When the Kulturwerke were founded, the focus was on strengthening the identity of displaced persons and refugees who had not yet been integrated into the society of the young Federal Republic by nurturing and promoting the culture of their regions of origin, the safeguarding and preservation of cultural heritage, academic research, and the dissemination of knowledge amongst the majority population. Through the Kulturwerke, the displaced persons created instruments for their cultural work, which played a significant part in ensuring that their understanding of history and culture was nurtured, disseminated and preserved amongst interested circles in their new surroundings (e.g. through archives and libraries). For the displaced persons themselves, the cultural organisations also served as factors in their own identity politics and identity formation, thereby contributing to the integration of displaced persons and refugees. The publications that appeared regularly through the cultural organisations’ publishing houses contributed to the advancement of academic knowledge.

3. Nordostdeutsches Kulturwerk (NOKW): The NOKW association was also founded in Lüneburg in 1951 and acted as the sponsoring body for the ‘Institut Nordostdeutsches Kulturwerk’. The NOKW’s remit was to document and research the influence of German culture in Pomerania, West and East Prussia, the Province of Posen, the Baltic states, as well as in Russia and Poland.^[3] The NOKW comprised three departments: the North-East Library, the North-East German Archive and the North-East German Cultural Institute Publishing House. Its academic activities largely corresponded to those of the SOKW. Its most important publications were, and remain, the journal *Nordost-Archiv. Journal of History and Regional Studies’ (Jan. 1968–Dec. 1991; new series as ‘Archive for Regional History’ from Jan. 1992 onwards) and the ‘NOKW Publications’.

4. Kulturwerk Schlesien Foundation (SKS): The ‘Kulturwerk Schlesien e. V.’ (renamed the ‘Silesian Cultural Foundation’ in 1975), which had also been active since 1951 but was not formally established until 1952, covered the ‘entire Silesian region’, that is, Lower and Upper Silesia, and had the task of “highlighting Silesia’s contribution to German and European culture, promoting its continued influence, and preserving and nurturing Silesian cultural heritage”.^[4] The work of the SKS was initially divided into subject-based working groups (visual arts, music, literature, ‘issues concerning the Silesian people as a whole’, and studies of the East). The SKS also ran its own publishing house and library, organised and continues to organise academic conferences (particularly for early-career researchers) and published the series ‘Silesia – A Quarterly Journal for Art, Science and Folklore’ (Jan. 1956–No. 41,1996) and, from 1966, the journal ‘Schlesischer Kulturspiegel’, which is still published today.

In addition to the four cultural organisations mentioned, other ‘cultural organisations’ with a regional focus were established, although their activities have now ceased (1953 ‘Kulturwerk der Vertriebenen Germane e. V.’; 1965‘Donaudeutsches Kulturwerk Saarland e. V.’) or which now carry out only sporadic activities (1972 ‘Kulturwerk Danzig’; 1974 ‘FoundationKulturwerk Wartheland’). Still in existence today are the ‘Carl-Schirren-Gesellschaft e. V. – Deutsch-Baltisches Kulturwerk e. V.’, founded in Lüneburg in 1950 (its predecessor organisation was established in 1932), which has set itself the task of preserving the culture of the Baltic Germans, and the ‘Karpatendeutsche Kulturwerk Slowakei e. V.’ in Karlsruhe, founded in 1969, which to this day sees itself as the central cultural institute for the Carpathian Germans of Slovakia. Both institutions have their own library, archive and museum collections (the ‘Deutschbaltisches Museum’ as part of the ‘Ostpreußisches Museum’ in Lüneburg; the ‘Karpatendeutsche Museum’ in Karlsruhe-Durlach) and are committed to presenting and researching their respective regional cultures and histories.

Following the end of the Cold War, the work of the Kulturwerke underwent a process of modernisation and internationalisation; they began to network more closely and became important partners for institutions in Eastern Europe. The 2000 reform of cultural and scientific funding under Section 96 of the Federal Displaced Persons Act marked a turning point for the work of the cultural organisations. Whilst the ASV continued to receive institutional funding, institutional funding for the SKS was discontinued, resulting in a decline in its activities. The ‘Institut Nordostdeutsches Kulturwerk’ in Lüneburg, run by the NOKW, and the institute in Munich, run by the SOKW, were dissolved, re-established in 2001 as academic research institutes and affiliated as ‘associated institutes’ with the universities in Hamburg and Munich (‘Institut für deutsche Kultur und Geschichte Nordosteuropas e. V.’, IKGN; ‘Institut für deutsche Kultur und Geschichte Südosteuropas’, IKGS). Since then, they have been primarily engaged in academic research and teaching. The work of the Kulturwerke and their successor institutions is now committed to the methods and themes of modern cultural mediation with a focus on the history of relations, and to historically oriented research on East and Central Europe. Their activities are networked both nationally and internationally and are of particular significance for the respective regional research.

1947: Adalbert Stifter Association (ASV), Munich

1950: Carl Schirren Society e.V. – German-Baltic Cultural Association (predecessor organisation founded in 1932), Lüneburg

1951: North-East German Cultural Association (NOKW), Lüneburg

1951: South-East German Cultural Association (SOKW), Munich

1952: Silesian Cultural Association (SKS), Neumarkt-Oberpfalz, from 1957 Würzburg

1953: Cultural Association of Displaced Germans, Schloss Burg an der Wupper; since 1972 ‘West-East Cultural Association’, Bonn

1965 Danube German Cultural Association of Saarland e. V., Banat Parish Register Archive, Homburg; dissolved in 1981

1969: Carpathian German Cultural Association of Slovakia e. V., Karlsruhe

1972: Danzig Cultural Association, Working Group for the Preservation and Promotion of Danzig’s Cultural Heritage, Düsseldorf

1974: Wartheland Cultural Foundation, 1974, Hanover (now Wiesbaden)

As with other organisations for displaced persons, the continuity in terms of personnel and ideology during the Nazi era has not yet been thoroughly investigated; Lilian Schacherl’s sweeping assertion in 1960 that the founders of the ASV were ‘men with no political baggage whatsoever’ has proved to be inaccurate. The ‘sociologist of folk culture’ Max Hildebert Boehm (1891–1968), on whose initiative the NOKW was founded, emphasised the ‘overarching concept of the German national and cultural heritage’ as the starting point for these regional and cultural-political initiatives. Accordingly, in addition to personnel-related issues, ideological continuities were also criticised; these included the cultural organisations’ ties to völkisch traditions and a backward-looking view of history in their cultural work – particularly in the first two decades following their foundation.

• Institute for German Culture and History in South-Eastern Europe (ed.): 50 Years of the South-East German Cultural Association, *Südostdeutsche Vierteljahresblätter*. 1951–2001. Munich 2001 (Publications of the South-East German Cultural Association 6).
• Wolfgang Kessler (ed.): East German Cultural Heritage in the Federal Republic of Germany. A Handbook of Collections, Associations and Institutions and their Holdings. Edited by the East German Cultural Council Foundation. Munich et al. 1989.
• Kulturwerk Danzig e.V. (ed.): 30 Years of Kulturwerk Danzig e.V. (1972–2002). Düsseldorf 2003.
• Heinrich von zur Mühlen: Cultural Organisations as Promoters of East German Cultural Work. In: Hans Joachim Merkatz (ed.): From Rubble to Foundations. Displaced Persons, Refugees, Resettlers. Three Decades of Integration. Düsseldorf 1979, pp. 367–377.
• Ulrich Prehn: ‘A training ground for cadres’ for ‘Day X’: Max Hildebert Boehm and the (North) East German Academy. In: Alexander Gallus, Axel Schildt (eds.): Looking Back to the Future. Political Public Sphere and Intellectual Positions in Germany around 1950 and 1930. Göttingen 2011 (Hamburg Contributions to Social and Contemporary History 48), pp. 238–253.
• Ulrich Prehn: Max Hildebert Boehm. Radical Concepts of Order from the First World War to the Federal Republic. (Hamburg Contributions to Social and Contemporary History, Vol. 51) Göttingen 2013.
• Lilian Schacherl: The Cultural Organisations of the Displaced. Their Objectives, Activity Reports and Working Methods. Edited by the East German Cultural Council. Bonn 1960.
• Tobias Weger: ‘Endless “Struggle for National Identity”’. Sudeten German Organisations, 1945–1955. Frankfurt am Main 2008 (The Germans and Eastern Europe – Studies and Sources 2).

• www.stifterverein.de/ (Website of the Adalbert Stifter Association)
• www.kulturwerk-schlesien.de/home/index.html (Website of the Kulturwerk Schlesien e.V.)
• carl-schirren-gesellschaft.de (website of the Carl-Schirren-Gesellschaft e.V. – German-Baltic Cultural Association)
• www.karpatendeutsche.de/?Karpatendeutsches_Kulturwerk_Slowakei_e._V ( Website of the Karpatendeutschen Kulturwerk e.V.)
• www.ikgn.de/ (Website of the Institute for German Culture and History in North-Eastern Europe e.V.)
• www.ikgs.de/ (Website of the Institute for German Culture and History in South-Eastern Europe)

[1] Weger: *Volkstumskampf*, p. 246; Kessler, *Ostdeutsches Kulturgut*, p. 349.

[2] SOKW: 50 Years, p. 5; Kessler, East German Cultural Heritage, p. 466.

[3] Kessler, *Ostdeutsches Kulturgut*, pp. 78ff.

[4] Kessler, *Ostdeutsches Kulturgut*, p. 221.

[5] Schacherl, Kulturwerke, 1960, p. 8

[6] Ulrich Prehn, ‘Kaderschmiede’, 2011, p. 241.

[7] Quoted from Ulrich Prehn: ‘Volk’ and Space in Two Post-War Periods. Continuity and Change in the Work of the Folklorist Max Hildebert Boehm. In: Habbo Knoch (ed.): The Legacy of the Province. Local Culture and the Politics of History after 1945. Münster 2001 (Publications of the Lower Saxony Working Group on Contemporary History), pp. 50–72, here p. 68.

[8] Cf. Weger, *Volkstumskampf*, pp. 229–251.