member of the Parliament of Germany, the Bundestag, since 1990. She is elected from Frankfurt. She has also been president of the Federation of Expellees since 1998 (succeeding Fritz Wittmann), and besides that is a member of the board of the Goethe-Institut, the national broadcasting company ZDF, and the Landsmannschaft Westpreußen, as well as the national board of her party (since 2000). She is member of the parliamentary committee for human rights and humanitarian aid and spokesperson for human rights of the CDU/CSU faction. Erika Steinbach has studied music and been a member of concert orchestras before becoming a fulltime politician.
Because of the widely discussed plan to build a centre and monument against forced migration which her organisation is promoting, she has been especially well-known in some European countries with a record of being subject to German genocide policies against their populations.
Biography
She was born in German occupied Poland in 1943 in the Polish village renamed by Nazi administration to German name of Rahmel (the name before Nazi occupation was Rumia). Her father, Wilhelm Karl Hermann, was a Luftwaffe Feldwebel (Non-commissioned officer in the German air force) from Hanau in Hesse, western-central Germany, whose family was originally from Silesia [1]. He was sent to Rahmel in 1941 and served as a technician at the local airport during the war, while her mother Erika Grote lived in Berlin but visited Rahmel occasionaly. As NCO Karl Herman didn't get any home taken from local Poles, which was reserved for higher German officers. In January 1944 her father was sent to the Eastern Front and in January 1945, Steinbach's mother decided to return with her children to Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. Steinbach's sister was born in October. In 1950, after five years in a refugee camp, the family managed to move to Hanau. As Erika Steinbach was the daughter of a German soldier only stationed in Rahmel during the war, and escaped during an evacuation performed by German rather than Polish or Soviet authorities, her status as an expellee was questioned but, according to the Federal Expellee Law, she is.
The Centre Against Expulsions in Berlin
One of her main aims is to build a controversial monumental Centre Against Expulsions (German: Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen) in Berlin, devoted to the victims of forced population migrations or ethnic cleansing in Europe, particularly to the Germans victims of expulsion after World War II. She is the chairwoman (jointly with Peter Glotz) of the recently created foundation of the Centre. The initiative, supported by the CDU/CSU faction in German Parliament, has caused controversy. Opponents of the proposed form of Centre object to emphasizing only German suffering; others see it as an inappropriate counter-balance to the Holocaust memorial. In the petition "For a critical and enlightened debate about the past" historians expressed concerns the centre would establish and popularize a one-sided image of the past, without historical context. Many well-known European intellectuals and politicians, including Germans Günter Grass and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, in 2003 expressed support for a centre devoted to all expelled during the 20th century, located in some place connected with expulsions, e.g. Wrocław (Breslau).
However, while Steinbach claims the Centre will represent the suffering of other nations as well, she believes that it is an internal German affair and rejects the proposal of creating the Centre under international control. "All victims of genocide and expulsion need a place in our hearts and in the historical memory. Human rights are indivisible," the Centre points out on its official home page. The Cenre's homepage however contains several statements and data that is inaccurate and could be considered controversial if not nationalistic:
- It claims Gdańsk was founded as a German city in 1224/25. In fact Gdańsk existed centuries before(first mention in 997) and was part of Poland.
- It speaks of Nazi colonists that were part of colonisation effort in Expulsions of Poles from Reichsgau Wartheland area as resettlers, while avoiding mentioning the fact that they were part of colonisation effort during state organised expulsions of Poles from that area.
- It claims Partitions of Poland made by Prussia were supported by territories annexed by Prussia.
- It takes the lowest estimates of Poles expelled by German government while taking the highest estimates when speaking about German expelled. The number of Poles expelled is listed as 460.000, while Polish historians estimate it at around 2,478,000 milion[2].
- Also absent is information of expulsion of around 200.000 Polish children kidnapped by German authorities[3] from Poland in order to be Germanised.
- It lists only one expulsion of Poles by German govenrment, from the Reichsgau Wartheland area. It ignores and doesn't present at all, explusions from Zamość, Warsaw, Silesia and Pomerania.
- The issue of cooperation of German minority with Nazi regime, or support during aggression of Nazi regime(see Selbstschutz) on other countries is absent from the material on history of German minorities presented by the Centre.
The Centre Against Expulsions have been supported by many human rights activists, historians, political scientists and politicians, including first UN High Commissioner for Human Rights José Ayala-Lasso , Nobel laureate Imre Kertész, Joachim Gauck, former Austrian crown prince Otto von Habsburg, Guido Knopp, György Konrád, Alfred M. de Zayas and others. The Bavarian Prime Minister and leader of CSU Edmund Stoiber argued that "the place for a museum showing the dreadful fate of expelled Germans is in the German capital". The CDU/CSU have decided to build the center and Chancellor Angela Merkel has explicitly declared her support.
German Foreign minister Joschka Fischer commented on Steinbach, and her initiative for a Centre Against Expulsions to ...have caused serious damage to German-Polish relations. Not amongst extremist nationalist forces that do exist in Poland, but amongst old friends and major agents for reconciliation between our two countries.
Among the German and Polish public, dispute has sometimes been fierce. Remainders of past mass murder of Poles by Germans have surfaced. For instance, the Polish newspaper Wprost published a cover photo-montage of Erika Steinbach in an SS uniform (photo). However, the then Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller condemned this and apologized to the German Chancellor. As part of the same controversy, the Federation of Expellees and Erika Steinbach sued the German journalist Gabriele Lesser for defamation related to an article published on September 19, 2003, in the daily Kieler Nachrichten. The Federation largely won the case against Lesser.
The attempts by German organisations to build Centre Against Expulsions dedicated to German people's alledged suffering during WW2 has led Polish politicians and activists to propose a Center for Martyrology of Polish Nation(called also Center for the Memory of Suffering of the Polish Nation) that would document genocide conducted on Polish people by German state during WW2 and that would serve to educate German people about atrocities their state and people conducted on their neighbours. However this proposal was attacked and rejected by German politicians.
Steinbach was re-elected as president of the Bund der Vertriebenen by an overwhelming majority on May 8, 2004. [4]
Erika Steinbach is a Protestant. She is married to a musical conductor, Helmut Steinbach since 1972.
Exhibition on expulsions in 2006
Steinbach's organisation will hold an exhibition on expulsions in the Berlin Kronprinzenpalais for 3 months during the fall of 2006. The exhibition will show expulsions from the genocide on the Armenians until the ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia in the 1990s. It will deal with the expulsion of Germans (a major exhibition on this was also held in 2005 in Bonn), and, for the first time in Germany, also on the expulsion of Poles from what is now Ukraine and Belarus after 1945. It is unknown if Steinbach exposition will deal with expulsions of milions of Poles from Polish areas by Germany during the war such as the 'ethnic cleansing' program to rid the Warthegau area of Poles and to resettle the 'cleansed' areas with ethnic Germans. It is unknown if Steinbach exposition will deal with expulsions of milions of Poles from Polish areas by Germany during the war such as the 'ethnic cleansing' program to rid the Reichsgau Wartheland area of Poles and to resettle the 'cleansed' areas with ethnic Germans.