Schwartz:Funktionäre mit Vergangenheit<

The question of the 'brown past' of leading German expellee politicians has been discussed for a long time. As early as the 1960s, two Federal Ministers for Expellees - Theodor Oberländer and Hans Krüger - had to resign due to accusations related to the Nazi regime. Krüger was also the first president of the 'Bund der Vertriebenen' (League of Expellees), founded in 1957/58. Recently, the behavior of the entire thirteen-member initial leadership of the BdV during the 'Third Reich' has become a topic of discussion. Michael Schwartz, in his study commissioned by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, provides a nuanced assessment of the first leadership of the BdV, balancing between Nazi involvement and opposition to the Nazi regime, while also shedding light on how the Nazi past was dealt with in the early Federal Republic during the 1950s and 1960s.