Eagle Glassheim to Speak at the Collegium Carolinum
'Diagnosing Pathologies of Uprootedness'
29.02.2012
In 1945 and 1946, most expellees arriving in occupied Germany were dusted with DDT and subjected to medical examinations and possible quarantine. Even as infectious diseases declined sharply after mid-1945, officials considered uprooted expellees a potential risk to public health. As German authorities struggled to integrate expellees into post-war society, they also feared that refugees posed a risk of political contagion. Many indigenous Germans, faced with an influx of millions of Germans from the East, considered uprooted expellees a source of cultural contagion that threatened to upset deeply rooted local cultures. This paper considers connections between rootedness and health/uprootedness and pathology in post-war German discourse about the expulsions.
The lecture will take place in the seminar room, 2nd floor of the Collegium, which is located at Hochstraße 8.