In May 1946, Germans were brought from Prague to the American zone in Germany.
Image: Picture Alliance
The Association of Expellees and the Union sharply criticize the name change of the Federal Institute for Culture and History in Eastern Europe. This is a “blatant breach of the legal mandate”.
An this Tuesday the annual reception of the Association of Expellees will take place in Berlin. Last time, Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke there, this year – for the first time – Friedrich Merz. He will address an issue that concerns the association, but also the CDU and CSU parliamentary groups in the Bundestag, and on which the parliamentary group submitted a small question to the federal government on March 15th, which is available from the FAZ along with answers.
It is about the “deletion of the reference to national identity from the name of the Federal Institute for the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe (BKGE) and effects on the state mandate according to Section 96 of the Federal Expellees Act”. The institute, established in Oldenburg in 1989, is an unincorporated federal institution in the area of responsibility of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media Claudia Roth (Greens). Matthias Weber has been the director since 2004. The institute was intended to advise the federal government on all questions relating to the culture and history of Germans in Eastern Europe.