Several million ethnic Germans live abroad. The cohesion of the diaspora helped them not to dissolve without a trace in another country. Supporting each other, we waited for favorable changes in the political situation, legislative framework to find home again...

After the war, the Germans began return to Germany from of Eastern Europe . More than fifty years have passed since the war, the number of Germans who returned to Germany has long exceeded the four million mark. The peak of the flow of immigrants from Poland and Romania fell on the period before 1990. Most of the returnees ethnic Germans are those who left the former Union, Poland and Romania.

In 2013-2014 largest flow of late settlers to Germany came from the Russian Federation (more than 50%), Kazakhstan (more than 30%), Ukraine (more than 5%). In addition, late repatriates continue to move towards their homeland from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Poland, Romania and other countries. Ethnic Germans wishing to return to Germany there are also South Africa and Latin America.

List of documents for the return of Russian Germans feasible. A late repatriate will need documentary evidence of German roots (for example, a birth certificate); a certificate confirming the level of German language proficiency, an application for admission under the Federal Law on Displaced Persons to the BVA Federal Administrative Office (submitted through the German representation in your place of residence). The required forms are available at the embassy, ​​consulates of Germany, on the BVA website. Information on the website of the Federal Administrative Office is presented both in German and in Russian and other languages.

Returning to the language test for knowledge), it is worth saying that the number of attempts to overcome it is not limited. Even if the level of preparation turned out to be worse than expected, you should not be upset. At your disposal are not only tutorials or tutoring services. For those who want to travel to Germany, and just those who want to get to know its culture through the German language, . The courses are designed with different complexity. You get an excellent combination of theory and practice of literary and contemporary spoken language. By the way, knowledge of the literary language is highly valued in Germany and Austria. This is a kind of indicator of education, which distinguishes from the mass.

If the issue is resolved positively in the BVA, you will receive a notification of admission (the right to leave), all that remains is to resolve the visa issue. The interval from the submission of documents to the move itself lasts more than one month, so you should be patient. In addition, this quality is very useful, given the Germans' love of following the established order. Bureaucratic procedures have to be taken for granted, without unnecessary emotions. What can you do, you have to curb your fiery temperament in dealing with Nordic personalities.

I have an old school friend with whom we have been friends for more than twenty years. I remember when we received our first passports, he told me that he hid in the passport office that he was a German by nationality. Even then I was surprised: “What kind of German are you?”

0/3/2001

After leaving school, our paths diverged: I went to study at a university, he and his family moved to the North. Occasionally corresponded, met. And then life completely spun, spun. I am "on salary", and he is the director of his own tiny state of emergency. We met, drank vodka, complained to each other about life, made plans. Even then, he admitted to me that he was quite seriously adjusted for permanent residence in Germany. The fact is that his mother is from Germans, from those - “Volga-Kazakhstan”. And all the relatives have long been in Germany. So he decided to try his luck. Seriously took up the language, entered the German society. He promised to come for me in a Mercedes, to show me Germany.

Six years have passed since then. I live in Kyiv, he lives in Lvov. He hasn't left yet, he's waiting. But we started seeing each other more often. After all, the German embassy and consulate is located here in the capital ...

It was from my friend that I first heard stories about what problems one has to face during the execution of documents, what tricks one has to achieve this or that certificate. My friend had completely dropped his hands, but, as they say, hope dies last. On his last visit, he asked me to find out about the German community. He said, they say, there is little sense from German society - only words. And about the fellowship there is a rumor as about the "good father-king." "Okay," he replied, "I'll find out."

Heinrich Ernstovich is a lawyer by profession. At one time, while working on a voluntary basis as the head of the legal department of the People's Council of Germans in Ukraine, he distributed a special questionnaire among members of the German society "Renaissance". In the course of the survey, it turned out that, in fact, society as such does not exist. He is not. That is, on paper, formally it works, but in reality ...

A deeper analysis of the activities of this organization revealed such negative aspects as the banal embezzlement of funds allocated by the German government to address the issues of ethnic Germans in Ukraine. All this prompted Heinrich Adler to create an alternative organization, called the "Community of the Germans of Kyiv." The range of tasks of the Community is clearly outlined and quite broad. It includes assistance in official recognition German nationality for those who have it; assistance in the study and popularization German language, cultural values, the development of national traditions among members of the Community; promoting the development of national self-consciousness among young people; promotion of training for competitive professions in Europe; establishing contacts with young people in Germany; keeping in touch with Germans who have moved to Germany for permanent residence. This is by no means a complete list of issues that this organization sets itself.

Heinrich Adler did not make declarative statements and promises, but real practical steps aimed at helping specific people. For a relatively short period of existence of the organization, hundreds of people were able to receive real help and support. Thousands of questions, ways to resolve them, legal "hacks" and ways to legally circumvent them have become invaluable material for those who today are solving the problem of emigration to Germany. An excellent help for those who cannot come to Kyiv for a consultation is the website of the Association of Germans in Kyiv - www.germany.com.ua. Here you can get free consultation on almost any topic of interest. I will give just a few examples.

Where should I contact if I decide to move to Germany?

- First of all, you need to prove your German origin, as well as knowledge of the German language. And the main thing at the same time is the entry of nationality in the passport. If this entry was made from the very beginning, i.e. already in the first passport you received, and in the birth certificate the nationality of the parents or one of them is indicated as German / German, then in principle you can leave for Germany. To do this, you must fill out Antrag, which is received at the German consulate. Here you can take no more than two application forms - for yourself and your family.

One feature should be taken into account: if the applicant on the passport is German, but the passport was not received within the time limits prescribed by law (upon reaching the age of 16 or, for women, when changing the surname due to marriage), then there is no chance of obtaining permission to receive in Germany.

My grandfather was repressed during the war years. Am I among the repressed Germans?

- A grandson is considered a descendant of the repressed.

Is higher pedagogical education quoted in Germany?

– The main criterion for evaluating teacher education is knowledge of the German language. This, in particular, will determine the prospects for your employment as a teacher.

In addition, visitors to the site can learn a lot of interesting and useful information - about the activities of the German society "Renaissance", about the life of emigrants in Germany. A separate section is devoted to the issues of Jewish emigration to Germany. By the way, it will probably be of interest to many to know that now it is much easier for Jews to get into the Bundes-Republic. “It’s no secret,” said Heinrich Adler, “that there are many cases when, using the similarity of Jewish and German surnames, our Germans pretend to be Jews and safely move to Germany without language tests.”

But, probably, the most useful information for everyone who is concerned about emigration issues will be the fact that a legal department has been created in the Community of Germans in Kyiv, the purpose of which is the need for legal support for ethnic Germans living on the territory of Ukraine. Consultations are provided both for members of the society and for everyone - however, if there are documents confirming belonging to the German nationality and a preliminary agreement by phone about a meeting.

The next wave of German emigration (judging by the letters of our readers) will not decline soon. And due to the current circumstances, Heinrich Adler believes, Germany has become an evil stepmother for the ethnic Germans of Ukraine. Take, for example, humiliating tests for eastern settlers on knowledge of the language, culture and traditions of their historical homeland. They hardly reproduce that “Volga surzhik” of theirs, and over the Soviet decades they have created “their own” culture ...

As a result, in Kyiv alone today there are more than a hundred so-called "refuseniks", who were turned down by the German authorities on the grounds that they were "not German enough." Why then, one wonders, it was necessary to fence the garden. And there would not be so many broken destinies, tears, disappointments. But only in Ukraine there are about 100,000 ethnic Germans who, as Heinrich Adler said, “found themselves in a gap between two democracies – the already established German and the still emerging Ukrainian.”

The Germans - the most numerous people of foreign Europe - inhabit mainly its central part. The total number of Germans in Europe is over 75 million people, of which 54 million 766 thousand people live in the Federal Republic of Germany, 17 million 79 thousand people live in the GDR and 2 million 180 thousand people live in West Berlin (according to mid-December 1962).

The population density in the GDR is 159 people per 1 sq. km. km. More high density in the districts of Karl-Marx-Stadt (formerly Chemnitz) - 362 people, Leipzig (315 people), Dresden (285 people), Halle (231 people). In the north, the density is less (up to 60-70 people per 1 sq. km). 72% of the population lives in cities with over 2 thousand inhabitants.

The average population density of Germany is 220 people per 1 sq. km. km. The most densely populated are the Rhine regions, especially the Ruhr. Lower density in the north of Germany and in Bavaria. 76% of the population lives in cities.

The area of ​​the GDR is 107,834 sq. km, 247,960 sq. km make up the area of ​​Germany and 481 sq. km - area of ​​West Berlin.

The borders of the GDR run in the north along the Baltic Sea, in the east - along the Oder and Neisse (with the Polish People's Republic), then with the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, in the south and west - with the FRG. Germany borders in the south with Austria and Switzerland, in the west - with France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, in the north the border runs along the North Sea, on the Jutland Peninsula, Germany borders on Denmark and in a small area the border runs along the Baltic Sea. The Federal Republic of Germany owns the islands of North and East Frisian, Heligoland, and others in the North Sea; the German Democratic Republic owns the islands located in the Baltic Sea; the largest of them are Rügen (926 sq. km) and Usedom (445 sq. km), not most of which belongs to Poland. West Berlin is located on the territory of the GDR.

Germany's central position in Europe favors cultural and economic exchanges with neighboring countries.

The relief of the country is characterized by a gradual increase to the south. In the north, most of the area is occupied by the North German Plain, which arose in glacial period. A narrow strip of the North Sea coast is below sea level in places. Such areas are protected by dams and dikes. These are marches with very fertile soils. To the south of the lowland stretches a belt of Middle German destroyed folded-fault mountains, separated by basins and river valleys. In the south of the country, a narrow strip of the Northern Limestone Alps borders the Bavarian Plateau. In the Alps is the highest point of the country - the peak of the Zug-Spitze (2968 m). The relief of the country has had a noticeable impact on the diversity of types of settlements, buildings and economy.

The lowering of the surface from south to north also corresponds to the direction of flow of most rivers in Germany. All major rivers of the country - Rhine, Ems,

Weser, Elbe, Oder - flow into the North or Baltic Seas. Only the Danube flows in a southeasterly direction and flows into the Black Sea. The navigable parts of the rivers are interconnected by a wide network of canals. River transport plays a significant role in the transportation of goods. The rivers flowing down from the Alps are widely used for the construction of hydroelectric power plants. On the territory of Germany, especially in its northeastern part and in the Alps, there are thousands of lakes, mainly of glacial origin. The largest lake - Constance - is located on the border of Germany with Austria and Switzerland.

Germany is located in the temperate zone: the humid maritime climate in the west gradually turns into a temperate continental climate in the east and especially the southeast. The average annual temperature fluctuates between + 10 ° in the southwest of Germany and + 7.7 ° in the southeast of the Dresden region (GDR). The average annual rainfall is 600-700 mm, but they fall unevenly both over the territory and over the seasons. The amount of precipitation decreases in the direction from northwest to southeast. The soils of most of the area of ​​Germany are infertile (podzolic and brown forest, swampy). The exceptions are the marches already mentioned, the loess soils of the region of the Middle German mountains, and the soils of valleys and basins in the south.

On cultivated lands, the variety of soils and climatic conditions allows the cultivation of various crops - from rye and potatoes to sugar beets and grapes.

Forests occupy about 28% of the entire surface of the country. They are distributed extremely unevenly, but mainly in the mountains. On the plain, these are, as a rule, planted or heavily cultivated forests. Coniferous trees predominate (in the north there are more pine trees, in the south and in the middle part of Germany - spruce and fir). Deciduous forests (beech, oak, hornbeam, birch) are located mainly in the west. In the north (especially in the northwest), as well as in the Alps and their foothills, there are many meadows and pastures, which contributes to the development of animal husbandry in these areas (mainly cattle are bred here).

Germany is quite rich in minerals. First of all, this is hard coal (the main deposits are in the Ruhr and the Saar region of Germany, in the GDR - in the Zwickau region) and brown coal (Luzhitsa and the area between Leipzig and Halle in the GDR). In addition, copper, potash and rock salt are mined in the country; there are small and medium-sized deposits of iron ore, oil (the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic), raw materials for the glass, ceramics and construction industries, ores of some non-ferrous metals, and deposits of uranium.

ethnic history

ethnic basis German people were ancient Germanic tribes, who inhabited the space between the Rhine and the Oder at the beginning of our era, in particular the Germanic, Istevonian (Iskevonian) and Ingveoi (Ingevonian) tribal groups. The first group (the tribes of the Suebi, Hermundurs, Hattians, Alemans, and others belonged to it) is historically associated with the later peoples of southern Germany - the Bavarians, Swabians, Thuringians, Hessians; their descendants are also modern German-speaking Swiss and Austrians. The second group, the Istevonian, included the Frankish tribes living along the Rhine, who were destined to play a particularly important role in the political and ethnic history of both Germany and other countries in the early Middle Ages. Finally, the third tribal group - the Ingevonian - covered the tribes of Frisians, Hawks, Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. This group also included those tribes with which the ancient world became acquainted earlier than with others: the Cimbrians and the Teutons, who threatened Rome at the end of the 2nd century BC. BC e. Subsequently (5th century), some Ingavian tribes - the Angles, part of the Saxons - moved to the islands of Britain, the Frisians partly dissolved in neighboring peoples, partly retained their isolation to this day, but most of this "low German" group of tribes formed the basis of the modern population of Northern Germany .

Among the Germanic tribes were those whose names have been preserved to this day in the designation of entire peoples. So, the name of the Franks was transferred to the conquered by them in the V-VI centuries. country - "France" - and its population - "French", although the Franks themselves disappeared among the Romanesque population. According to the Aleman tribe, the French still call all Germans « Allemands». The name "Germans", included in all Slavic languages, comes, according to some researchers, from the tribal name of the Nemeth. Finally, the name of the Teutonic tribe subsequently became the self-name of the entire German people: Teutsche, Deutsche and countries - Deutschland.

In the era of the migration of peoples, there were multiple and complex movements and mixing of tribes and tribal unions. At the same time, ancient tribal ties were disintegrating and stratified into classes. In place of the tribes, peoples were formed. Some of the Germanic tribes and tribal unions, once strong and numerous, disappeared without a trace, merging into the composition of other peoples. So, the East German Goths and Vandals, who conquered in the 5th century. countries of the South and South Western Europe(Italy, Spain, part of France), as well as North Africa, later dissolved among the local population. The same fate befell the Germanic tribes of the Marcomanni, Burgundians, Lombards, but some of them left names in foreign-speaking countries (Burgundy, Lombardy). The Franks played a much more important role in the formation of the German people.

The Frankish alliance of tribes was formed relatively late: neither Tacitus, nor Pliny, nor other classical authors even mention the name of the Franks; it is first encountered by Ammianus Marcellinus (second half of the 3rd century). By this time, the Franks were a powerful and warlike tribal alliance, covering a number of tribes along the middle and lower reaches of the Rhine (Hattas, Bructers, Usipets, Tencters, etc.). The Frankish tribes then broke up into two main groups - the Salian Franks in the lower reaches

Rhine and Ripuarian francs in the middle reaches of the Rhine. They rallied together so much that they had a common dialect: F. Engels proved that the Frankish dialect occupied an independent place as a transitional link between the High German and Low German dialects (see below).

Until the 5th century some tribes of the Franks retained independence within the general union: each tribe had its own leader, sometimes even with the title of king. Relations with the Romans and long wars led to the disintegration of tribal forms of life; strengthened hereditary tribal nobility. The leaders of the Salian Franks from the Merovingian dynasty managed to subjugate all the Frankish tribes, and then a number of other Germanic tribes, creating an early feudal state where the military nobility dominated. Especially known is the conquest of the king of the Franks Clovis (482-511). Under him, the Alemanni, part of the Saxons and other Germanic tribes entered the state of the Franks, and most of Gaul (now France) was captured. Clovis converted to Christianity in the Roman Catholic rite and enlisted the support of the powerful Roman church. The successors of Clovis further expanded the boundaries of the Frankish state with their conquests, subjugating the Thuringians (531), the Bavarians (by agreement, the 540s), capturing Burgundy and other lands in the southeast of modern France. Under King Charlemagne (from the Carolingian dynasty), extensive conquests continued and the state of the Franks turned into a huge early feudal empire (800), covering the western part of Germany, all of France and the northern part of Italy. Charles waged long bloody wars against the Saxons and forcibly forced Christianity on them in order to weaken their stubborn resistance. Karl fought a lot with the Slavic tribes. His name entered into all Slavic languages ​​with the common meaning "king". Charles zealously contributed to the strengthening of the influence of the Christian church and Roman culture among the subject population.

As is known, Engels paid special attention to the formation of the Frankish state during the conquest of the Western Roman Empire by the Franks, considering it as one of the classic examples of the transformation of a tribal system into a class feudal state. He devoted a special chapter to this question (“The Formation of the German State”) in the book “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State”. The military leader turned into a king, his retinue - into a noble servant of the nobility, free community members - into a dependent peasantry.

The Frankish conquerors gradually mixed with the population of the countries they conquered. But their fate in different parts of the empire developed differently. In the Western, Romance-speaking countries (France, Italy), they simply dissolved among the local population, more cultured and numerous; the Frankish (Germanic) language soon disappeared here, the Romance dialects remained dominant. In the Germanic-speaking, especially in the Rhaeian regions, the Frankish element retained dominance. The dialect of the Salic Franks formed the basis of the Dutch and Flemish languages; the Ripuarian dialect merged into the dialects of modern Rhine areas - the Middle Frankish and Upper Frankish dialects of the regions of Cologne, Eifel, Palatinate, etc.

The empire of Charlemagne, multilingual and not fastened by any economic ties, because the economy was subsistence, very quickly disintegrated. According to the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the grandchildren of Charles divided it among themselves: the German-speaking lands along the right bank of the Rhine went to Ludwig the German, but on the left bank - to Lothair (Lorraine, Alsace), who also received Northern Italy. Romance-speaking countries in the west (in the place of modern France) were given to Charles the Bald.

By this time, in most areas of Germany, the population no longer lived in a tribal way of life, but also feudal relations not yet developed; a significant part of the peasantry remained unbaptised. Former tribal unions gave way to "tribal duchies", gradually turning into kingdoms or other purely feudal formations. In each of the "tribal duchies" one or another tribal group predominated, but already mixed with foreigners. Along the upper reaches of the Danube and the Rhine was Swabia ( former tribe Suebi). Down the Danube - Bavaria; its population was formed from the former tribes of the Quads and, apparently, the Marcomanni, to which were mixed the remnants of other tribes, including the Celtic ones. Along the right bank of the middle reaches of the Rhine and along the Main, Franconia was located - the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe primordial domination of the Franks. Upstream Weather and according to the Saale - Thuringia (the Thuringians are the descendants of the Hermundurs). Between the lower reaches of the Rhine and the Elbe, Saxony was located - the land of the ancient Saxons, who greatly intensified by the end of the 1st millennium and spread far to the east. They swallowed up other Germanic tribes and pushed the Slavs out.

The erasure of old tribal boundaries and the mixing of dialects was facilitated by the fact that in the 7th-11th centuries. in the Germanic languages, a peculiar process of the so-called movement of consonants took place (this was the second, “High German”, movement of consonants; the first, common Germanic, took place in ancient times, when Germanic languages from others Indo-European languages); this phenomenon consisted in the transition of deaf stop p, t, to in affricatespf, ts, kh, and voiced occlusive b, d, g in deaf r, t, to. The “second movement” of consonants captured the High German dialects: Alemannic, Bavarian, Swabian, Thuringian, as well as East, West and Middle Frankish, but did not affect the Low Frankish and Low Saxon dialects. This largely predetermined the division of the later High German and Low German dialects and further undermined the former unity of the Franks as a people.

The East Frankish kingdom, which united all these German-speaking regions, was a very fragile whole. The Frankish element in it was greatly weakened. But the Saxons intensified: 919-1024 - the time of the reign of the kings of the Saxon dynasty. The state itself at the beginning of the X century. It was called Teutonic (Regnum Teutonicum) - after the name of the ancient tribe of the Teutons. This name of the state apparently reflected a vague awareness of the ethnic community of its population. Here you can see the first glimpses of a nationwide, nationwide self-designation of the Germans. The word "Teutonic" first appears in the monuments in 786 in the Latin form "theo-discus", meaning "folk", as opposed to "Latin". At the beginning of the ninth century the language of the German population of the East Frankish state was called “teudisca lingua”, and the German-speaking population itself was called “nationes theotiscae” (Teutonic nations), although the word “frengisk” (Frankish) was also used as a synonym. From the end of the ninth century the Latin form is increasingly becoming the word "teutonicus", "teutoni". In the proper Germanic form "diulis-sae" this word has been known since the middle of the 10th century.

Glimpses of national consciousness were reflected in art, in architectural monuments of the time of Charlemagne and his successors. Although it was almost exclusively church architecture, expressing Christian ideology and Roman traditions, however, art historians already find in the monuments of the 9th century. some features that distinguish them from the monuments of the western, Romanesque part of the empire.

In those years, German writing and literature were born, but in it national moments are expressed very weakly. At first, it was only religious literature (for example, "Geliand" - a poem about the Savior, written around 830 on gospel topics in the Old Saxon dialect; or "The Book of the Gospels" by the Frankish monk Otfried, written by him in his native language around 868). This was followed by chivalric poems, also devoid of the spirit of the people; but it affected heroic poems"The Song of the Nibelungs" and "The Song of Gudrun", compiled at the end of the 12th and at the beginning of the 13th century. based on ancient German bodices and legends. In the work of some poets of that time, one can already trace manifestations of a common German self-consciousness. The greatest of the minnesingers (singers of love), Walther von der Vogelweide (1160-1228), who spoke out against feudal strife and against greedy churchmen, enthusiastically praised his homeland:

“Life in Germany is superior to any other. From the Elbe to the Rhine and east to Hungary lives all the best that I have ever known in the world ... I would swear that German women are the best in the world.

But only a few had a national self-consciousness. Feudal fragmentation countries, the predominance of subsistence farming narrowed the horizons of the inhabitants of Germany, and differences in dialects intensified interregional strife. The story of the Bavarian writer Werner Sadovnik (circa 1250) tells about the return of a young knight, a native of a peasant family, to his native home: forgetting his native dialect, he tries to speak French, Czech, Latin and Low Saxon with his relatives dialects, but they do not understand him and take him either for a Czech, or for a Saxon, or for a Frenchman. The father asks him: "Do respect to me and your mother, tell us at least a word in German." The son, however, again answers him in Saxon, and the father again does not understand him. Apparently, for the Bavarian peasant, and for the Bavarian writer of that time, the concepts of "Bavarian" and "German" were identical, and the "Saxon", that is, a resident of Northern Germany, was the same foreigner as a Frenchman or a Czech.

All-German unity was also weakened by the fact that already in the middle of the 10th century. The Teutonic state turned into the Roman Empire, for the German kings captured all of Northern and Central Italy, together with Rome (and later also Southern). And although this state became from the XII century. be called the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation", but there was very little national German in it. Feudal fragmentation grew in the country, the emperors pursued an aggressive policy alien to the interests of the people, fought with the popes, participated in predatory crusades. Engels wrote on this occasion that "Roman imperial title and the claims to world domination connected with it" led to the fact that "the constitution of a national state" became impossible, and in the aggressive Italian campaigns "all-German national interests were treacherously violated all the time" 1 .

A linguistic community existed within narrow areas: there were Alemannic, Bavarian, South Frankish, East Frankish, Rhine-Frankish, Middle Frankish, Thuringian, Low Saxon, Low Frankish and Frisian dialects. Poets used most often High German dialects, but tried to avoid the harsh features of local dialects. Even the poets of Northern Germany wrote their works in the High German dialect, and only a few of them in the Low German dialects.

In the XII-XIII centuries. the actual German lands in the empire were Upper Lorraine, Alsace, Swabia, Bavaria, Franconia, Thuringia, Saxony (coinciding with the present Lower Saxony, between the lower reaches of the Elbe and the Rhine), Friesland; they were duchies that were broken up into smaller fiefs.

In these centuries there was a significant expansion of the German ethnic territory to the East. The Bavarian and Saxon dukes, relying on the forces of the empire, began to advance on the lands of the Polabian and Pomeranian Slavs. Despite the fierce resistance of the latter, this "Drang nach Osten" continued steadily; at the same time, the German feudal lords skillfully used tribal strife among the Slavs, setting one tribe against another. On the lands taken from the Slavs, "marks" were created, headed by the margraves (Meissen mark, later the electorate of Saxony; Northern and Average brand, subsequently Brandenburg; Eastern, or Lusatian, mark on the land of the Lusatian Serbs, etc.). The princes resettled their subjects there - the peasants of the German lands. This German colonization of the former Slavic regions led to the mixing of the German population itself: mixed dialects and a mixed culture developed in the eastern lands. Entire groups of Germanized Slavs also poured into this East German population, who gradually lost their language, but often retained, to one degree or another, the old customs and features of material culture. In the toponymy of the whole East Germany still very much remains of the languages ​​​​of the former Slavic population (Schwerin - Animal Lake; Wismar - Vyshemir; Rostock - Rostock; Brandenburg - Branibor; in the name of the Spree River the name sounds Slavic tribe sprevyan; Gavel River - Gavolyan tribes, etc.). The formation of the population of East Germany largely contributed to the rallying of the German people, since there, in these eastern lands, a mixed, all-German culture took shape.

This unity was facilitated by the economic upsurge of the 13th-15th centuries. The productivity of agriculture increased, crafts and trade developed in the growing cities, and ore wealth began to be developed. South German cities established trade relations with Italy, and North German coastal cities united in the Hanseatic League (Hanse), freed from feudal dependence. The city merchants supported the kings who fought against feudal strife. Union of North German cities was in the XIV-XV centuries. like the germ of a common German national unification; the dialect of one of the largest Hanseatic cities - Lübeck - became during this period the common language of the cities of Northern Germany. However, the Hanseatic cities had trading and economic ties with the cities of Flanders, England, Scandinavia, Russia, but not with Southern Germany, which, in turn, gravitated more towards Italy than towards Northern Germany. The Hanseatic cities were not destined to become the core of a national unification. The decline of Hanseatic trade with early XVI in. (in connection with the opening of ocean trade routes) brought to naught the planned unification.

The economic rise of Germany in the XV century. and the expansion of its links with Northern Italy and other countries of high culture caused the growth of culture in Germany itself. In many German cities from the end of the XIV and during the XV century. Universities were created: in Heidelberg, Cologne, Erfurt, Leipzig, Rostock, Freiburg, Greifswald, and others. Among other things, this was reflected in the cultural emancipation of Germany from France and Italy; some role was played by the coming in the XIII century. confusion in the Catholic Church and the "great church schism" of 1378-1417, when Germany and France recognized different popes: most of the German lands - Roman, and the French - Avignon.

The cities in which the intelligentsia was formed and grew became centers of the anti-feudal and anti-church movement of humanism, which at that time captured many European countries. The main sphere of the humanists was predominantly literature, and their activities received an all the more widespread response because just at that time, in the middle of the 15th century, book printing was born in Germany.

The most famous satirical works of German humanist writers: "Ship of Fools" by the Alsatian Sebastian Brant (1494), "The Spell of Fools" by Thomas Murner (1512), also an Alsatian, and especially - "Letters dark people"(1515-1517), compiled by a group of humanists led by the famous Franconian Ulrich von Hutten. These works ridiculed medieval prejudices, priestly obscurantism and pseudo-scholarship. The scientific merits of the humanist Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522), a researcher of ancient Greek and Hebrew literature, one of the founders of classical education in Europe, are enormous.

The era of humanism gave birth in Germany to great figures of fine arts, such as Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Lucas Cranach (1472-1553), Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543).

But humanists, writers and scientists, although opposed to medieval inertia and clerical obscurantism, did not contribute to the national unity of the Germans. They were cosmopolitan, wrote, as a rule, Latin and had little interest in the culture of their people. However, there were also folk poets at that time, folk literary works appeared; the most famous of them is the satirical song about the Sly Fox - "Reinaerl" (a translation into Low German of a Dutch composition that appeared at the end of the 15th century and became widely popular). In this work, the feudal nobility and the Catholic clergy were ridiculed (Goethe subsequently processed this poem: "Reinecke foxes"). The work of the largest poet-meistersinger and composer of that time, Hans Sachs (1494-1576) from Nuremberg, was also popular.

Early 16th century was marked in the history of Germany by major events that were the result of economic development previous period. The estates of feudal society disintegrated, sharp class contradictions were more and more exposed. Bright characteristic The motley class structure of the German population of that time was given by Engels in The Peasant War in Germany. The feudal estate stratified into a powerful princely elite and an impoverished, dissatisfied chivalry (the middle nobility almost disappeared). The same thing happened with the clergy: its aristocracy was no different from the secular feudal lords, and the lower clergy, deprived of privileges, drew closer in their interests to the urban and rural poor. The patriciate ruled in the cities, the majority of the population were middle burghers and the poor: apprentices, day laborers and the lumpen proletariat. Below all on the estate ladder stood the peasantry, the most crushed and oppressed class. Therefore, it was also the most revolutionary class of that time, but due to its disunity, it could not unite into a real revolutionary force.

General dissatisfaction with feudal and church exactions, despotism of princes and bishops, anarchy and lawlessness, which engulfed almost all segments of the population, resulted in 1517-1525. into a broad movement of the Reformation and into a powerful peasant war. The movement began with a speech against the Catholic Church. This is understandable, because it was the church that sanctified and legitimized at that time all types of class oppression. The church pursued attempts at social protest along with church heresy, since criticism of the secular order, according to Catholic teaching, was a criticism of the divine order. Freethinkers were condemned and burned at the stake as heretics. The opposition clothed its social and political demands in the form of a protest against the orthodox interpretation of the texts of the Bible, the Gospel, etc., against Catholic rituals, priests and monks. Engels could rightfully call the Lutheran chant "Eine fesle Burg ist unser Gott" ("Unshakable Stronghold Our God") the "Marseillaise" of the 16th century.

But the reform movement, which began in 1517 and was led by the Augustinian monk Martin Luther, very soon outgrew the church reform. It stirred up all classes and estates. In the words of Engels, “the lightning that Luther threw hit the target. The whole German people was on the move." However, this movement was not uniform. It immediately broke up into two streams: a moderate burgher-noble, and a revolutionary - peasant-plebeian. Peasant War 1524-1525 assumed the widest scope, spreading almost throughout Germany, from Swabia to Saxony. But it ended in a brutal defeat for the peasants, since during the period of feudalism they could not unite due to their social and economic position. They could not win over other opposition classes, including the townspeople. Efforts of the best people's leaders, such as Thomas Müntzer, were unsuccessful. Of the other classes of the population of Germany, only the lower nobility ((chivalry), "at that time the most national estate", according to Engels 2, tried to achieve the unification of the country, breaking the separatism of the big feudal lords (the movement of Franz von Sickingen). But this movement was crushed. After the defeat of both the peasantry and the chivalry, the feudal fragmentation of Germany intensified even more.

But the Reformation had one, although indirect, but important and positive consequence for the national reunification of Germany. Luther, speaking out against Roman papism, for the creation of a national German church, translated the Bible into German and introduced worship in his native language. This translation of the Bible was very successful from a linguistic point of view. Luther based it on the dialect that had developed by that time in the electorate of Saxony (the former Meissen brand) - in Leipzig, Dresden, Meissen - and was used in the prince's office. This mixed dialect was more or less intelligible to the inhabitants of different parts of Germany. Luther himself wrote about it this way: “I do not have my own special German language, I use the common German language so that southerners and northerners can equally understand me. I speak the language of the Saxon chancellery, which is followed by all the princes and kings of Germany ... Therefore, this is the most common German language. But Luther enriched the “language of the Saxon office” with folk speech. He did it deliberately. “One should not ask the letters of the Latin language,” wrote Luther, “how to speak German. You should ask about the mother in the house, the children on the street, common man in the market and look into their mouths as they speak and translate accordingly, then they will understand and notice that they are being spoken to in German. Indeed, even those who did not accept his church reform, the Catholics, began to use the language of Luther's Bible. This enormous national merit of Martin Luther was noted by Engels: "Luther cleaned out the Augean stables not only of the church, but also of the German language, created modern German prose" 3 .

However, the Reformation itself not only did not accelerate, but for a long time delayed the national unification of Germany. In addition to the former feudal fragmentation, Germany now split into two more hostile religious camps - evangelical Protestants and Catholics. The discord between them took the form of real wars, in which the class, civil struggle was intertwined with the religious one: the wars of 1521-1555, the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). These exhausting bloody wars undermined the economic well-being of Germany, ruined its population, devastated the cities, and even more so the villages. The feudal fragmentation of the country was consolidated and deepened, the princes and the nobility were strengthened at the expense of the cities and the peasantry. Among the German states, economically backward, but aggressive, predatory Prussia (the former Brandenburg, which seized Prussian lands in the 17th century) advanced in the east Teutonic Order, and in the XVIII century - Polish Silesia). In Prussia, a rude barracks-soldafone spirit dominated, which was in the interests of the ruling class of large landowners, the junkers. The Prussian stick-serf order instilled horror even in those years. According to F. Mehring, a well-known Marxist historian, “The Prussian state grew up thanks to constant betrayals in relation to the emperor and the empire, and it grew no less thanks to ripping off and ripping off its working classes ... This state had no opportunity to to reform itself - about the same, so that it could pave the way for national reform Germany - and there is nothing to say. First it was necessary to tear him to shreds - only then could the German nation, freed from this painful nightmare, breathe.

While Prussia was getting stronger, multinational Austria, the former core of the medieval German Empire, gradually weakened, despite its territorial growth, and lost its influence on the German states.

The very situation of political fragmentation, economic stagnation, and cultural decline did not favor the national development of the German people. The policy of the rulers of the small German states consisted of petty intrigues, dynastic squabbles and was anti-national. The cultural forces of the country were put at the service of princes, dukes, kings, at whose courts there were poets, musicians, and artists.

In the next century, the trade ties of the German states with England and France, which had already embarked on the path of capitalist development, and with other countries, strengthened, and the economic and then cultural upsurge of the German lands began, which created the conditions for national unification. The Rhineland, Saxony, Silesia and some other lands became centers of industrial development. Trade relations between the regions of the country resumed and grew. perked up cultural life. The influence of the emancipatory ideas of French Enlightenment philosophy began to be felt. Many German kings and princes during this period of "enlightened absolutism", flaunting their education, patronized writers and philosophers; Especially known as representatives of this policy of "enlightened absolutism" are the Prussian King Frederick II, the Saxon Electors Augusts I, II and III, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar Karl-August.

But, of course, not the patronage of crowned art lovers, but the growth of enlightening ideas in the countries of Europe, associated with the rise of the young bourgeois class, who opposed the medieval order, was the soil on which began to develop in the XVIII century, especially in its second half, a new German culture, which subsequently made a huge contribution to the world treasury of culture. In music that developed from church hymns, this upsurge was revealed earlier - as far back as the 17th century, when church chorales, organ fugues, masses, etc. began to be created; under church guardianship, music was freed (although it retained a largely religious shell) and reached an unattainable height in the work of the great Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), as well as Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759), however, most of his life lived and created in England.

By the 18th century includes the creation of large architectural monuments in many German cities, especially in the capitals of states. Each king, duke, prince, trying to keep up with the others, decorated his residence with buildings in the baroque style, later - rococo and classicism.

The exponents of the idealistic worldview were such philosophers as Leibniz (1646-1716), Wolf (1679-1754) and the creator of critical philosophy, the author of the Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). ).

The most direct expression of the growing social and national thought was artistic and journalistic literature, which entered its heyday in the second half of the 18th century. Its largest representatives entered the history of world literature: Klopstock (1724-1803) with his religious poem "Messiad"; Lessing (1729-1781) with his highly humane dramas and pamphlets (“Hamburg Dramaturgy”, “Emilia Galotti”, “Nathan the Wise”, etc.); Herder (1744-1803) - author of Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind (1784-1791) - a book imbued with the thought of the power of the human mind and the need for enlightenment. In the works of Herder "Flying sheets on German character and art", " Folk songs” and others, the author showed a deep interest in nationality, folk art, in the national spirit, moreover, without any national arrogance, chauvinistic exaltation of his nationality. On the contrary, Herder ardently defended the idea of ​​the equivalence of the culture of all peoples. He, in particular, had a deep sympathy for the Slavic peoples. The pinnacle of the literary development of Germany at that time, called the period of "storm and onslaught", is the work of two of the greatest poets - Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) and Johann Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805). They enriched world literature with brilliant examples of drama, poetry and prose (The Sufferings of Young Werther, Egmont, Torquato Tasso, the famous Faust and many other works by Goethe; Robbers, Cunning and Love, Don- Carlos”, “Wallenstein”, “Mary Stuart”, “Maid of Orleans”, “William Tell”, etc. - Schiller).

The Great French Revolution awakened the national consciousness of the peoples of Europe; It made the Germans even more acutely feel the pain of national fragmentation, which was especially felt during the years of the Napoleonic wars, when some German states became allies of Napoleon, others tried to fight him, but alone, and due to their backwardness (Prussia) failed. One of the exponents of the awakened national self-consciousness of the Germans was the idealist philosopher Fichte (1762-1814) - a supporter of the French Revolution, who in his treatise "The Closed Trading State" (1800) and in the famous "Speech to the German Nation" (1807- 1808) called for national unification, for the subordination of personal interests to the interests of the state. For Prussia, where Fichte lived, 1806-1812 was a time of humiliation, (enslavement, foreign occupation. Fichte called on the German people to find inner strength for rebirth: “The basic principle of the old upbringing was individualism. Its fruits were revealed in our loss of political independence and even in the disappearance of the very name of Germany. If we do not want to disappear completely, if we want to become a nation again, then we must create a completely new social mood, we must educate our youth in the spirit of unchanging and unconditional devotion to the state. to the people of Germany other figures in those years of disaster.The theologian and philosopher Schleiermacher wrote: "Germany still exists; her spiritual strength has not diminished and, in order to fulfill her mission, she will rise with unexpected power worthy of her ancient heroes and her innate strength» 2 . In these pathetic appeals, there was already a note of arrogant chauvinism, which later bore poisonous fruits in great-power pan-Germanism and Nazism. The crazy chauvinistic idea of ​​the superiority of the German nation was brought to absurdity by the great thinker Hegel (1770-1831), who combined the revolutionary dialectical method with an extremely reactionary philosophy. In his "Philosophy of Law" (1821), he argued that the Prussian estate monarchy is the completion of the self-development of the world spirit.

The War of 1813 liberated Germany from French rule, but national unity was not achieved. According to Franz Mehring, “instead of a free and independent Germany, they received German Union- a true mockery of German unity. Germany - it was still only a general designation for 30 large and small despotisms. The Diet in Frankfurt am Main, to which sovereigns sent their representatives and which silenced German nation, performed only one task: he was an executioner in relation to the people ... "3 .

The economic prerequisites for the national unification of Germany took shape in the first half of the 19th century. Industry grew and the working class grew. Trade also developed, but it experienced extreme constraints due to the many customs borders that shredded all of Germany. The abolition of these borders and the formation of the German Customs Union (1834), which was the first step towards the political unification of Germany, improved the situation, but this was not enough.

Engels in his work "Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany" gave a very clear description of the class forces that had taken shape in that country by the 1840s. The class structure in Germany was more complex than in other European countries. The feudal nobility retained their lands and medieval privileges, and the governments of all German states expressed their will. The bourgeoisie was weak and fragmented. The class of small artisans and merchants made up the vast majority of the urban population, but it was weak, unorganized, economically dependent on its wealthy aristocratic customers and therefore could not oppose them. "The working class of Germany in its social and political development lagged behind the working class of England and France to the same extent as the German bourgeoisie lagged behind the bourgeoisie of these countries." Most of the workers worked as apprentices for small artisans. The peasantry was more numerous than the working class, but it was even weaker organized and itself was divided into class groups: large farmers ( Grofibauern), small free peasants (mainly in the Rhineland, where they were liberated by the French Revolution), serfs and agricultural workers.

Almost all of these classes suffered from the semi-feudal regime that dominated the country and from political fragmentation, but none of them could act as a powerful revolutionary and unifying force.

However, the idea of ​​unification was in the air. The democratic masses, the petty bourgeoisie, and the students advocated the creation of a single democratic German republic. For this purpose, secret societies, student "burshenshafts" were created. The democratic intelligentsia and writers fought for reunification in a democratic way. The ideological leaders of this movement were the radical democratic writers Ludwig Berne and Heinrich Heine. Inspired by their ideas, several young writers (K. Gutskov, L. Vinberg and others) created the Young Germany circle, which operated in 1830-1848.

The young labor movement, led by the League of Communists under the leadership of Marx and Engels, supported these aspirations of the democratic petty bourgeoisie. But the working class was still weak, and the petty bourgeoisie, at the critical moment of the revolution of 1848, showed indecision and allowed the reaction to crush the movement. Frankfurt could become the core of German unification. national assembly 1848-1849, but it showed complete impotence. The deputies made endless speeches and worked out abstract principles for a future all-German constitution, until the reactionary government dispersed it.

In the 19th century, German art and German science made great strides forward. The folk romantic ballads of Ludwig Uhland, the fantastic tales of Ernst Hoffmann, the passionate lyrical and journalistic revolutionary works of Heinrich Heine, the realistic novels of Friedrich Spielhagen - this is an incomplete list of the achievements of German literature of the last century. In the same century, the German people made a major contribution to the world treasury of musical culture, enriching it with the brilliant works of Ludwig Beethoven, the lyrical compositions of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, the romantic creations of Robert Schumann, and the deeply tragic operas of Richard Wagner.

The merits of German science in all fields of knowledge are great - it was in the 19th century that it reached its peak. It is impossible to enumerate all the major German naturalists of this time; just remember the most famous names. Heinrich Ruhmkorf, Justus Liebig, Robert Bunsen, Julius Mayer, Hermann Helmholtz, Gustav Kirchhoff, Wilhelm Roentgen became famous in the field of physics and chemistry. Their contemporary was the greatest geographer and traveler Alexander Humboldt, the founder modern geography, who created the doctrine of the mutual connection of the elements of the earth's surface, inanimate and living nature. Gustav Fechner, Rudolf Virchow, Ernst Haeckel, Robert Koch, Paul Erlich and many other prominent scientists worked in the field of anatomy, physiology, microbiology.

Astronomy, geology, psychology, anthropology, and linguistics also include many brilliant names of German scientists who have enriched these sciences with valuable discoveries.

The most prominent German bourgeois historians of the 19th century were the researchers of antiquity Barthold Niebuhr, Theodor Mommsen, Eduard Meyer, and others; medievalists and historians of modern times - Georg Maurer (who discovered the ancient land community - mark), Friedrich Schlosser, Leopold Ranke, Jacob Burkgardt, Karl Lamprecht and others; economic historians and sociologists Karl Bucher, Werner Sombart, Max Weber. In the field of ethnography in the XIX century. famous collectors of Russian folklore, beliefs, etc. worked. brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Ludwig Uhland, Wilhelm Mannhardt, outstanding researchers in the ethnography of non-European countries, representatives of the evolutionist school Adolf Bastian, Theodor Weitz, Georg Gerland, Oskar Peschel, the founder of the "anthropogeographic" school Friedrich Rath - purpose, etc. It should be noted that many historians and ethnographers (especially of the late period) belonged to reactionary schools, which greatly depreciates their works.

In Germany in mid-nineteenth in. the activities of the greatest thinkers, founders of scientific communism and leaders of the working people of the whole world - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels - unfolded. This contribution of the German people to the social and cultural history of mankind cannot be overestimated.

After the defeat of the revolution of 1848, the petty-bourgeois democratic movement in Germany began to decline, and the democratic solution of the problem of reunification became impossible. It was not possible to unite Germany "from below" - the social forces were too fragmented for this. But the need for reunification was felt by everyone, and it was produced "from above", by uniting the German monarchies. After the Napoleonic Wars, the most powerful of the German states were Austria and Prussia, which began the struggle for hegemony. The Austrian monarchy acted as the heir to the medieval German Empire, but it was a weak state, torn apart by national contradictions; the German element constituted a minority of the population here. Prussia was much stronger. She managed to inflict a military defeat on Austria (1866), push her out of participation in the affairs of the German states and take first place among them. The South German states vacillated between the two rivals, still fearing the Prussian kings, but Prussia, by skillful maneuver, won them over to its side in the war against France (1870-1871), and after the victorious end of this war, the allied sovereigns of the German lands offered the king of Prussia crown of the German Empire. Thus was completed the unification of Germany "with iron and blood", in the words of the main figure in the unification, the "Iron Chancellor" of Prussia, Prince Bismarck.

After the creation of the German Empire, the country began rapid development capitalism - "grunderism". A period of colonial conquests began (since the 1880s), and a firm course was taken on an aggressive-chauvinistic militaristic policy: the creation of military alliances, preparations for a European war.

The national reunification of Germany was carried out by the ruling classes, primarily the Prussian Junkers in alliance with the big bourgeoisie, who established their dictatorship in the newly created state. Gone are the days when the freedom-loving ideas of Herder and Schiller dominated among the German people, when the Germans were called a nation of thinkers and poets. Now chauvinism, Prussianism, pan-Germanism and militarism have become the state and national ideology. The petty bourgeoisie and a considerable part of the peasantry were infected with these ideas. They also infiltrated the labor aristocracy. The advanced German workers rallied into the Social Democratic Party (since 1869). The revolutionary Social Democrats of Germany, led by the followers of Marx and Engels - August Bebel, Wilhelm and Karl Liebknecht and others - fought for the rights of the proletariat, for the genuine national interests of the German people, for peace and fraternal fellowship with the working class of other countries. The German Social Democracy was the strongest party in the Second International. Under the leadership of F. Engels, the Second International did a great deal to spread Marxism and establish ties between workers' parties. After the death of F. Engels (1895), during the period of imperialism, the right wing of the Social Democratic leadership of the Second International, infected with nationalism and opportunism, grew stronger. By the beginning of the First World War, the opportunist leadership of the German Social-Democratic Party openly adopted the position of social-chauvinism, betrayed the interests of the proletariat and supported its imperialist government in the war of conquest it had begun.

In November 1918, a revolution took place in Germany, which led to the collapse of the monarchy. However, the November Revolution was crushed. Germany became bourgeois Weimar Republic. The victorious powers took away from defeated Germany the lands seized by her (Polish in the east, French in the west), and imposed on her the difficult and shameful conditions of the Treaty of Versailles. The country's economy has reached a catastrophic state. All this fueled nationalist sentiments in Germany, which engulfed wide sections of the population. Revanchist circles - the militarists (higher officers and generals) and the big bourgeoisie - skillfully used these sentiments and called to power organized with their support Nazi party. The efforts of the Communist Party (created as far back as 1918 from the left revolutionary wing of the Social Democracy) to counter the threat of Nazism with the cohesion of the working class did not succeed due to the opposition of the right-wing Social Democratic and trade union leaders. With the support of the Social Democrats, the old militarist Field Marshal Hindenburg was elected president of the republic. He used his rights to hand over power to the head of the reactionary-chauvinist and obscurantist party of "National Socialists" Adolf Hitler.

Hitler, having suppressed the resistance of democratic forces with the help of terror, took a sharp course towards the remilitarization of Germany and began brazen military seizures.

The military adventure into which Nazism involved Germany not only brought innumerable disasters to the peoples of Europe, but also ended in disaster for the German people themselves. The military defeat of Nazi Germany was followed by its occupation by the allied armies. On the Potsdam conference July 17 - August 2, 1945, the rights and tasks of the victorious powers were clearly defined. By decision of the conference, Germany was divided into occupation zones between the USSR, the USA, England and France.

The fate of the eastern and western parts of Germany developed differently. AT West Germany The occupation regime established by the USA, England and France did not eliminate the remnants of fascism, but actually strengthened them. The Potsdam agreements, which provided for the denazification, demilitarization and democratization of the country, were violated. In September 1949, a separatist state, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), was created in West Germany. The Soviet Union, which occupied the eastern regions of Germany with its troops and liberated the country from fascism, provided the German people with the opportunity to freely restore their economy, create democratic forms of social and political life, and develop national culture; The USSR provided the German people with direct material assistance. The occupation regime was gradually softened and in 1949 was canceled.

In response to the aggressive, reactionary policy of the Western powers, the German imperialists and the revanchists concentrated in West Germany, on October 7, 1949, by the will of the German people, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was proclaimed in the Soviet zone of occupation, which began building the foundations of socialism and led a peaceful policy. The GDR became the first state of workers and peasants in the history of Germany, a sovereign and equal member of the socialist camp. On the contrary, in the Federal Republic of Germany in the government, parliament, court and many other state and public organizations ex-Nazis are in charge, Hitler's generals hold top posts in the army, the country is militarized and in the grip of a revenge frenzy, peace advocates and democratic organizations are being persecuted, the Communist Party is banned, and many of its leaders are in prison.

The division of Germany into two states artificially created by the Western powers is having a heavy impact on the fate of the German people. Nevertheless, the Germans are a single people and consider themselves as such; True, one part of him lives in the GDR, the other in the FRG.

The GDR is a people's democratic republic building socialism. Its highest legislative body is the People's Chamber, elected by the population of the country for four years. The People's Chamber elects the State Council and approves the composition of the government. Guide and leading force in the GDR is the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, created in April 1946 by merging the communist and social democratic parties. The rest of the democratic parties of the GDR cooperate closely with the SED.

Administratively, the GDR is divided into 14 regions ( Bezirke). It included the former lands of Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Saxe-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony.

Germany is a bourgeois federal republic. The legislature is the parliament, consisting of two chambers: the Bundestag, elected for four years, and the Bundesrat, which includes representatives of the governments of the states. The head of state is the president, elected at a joint meeting of the Bundestag and representatives of the Landtags for a term of five years. The head of government - the federal chancellor - is elected by the Bundestag. Usually the chancellor is the representative of the party that received the most votes in the election. The ruling party is the Christian Democratic Union, whose leadership is closely connected with the monopolies of the FRG.

Administratively, Germany is divided into ten states. (Lander), having some rights of local self-government (Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, North Rhine - Westphalia, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, the Saar region and two cities administratively equated to the lands - Hamburg and Bremen). The capital of Germany is a small city on the Rhine Bonn (140 thousand inhabitants).

The largest city in Germany and its capital until 1945 - Berlin. By decision of the Potsdam Conference, Berlin was divided into four sectors. In the democratic sector, which has become the capital of the GDR, 1 million 100 thousand people live, in the western sectors - 2 million 200 thousand inhabitants. East Berlin is a major industrial and cultural center the GDR with a developed electrical, engineering and clothing industry; here is the German Academy of Sciences and the German Academy of Arts, numerous theaters and museums, the Humboldt University and other higher educational institutions.

Normal economic life the western part of the city is broken due to its isolation from the hinterland. For propaganda purposes, the ruling circles of the FRG are artificially trying to create a higher standard of living in West Berlin by taxing the population of the FRG "in aid" of the population of West Berlin. With the connivance, and often with the direct patronage of the occupying authorities, West Berlin became the center of subversive activities directed against the GDR, the USSR and other socialist countries of Europe.

Until August 13, 1961, the border inside the city was open. Part of the population, living in West Berlin, worked in East Berlin and vice versa. Speculators took advantage of this position by buying up food, furniture and other goods, which are cheaper in the GDR, in democratic Berlin and transporting them to the western part of the city. At the same time, on the black market in West Berlin, in order to undermine the finances of the GDR, the West German mark was exchanged for the East German mark at an artificially high rate. West Berlin has become a dangerous hotbed of tension in Europe. The world community, led by the USSR and the GDR, as well as progressive sections of the population

West Germany and West Berlin demanded an end to this abnormal situation and the granting of West Berlin the status of a demilitarized free city. Due to the fact that the Western powers were dragging out the solution of the question of settling this problem, the government of the GDR was forced to take measures to curb hostile activity from West Berlin. On August 13, 1961, the sectoral borders in Berlin were closed. This created a calmer and healthier environment in East Berlin. Nevertheless, the ongoing provocations at the borders by the West Berlin authorities convincingly testify to the need for a speedy solution to the West Berlin issue.

German patriots are fighting for the national unification of Germany, but the revanchist-chauvinist policy of the government of the FRG and the US imperialists who support it hinder its implementation.

Russian Germans in Germany: integration and types of ethnic self-identification
(according to the results of a study of Russian Germans in the Nuremberg-Erlangen region)

Savoskul M.S. - specially for Demoscope

The basis for writing the article was the results of a study I conducted in the Nuremberg-Erlangen region in March-July 2002 during a scientific internship at the Institute of Geography of the University of Erlangen as part of the DAAD (German Interacademic Exchange Service) program. This study was not originally included in the program of stay in Germany, but the possibility of direct work in the "field" and personal experience of adapting to life in another country, as well as interest in the peculiarities of the integration of Russian Germans, did their job. The results of the study were tested at a scientific seminar at the Institute of Geography of the University of Erlangen in July 2002, which, in addition to colleagues, was attended by Russian Germans, after the report, an active discussion of the results of the work followed.

Germany today has become one of the most open to emigration countries in Western Europe. According to statistics, in 2000 there were 7.3 million foreigners and about 2 million Russian Germans in the country - immigrants. In the population of the country, the share of foreigners (not counting the settlers, who are called in Germany - Aussiedlers) is 8.9%. In many large German cities, the share of foreigners in the total population reaches 20% or more. In the 1990s, the share of foreigners increased from 13.8% to 17.6% in Nuremberg, where about 490,000 inhabitants live.

The most numerous ethnic groups of migrants are migrants from Turkey (1918 thousand), immigrants from the republics of the former Yugoslavia (929 thousand), Italy (563 thousand), Greece (351 thousand). Almost a third of foreigners have lived in Germany for twenty years or more, the country has accumulated sufficient experience in working with migrants of different ethnic groups. There are ministries dealing with these issues at the state level and at the level of individual states, multicultural councils in administrations big cities, special education programs, etc. For example, in Frankfurt am Main, in 1989, a Department for Multiculturalism was created under the city council. In the Federal Government of Germany, there is a position of Commissioner for Russian Germans who have resettled in Germany. Researchers in Germany have been actively working on the problem of Russian Germans for more than 10 years.

Migration of ethnic Germans to Germany

By the end of the 1990s, ethnic German migrants from Eastern Europe and the former USSR became one of the largest groups of new residents in Germany. They made up the most significant flow of migrants to Germany in the second half of the 20th century (4.13 million). After the end of the organized resettlement of the post-war years, Germans in the countries of the socialist camp were also, and rather even more, limited in their freedom of movement than other citizens. In 1950, 47 thousand immigrated to Germany, and already in 1952 only 5 thousand ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe. In the next 35 years (1953-1987), an average of 37 thousand immigrants came to Germany per year. In the period 1950-1987, 62% of the settlers came from Poland, 15% from Romania and 8% from the USSR, although there were the most ethnic Germans here.

The number of Russian Germans leaving the USSR and the CIS directly depended on the adoption Soviet government decisions regarding the rehabilitation of ethnic Germans and the possibility of their return to their ethnic homeland (Table 1).

Table 1. Departure of Russian Germans from the republics of the former USSR to Germany, people

	population		population

Source: Dietz B., Hilkes R. Russlanddeutsche: Unbekannte im Osten. München, 1992, p. 112; Heimat und Diaspora. Russladdeutsche in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1950-2000. Chronik 50 jahre Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland. S. 14

For example, in 1966, after the adoption in January 1965 of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the abolition of the decree of August 28, 1941 on the deportation of the German people, the number of Russian Germans who left for Germany increased markedly. A new wave of active migration of ethnic Germans from the Soviet Union was caused by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the abolition of restrictions on the choice of residence for certain categories of citizens, adopted in November 1972, and primarily concerned Russian Germans.

With the coming to power of Gorbachev and the adoption of the decree “on entry and exit from the USSR”, an unprecedented wave of emigrants of German nationality from the republics of the former USSR was initiated. The number of migrants increased by 5 times in 1987-1990, reaching a peak in the period 1992-1995, during these four years 825,546 ethnic Germans moved from the republics of the former USSR to Germany for permanent residence.

According to the All-Union Population Census, by 1989 there were more than 2 million Russian Germans in the USSR (Table 2). Almost half of them (47%) lived in Kazakhstan ( northern regions), 41% in Russia (southern regions of Western Siberia and the Volga region). In addition, there were settlements of ethnic Germans in Kyrgyzstan (5% of all ethnic Germans in the USSR), Uzbekistan (2%), Ukraine (1.9%), and Tajikistan (1.6%).

Table 2. The number of Russian Germans in the republics of the USSR, people

Moldova
Kazakhstan
Uzbekistan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Belarus
Azerbaijan

… - missing data

Source: Dietz B., Hilkes P. Russlanddeutsche: Unbekannte im Osten. Munich, 1992. S. 32

Experiencing economic difficulties due to unification, Germany could not afford to accept an ever-increasing mass of immigrants. As a result, compared to the middle of the century, when it was difficult for ethnic Germans to return to Germany due to barriers from the states in which they lived, by the end of the century the situation changed to the opposite - the admission rules were tightened by Germany.

In 1993, an entry restriction was introduced for potential late settlers from Eastern European states. Only those who can prove that their rights in the countries of origin were infringed on the grounds of belonging to the German nationality have the right to resettle in Germany. In this regard, the number of late settlers from Poland and Romania has sharply decreased.

Every year the proportion of German-speaking migrants decreased, the proportion of family members of non-German nationality increased. If at the early stage of resettlement in the early 1990s, 75% of the applicants were Germans who spoke German, and only 25% of their family members did not know elementary knowledge of the German language, then by the end of the decade this ratio was reversed, 75% of the settlers were members of families who do not speak German. Measures were taken to limit the influx of late settlers: admission quotas were introduced (since 1999 - 100 thousand people annually); entry rules have been tightened, primarily related to knowledge of the German language.

In order to equalize the migration load on the federal lands, in 1996 a decree was adopted on the “forced” distribution of late settlers. If the settlers want to receive social benefits, and there are an absolute majority of them in the first years, then they are obliged to live in the territory of the specified land for the first three years of their stay in Germany. This law was suspended in July 2000 .

Currently, only ethnic Germans from the CIS countries and a relatively small number (100-150 thousand) of Polish Germans who already have permission to obtain German citizenship have a migration potential. The intensity of migration of Germans from the countries of the former USSR is unlikely to be high and depends on the German federal policy towards immigrants.

Research objectives

In the sphere of integration of Russian Germans, the leadership of Germany faced a number of difficulties that were not foreseen in advance and still have not found a universal recipe for integrating Russian Germans into German life. In the opinion of many publicists and activists of Russian German compatriots, most of them are left to the mercy of fate and independently solve the problems of adaptation.

At the same time, new solutions to the problem of integration of Russian Germans are constantly being found in Germany. In 2000, the implementation of a state project aimed at the individual integration of migrants began. In eight cities in Germany, the so-called "Integration Treaties" were concluded between the newly arrived Russian Germans and the government, in which both parties commit themselves to fulfill certain points. The settlers undertake to actively integrate into German society, to work on self-education and the study of the German language, and the state to provide the settlers with conditions for a successful entry into the life of Germany, as well as a local resident who would help the Russian Germans go through the initial adaptation. In one of the cities selected for the experiment (Recklinghausen), a reward system has also been introduced, which makes it possible to stimulate initiative people.

A lot of research is being done on the topic of the integration of German settlers in Germany. Only articles and monographs already published in Germany and Russia can be used to write a separate bibliographic study. The bibliography of German editions of 1917-1998 contains more than ten thousand titles, and more than 400 monographs, individual issues of journals and articles are devoted to the integration and adaptation of ethnic Germans in Germany.

One of the objectives of the study was to identify various economic, cultural, political and information formations, from Russian shops to internet sites. These formations below I call internal structures.

The main research questions were the following:

What ideas about self-identification and what internal structures do various groups of Russian Germans form?

What impact do different identifications and different internal structures of Russian Germans have on the process of integration into the host society?

Integration into the host society through internal integration
Pros and Cons of Georg Elvert's Approach

What is integration? How do different researchers define the process of integration, how can one evaluate the success of integration? Integration refers to the entry of migrants into social structure host society, which can mean both a country and a separate region or even a separate locality. In our case, by host society I mean Germany.

Often, integration is considered successful and complete if migrants manage to find housing and work. These two conditions are not the only criteria for a safe and painless entry of migrants into a new social environment. Integration can be considered successful if migrants are able to access all the public resources of the host society and can be recognized by this society as its full participants, when they freely manipulate the basic rules and norms of this society without giving up their own identity.

One of the essential moments in the course of integration is time. In most cases, this process is finally completed in a generation. On the other hand, the duration of residence cannot serve as a guarantee of successful integration, it cannot be said that time automatically resolves integration problems.

In the German sociology of the city, three main concepts of the inclusion of foreigners in the life of large cities succeeded each other during the 20th century:

Figure 1. Concepts for integrating migrants into the host society

Source: Fassman H. Auslander in der Stadt. Demographische Befunde, gesellschaftliche Problembereiche und Politische Strategien. // Berichte zur deutschen Landeskunde. 75 Band. Heft 2/3. Flensburg, 2001. S. 130

The first concept, widespread in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, involved their complete assimilation into the host society. Its essence boils down to the fact that if a foreigner wants to be successful in the host society, he must fully adapt to the life of the majority of citizens. The initial ethnic community influences the course of adaptation of the first generation of migrants, performing information and control functions. Future generations are looking for communities that respond to more their social status than ethnicity.

The concept of rotation of guest workers, which appeared in the social sciences in the 1960s and 70s, was based on the assumption that a significant part of foreigners invited to work in Germany would soon leave the country and new guest workers would come in their place. Therefore, given the short stay of a significant part of foreigners in the country and the lack of further prospects for their life in Germany, one should not take care of their integration into the host society. Such a theoretical attitude in practice contributed to the division of society into internal unrelated groups.

One of the widespread modern concepts of integrating foreigners into the life of the host society implies equal rights migrants with the local population in the labor market and in the housing market. It has been called the structural alignment approach, but retaining cultural autonomy. The difference between migrants and the local population should be minimal. Compliance with this principle is one of the most difficult tasks, since often the rules put forward by the host society conflict with the rules of cultural autonomy to which migrants belong.

I adhere to the following understanding of the criteria for successful integration - this is the possibility of full participation of migrants in the public life of the host society, equal access with members of the host society to the public domain of society, equal opportunity with local residents to achieve a high social status.

Often, in Germany, in political, economic and scientific discussions, as well as in the mass consciousness, the formation by immigrants of their own internal public structures and the development of their own rules of daily everyday behavior, is seen as the formation of a kind of ghetto formations and an obstacle to the success of the integration of immigrants.

The German ethnologist Georg Elwert in 1982, in his doctoral work, proposed the thesis opposite to the above approach. Elvert believes that internal structures, through internal integration (Binnenintegration), can lead to full integration into a new social structure. Internal structures play the role of gateways, passing through which migrants from the cultural traditions and social attitudes of the country of origin come to understand and correctly interpret the "rules" adopted in the host society.

Based on the materials of Russian Germans, this theoretical approach was used in his research by the German geographer Reinhard Henkel. Henkel on the example of two religious communities of Russian Germans in Hesse, shows positive role internal structures in the integration of Russian Germans into German society.

Elvert puts forward three interrelated features of internal structures that make it easier for migrants to enter the host society. These are: strengthening the identity and self-awareness of migrants; transfer of knowledge about everyday skills and abilities needed in the new community; the possibility of creating associations of interest. And immediately puts the framework conditions in case of non-compliance with which the internal structures become an obstacle to integration. First of all: there should be no relations that contradict the laws of the host country; conditions leading to social exclusion should not be created; internal structures must show the ability to transform and be learnable systems.

Elvert argues that over time, the role of internal structures decreases, they turn out to be unclaimed migrants. I believe that even with a successful integration process, certain internal structures can retain an important role for a long time, ensuring certain requests and needs of migrants. First of all, this concerns such types of internal structures as cultural societies, literary associations, theaters, political organizations etc. That is, when it comes to structures that connect migrants with the culture of their exit environment, support and develop those needs that the host society cannot satisfy.

Research methods

In the course of the work, the following methods were used: in-depth interviews, participant observation, field survey, analysis of publications in Russian-language newspapers in Germany.

The semi-structured in-depth interview was chosen as the fundamental method of collecting information. The mass survey was abandoned for several reasons, both technical and fundamental. The first ones include the lack of the necessary material and time resources, the difficulty in finding a large number of respondents, the lack of the necessary statistical data to create a representative sample, and so on. The second one is inconsistency with the objectives of the study, which involved the identification of the mechanisms for the formation of various identities among Russian Germans, which cannot be revealed by the method of mass questioning.

I was guided by the opinion of T. Shanin about the goals of qualitative research and its differences from quantitative methods, which he writes about in one of his works: "... the specificity of qualitative sociology is primarily aimed at identifying repetitive forms of human interactions and their understanding and meaning, from the This does not exclude quantitative methods as such, but excludes studies in which the resulting models of human behavior and relationships are related only to the analytical actions of the researchers themselves, while the student is considered only as driven by forces external to his mental process…"

When interpreting the materials obtained during the field work, the method of double reflection was used, proposed and tested in field research by the Center for Peasant Studies under the leadership of Teodor Shanin. Dual reflexivity refers to the relationship between the three components of a field study: a) what is observed by the researcher; b) the influence of the researcher on the object under study and their mutual influence; c) the subjectivity of the object, which is expressed mainly in how the object of study determines and explains the actions and choices made by him. An important consequence of this triple relation is the assumption that neither the researcher nor the researched person has a monopoly of understanding the communication that takes place between them, and neither of them has the privilege of final knowledge 31 .

The main topics covered in the conversation with all respondents were the following:

• a brief family history of the respondent;
• professional biography of the respondent before moving to Germany;
• reasons for the decision to move to Germany;
• the process of moving to Germany;
• first impressions about Germany, about the Germans, the formation of the image of the country;
• current employment of the respondent and his family members;
• language skills;
• pros and cons of living in Germany;
• the concept of the Motherland and the concept of the respondent's home;
• free time, holidays, anniversaries;
• everyday life (shopping, work, family relationships);
• parenting;
• political activity;
• relations between Russian Germans and Germans in Germany;
• comparison of life before and after moving to Germany;
• the degree of integration into German society, according to the respondent's self-assessment.

All interviews except one were conducted on in Russian, in the form of a free conversation, during which the questionnaire was not shown to the respondents. The interlocutor himself chose the direction of the conversation within the boundaries of the specified topic. Each interview was tape-recorded with the consent of the interlocutor. The duration of the interview varied from one and a half to two and a half hours. A total of 12 in-depth interviews were conducted in Nuremberg and Erlangen. All respondents - ethnic Germans, with the exception of one of the experts (a native of Romania), are immigrants from the former USSR and have been living in Germany for more than three years.

More than three meetings were held with a number of interviewers selected as key informants. As key informants, as well as experts, I considered the leaders of the Nuremberg community of Russian Germans, the chairman of the historical society of Russian Germans, an employee of one of the departments of the administration of Erlangen, a graduate of the Faculty of Slavic Studies of the University of Erlangen, director of the "House of the Motherland" in Nuremberg. A total of six experts and key informants were interviewed.

The interviews were conducted in the interlocutors' apartment or at their workplace, in their “space”, where the interviewer was a guest. It became possible to observe the living conditions of Russian Germans, their daily life, the organization of their personal space. Often, after the words, "This is where we can end our conversation" and turning off the recorder, an invitation to have dinner or lunch followed, and a more open conversation began, which was recorded after the visit.

In addition to scheduled meetings with respondents, for the purposes of the study, unplanned conversations with Russian Germans (in transport, in shops, in museums, in cafes, at a party), their opinion about Germany, about the pros and cons of their new life, were used. During the study, there were about a hundred such meetings.

Participant observation, in addition to the interview, became the next source of information. As a great success in the course of the study, I consider attending the birthday celebration of a relative of my acquaintance from among the Russian Germans. The ability to observe the relationship between different generations Russian Germans and the stories of the guests made an invaluable contribution to further work.

Considerable attention was paid to the study of the infrastructure of Russian Germans and other Russian-speaking residents of Germany that has developed in the cities of Middle Franconia - Nuremberg, Furth, Erlangen. I visited the "House of the Motherland" in Nuremberg, about ten Russian shops, five Russian travel agencies, a Russian disco, trying to identify their role and significance in the life of Russian Germans. Direct participation in situations typical of Russian Germans has become one of the most important conditions for the implementation of the planned research.

An analysis was made of publications on the integration process in the Russian-language newspapers Kontakt and Russian Berlin, popular among Russian Germans. Various Internet sites of Russian Germans and official Internet sites of departments dealing with Russian Germans in Germany were actively used in the work.

An important positive factor when conducting an interview is the possibility of a conversation in Russian. The understanding of the respondents was facilitated for me by my knowledge of Soviet and Russian reality, which allowed me to see what in the interlocutors' behavior patterns and their words is typical for all residents of the post-Soviet space, and what is unique and characteristic to a large extent only of Russian Germans.

On the other hand, the fact that I do not belong to the Russian Germans increased the objectivity of the study, made it possible to look at the situation from the outside, with an uninterested look. The Polish researcher Anna Wroblewska also writes about the advantage of a researcher from a different but close culture in her work on the problems of Russian Germans. Among other advantages, she points out, among other things, that she is a foreigner in Germany, which means that she experiences similar problems in the course of adapting to a new life and can better understand and correctly interpret the problems of the Russian Germans themselves.

Different types of ethnic identification among Russian Germans in Germany

In the region of Nuremberg-Fürth-Erlangen that I study, the following internal structures of Russian Germans can be distinguished:

Naturally, the Russian Germans living in the region are not a homogeneous homogeneous group. They are very diverse and they use different internal structures depending on the type of ethnic identification.

The community of Russian Germans, on the one hand, and Russian shops and Russian discos, on the other, symbolize the opposite poles of integration. Community - this is how integration is seen ideally, and what it should be. And shops and discos, this is how I didn’t want to at all, but how it happened.

After analyzing the interviews, I identified three types of ethnic self-identification of Russian Germans. The dependence of the success of integration on the time of moving to Germany was revealed. Those who moved earlier to Germany are more integrated into German society than later settlers. Ulrike Kleinknecht-Strehle writes about this in his work. The researcher conducted 70 interviews with Russian Germans who moved to Germany in different periods, and claims that these groups differ significantly from each other. Migrants of the third phase of migration (which began after 1989) do not constitute a homogeneous group; they differ from each other in many ways, from the motives for migration, place of residence in the former USSR, education, and ending with the degree of integration into German society.

The diversity of self-perceptions and self-identifications of various groups of Russian Germans can be expressed in the following generalized typification, illustrated by excerpts from interviews :

First group- Russian Germans, who consider themselves only real Germans, "Germanic". These are early settlers belonging to the first wave of return to their historical homeland, who have been living in Germany for more than 30 years. Most of them have a higher education and are fluent in German. Some interlocutors - early settlers expressed a desire to conduct interviews in German, demonstrating their belonging to the German people. They are almost completely integrated into German society, and their children are already completely assimilated (in accordance with the first of the above concepts of integration of foreigners into the host society - Fig. 1). Becoming German citizens for many of them was the main goal in life, for which they used all means:

“All my life I wanted to move to Germany. I always wanted to live here. And now my children are Germans. They don’t speak Russian.” ( Male, 73, 29 years old in Germany. Now retired, before that he worked as an engineer at Siemens enterprises. Member of the Historical Society of Russian Germans. )

Russian Germans, whom I refer to this group, have practically no problems with self-identification. They consider themselves Germans and actively demonstrate this:

“Germany is my motherland, my home. I feel like a German. Russia is only the place where I was born.” ( He is. )

But, despite the attitude "how Germans live among Germans," representatives of this group in their behavioral models demonstrate features of the Russian/Soviet mentality.

Many of them are members and leaders of Russian German compatriots, the historical society of Russian Germans, constituting the intellectual elite of Russian Germans in Germany. In the course of the interviews, many late settlers, and even early settlers themselves, in own self-assessments noted that the latter live quite isolated from those of their compatriots who have moved to Germany over the past decade. Often they even get up in clear opposition to the late settlers, believing that they create an image of a Russian German that is unfavorable for the early settlers who have already taken a strong position in Germany. Their position is expressed in the following words:

“If we want to live in Germany, we want Germany to be our home, then we should not bring typical Russian features into German life, we should give them up. And what happens? In my area, where I live in Nuremberg, there are already three Russian stores , announcements at stops in Russian hang. So they (late settlers - M.S.) will never live in Germany, will not become full-fledged citizens of Germany. " ( Woman, 53, 29 years old in Germany. The head of a construction company, an active participant in the work of the Russian Germans' community and "House of the Motherland").

Due to the high degree of integration into German society, in their daily lives they are completely surrounded by the social ties of the "German world", they are residents of the "German world".

Among all the internal structures of Russian Germans, representatives of this group actively (perhaps more actively than representatives of other groups) create themselves and participate in the life of those internal structures that allow them to realize, first of all, their spiritual and intellectual needs, which Germany cannot help them realize. (Table 3). This, as mentioned above, is work in the Associations of Russian Germans, in the historical society of Russian Germans, holding traditional meetings of fellow countrymen, various conferences, debates.

Table 3. Intensity of use of internal structures various groups Russian Germans, depending on the type of ethnic identification

Internal structures of Russian Germans	Early settlers who considered themselves Germans	late settlers,
		Considering themselves Russian Germans	Those experiencing an ethnic identity crisis
community
"House of the Motherland"
Historical Society of Russian Germans
Theater of Russian Germans
Literary Society of Russian Germans
Russian-language newspapers published in Germany
Internet sites of Russian Germans
Russian shops
Russians travel agencies
Russian discos, bars, restaurants

The intensity of the use of internal structures was assessed qualitatively based on interviews with Russian Germans and own observations

X - low intensity of use of internal structures, when they are not part of everyday practices, but are rather random;
XX - the average intensity of the use of internal structures, these internal structures are used quite often, are not yet part of everyday life, are not regular;
XXX - high intensity of use of internal structures, when they are part of everyday life, are of a regular nature.

In addition, they are quite active readers, and sometimes authors of Russian-language newspapers in Germany, to a lesser extent (often due to age) participate in the work of the theater of Russian Germans, the literary society of Russian Germans. And to a minimal extent they use Russian shops, Russian travel agencies and Internet sites.

Second group- late settlers who consider themselves Russian Germans, people belonging to two cultures at the same time. Among this group there are many people with higher education. Usually these are young and middle-aged residents of large cities, who in the former USSR did not live in the mono-ethnic environment of Russian Germans. Most of them immediately after moving to Germany try to improve or learn the German language, to find a decent job. In most cases, they find "their place" in Germany, and are satisfied with their lives.

A significant proportion of Russian Germans, whom I include in this group, do not cut off their ties with Russia or other places from which they have moved. But they are not limited only to the family circles of Russian Germans, but are tuned in to an active entry into the life of Germany. They have a lot of contacts with the Germans of the FRG - work colleagues, neighbors, friends. They are citizens of two worlds - "German" and "Russian".

At the very beginning of their "German" life, they experienced problems with self-identification. It was difficult for them to understand why they are perceived as “Russians” in Germany, because they returned to their historical homeland, have German roots. As a way out of the situation for many Russian Germans, one can cite the words of a young man who came to Germany at the age of twenty and has already lived in the country for more than nine years.

“Naturally, I expected some difficulties. But I didn’t think that we wouldn’t be perceived as our own here. I realized that, of course, we would differ from the local population both in mentality and in other qualities. But I didn’t think that we would be them be perceived, purely Russian, by an alien alien population. This bothered me for some time, and then I just put up with it and don’t pay attention to it. It exists, but it doesn’t bother me anymore. I consider myself a Russian German. " ( Male, 29 years old, 9 years old in Germany, studies at the Faculty of Slavic Studies at the university, works in the university library )

Many representatives of this group are characterized by the following position:

"It's a great luck for me and my children that we belong to two cultures at once. I don't want to forget the good things that Russia gave me and what I got thanks to Russian culture. I constantly talk about this with my I tell the children. I consciously show them that they should use their position as an advantage. Although it is often because of this that both I and they are faced with a misunderstanding of the others "( Woman, 37 years old, 7 years in Germany, graduated from the Faculty of Slavic Studies, works in the University Library, member of the Historical Society of Russian Germans ).

The integration of this group of late migrants proceeds according to the principle of the third model of integration of migrants into the life of the host society considered above, according to the principle of cultural diversity (Fig. 1).

In accordance with their own ethnic identity, representatives of this group actively use almost all the internal structures of Russian Germans. For them, among all groups of Russian Germans, the most wide range appeals to internal structures- from compatriots to Russian bars and discos (Table 3).

With this variant of self-identification, the role of internal structures may not weaken over time. Respondents from this group often noted that internal structures help them to feel like they belong to two cultures, not to give up their habits and social norms that they are used to in Russia. The use of internal structures in such a situation can be perceived (and often is perceived) as a reasonable compromise in choosing a life path.

As an example of the life strategy of representatives of this group of Russian Germans, I will give a point of view from a private conversation not recorded on a dictaphone. One of my interlocutors, comparing life in Germany and in Russia, noted that it is easier for her to live in Germany, because there in any life situation it has its own rules and norms of behavior, while in Russia it is frightened by unpredictability and uncertainty about the future. On the other hand, the feeling that the Germans are doing everything planned (study, work, go on dates, relax) really bothers her. She does not get joy from visiting German discos or bars, so she was happy to discover that there is a Russian disco in Fürth.

Third group- late migrants experiencing a crisis of ethnic identification, they do not consider themselves Russians in full, but they cannot feel themselves Germans either. Most of them did not integrate into the host society, did not adapt, creating closed structures, as shown in the concept of a fragmented, divided society (Fig. 1).

In the vast majority, a significant part of the representatives of this group come from rural areas, although there are urban residents among them, they do not have a higher education. Most of the respondents belonging to this group noted that their expectations regarding Germany were not justified in many respects due to the fact that they are perceived here not as Germans, but as Russians. In the Soviet Union, they were always “fascists” and “Germans”, but here they became “Russians”.

"We are not Germans for local Germans, we are Russians here. I have been living in Germany for three years now and hardly speak German." ( Male, 54, 3 years in Germany, works as a temporary worker ).

Their attitude towards their ethnicity can be formulated as follows:

"I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't know who I am. Germany is not my homeland, I don't feel at home here. I don't feel very complete here." ( Female, 24 years old, 10 years old in Germany, works in a temporary job, in a car service warehouse )

This is the largest and most problematic group of migrants. It is this group that concerns the vast majority of publications devoted to the integration and adaptation of Russian Germans in Germany. It includes representatives of different age groups, ranging from pensioners who moved to Germany for the sake of the future of their children (almost all pensioners talk about this), and ending with teenagers who, knowing German, still cannot feel like full-fledged citizens of Germany, because of the difference in behavior patterns, life goals and values ​​compared to German youth.

Often, representatives of the older and middle generations of this group do not speak German at a level sufficient to get a good job, and practically do not have the opportunity to improve the German language. Many of them, after moving to Germany, have greatly lowered their social status, and no longer hope to restore it. For many, there is no professional future in Germany.

“They say that we had stagnation in the Union, but here in my life stagnation began. There I worked as an engineer at a large plant - life was in full swing. satisfied" ( Male, 60, aged 7 in Germany, works as a caretaker at a museum ).

This group of Russian Germans actively uses such internal structures as Russian shops, Russian discos, German Russian-language newspapers, and Russian-language Internet sites (Table 3). For this category of Russian Germans, internal structures, if they do not go beyond their borders for a long time, begin to play a negative role, making it difficult to integrate into German society and causing mutual misunderstanding on both sides. As a result, the social isolation of the Russian Germans, who are closed only to their internal structures, occurs, and the closeness of the host society to the migrants increases. That is, many of them, living in Germany, still remain residents of the USSR. One of the German journalists called this social world of Russian Germans in Germany "Germanistan".

Causes and mechanisms of difficulties in the integration of Russian Germans

In the final part, I will dwell in more detail on the reasons that impede the integration of Russian Germans in Germany (primarily representatives of the third group, based on the above typology (Table 3)). As noted above, one of the main difficulties is the crisis of ethnic self-identification of Russian Germans. This is what sets them apart from other migrants in Germany. Compared with the latter, they are "not foreigners" here, they are "Germans", but in most cases perceived by German society as Russians. This is where the crisis of ethnic identity arises for the majority of migrants. They leave the former USSR as Germans, and come to Germany as "Russians".

All other foreign migrants in Germany have their homeland, their country (Turkey, Italy, etc.) in the “rear”, they do not need to fundamentally correct and strengthen their own ethnic identity. Russian Germans find themselves between two worlds, and at the same time do not fully identify themselves with either of them. Their identity is determined by the particle “not”. They were “non-Russians” in Russia, and now they are “non-Germans” in Germany.

Russian Germans, on the one hand, were a national minority in the USSR, and on the other hand, most of them grew up and formed in the USSR, adopting attitudes and forms of behavior that were different from Germany. This has a strong impact on their self-identity. Many of them use the self-name "Russians", which has already become common for a considerable number of Russian Germans.

As an example of the existing contradiction, I will cite a number of statements from the interviews:

“All my life I wore a stamp on my forehead -“ German ”, and dragged it on myself all my life in the Union.” ( Male, 71, 4 years in Germany, unemployed ) 46

“When I was still a girl, my grandmother often repeated to me “My legs, otherwise you will be like Russian girls.” On the street, I often heard from adults: “Just look, what a neat girl, she must be German. And I tried somehow not be so neatly combed that they don’t point fingers at me, otherwise you feel different from everyone else ”( Woman, 59 years old, 8 years old in Germany, works in the administration of Erlangen ).

Most of the interviewers consider the fact that they are in no way considered Germans in Germany, but only Russians, as an unexpected and so far hardly surmountable difficulty that they encountered after moving to Germany. Here is how they themselves voiced the current problem:

“I arrived at the age of 14, it was very difficult, I didn’t have any girlfriends, I didn’t know German at all. At school, it was wild, in Russia, everyone called me “fascist”, but here I became a “little girl”. Nobody talked to me. The school was not prepared for the fact that someone would come who did not know German. Nothing was done there for me to learn German. I just sat drawing in the lessons "( Female, 24 years old, 10 years old in Germany, works in a temporary job, in a car service warehouse ).

"How do Russian Germans differ from local Germans? Everyone. It's better to ask what is the similarity? The similarity is only a German surname, belonging to a German nation, to a historical one, but in fact we are not considered Germans" ( Woman, 59 years old, 8 years old in Germany, works in the administration of Erlangen ).

A significant role in self-determination and in the formation of self-identification of Russian Germans is played by the attitude of the host society towards them. It is important for them who the Germans themselves consider them to be, depending on this they constantly adjust their self-identification.

A similar point of view on the reasons that impede the integration of Russian Germans is shared by many German researchers. They believe that the difficulty of self-identification is the most significant barrier to integration into German society. And only by overcoming this barrier, making it a bridge, Russian Germans will be able to successfully integrate into German society.

Other equally important problems are closely related to this problem; they mutually determine each other, forming a closed chain. They can be arranged in the following order: difficulties with knowledge of the German language - problems in finding a job - limited contacts with Germans - different attitudes and values ​​compared to Germans - the formation of a negative image of a German.

In the interviews, the respondents pointed to the misunderstanding of their life positions by the local Germans. What is important and significant for Russian Germans is most often not identified in any way as such, or is often identified with opposite sign by the Germans themselves, it may even appear to them as a kind of social "ugliness". Here is how one of the respondents spoke about the relationship between Russian and local Germans:

"There is a glass partition between the Russian Germans and the Germans, we do not mix like oil and water!" ().

Russian Germans arriving in Germany find themselves between two "social mirrors" - their own, familiar, on the one hand, and German, on the other. For Russian Germans, it looks "prestigious" to be a person who can give a bribe in time and cleverly, buy a car while receiving social assistance, who saves on food, but builds a house, who does not trust loans, etc. etc. That is, something that brings us closer to the "ideals" of life in Soviet and post-Soviet society. All these qualities, for a "typical", let me say, German citizen look "absolutely unacceptable". Thus, Russian Germans are faced with the need to choose one or another model of behavior, since they cannot look beautiful in both mirrors at the same time.

Here is how the interviewers themselves described such situations:

"What kind life values from the settlers? First of all, you need to buy a Mercedes. Even if he has been working in social work for a year, and he knows that he will be unemployed, this does not concern him. After all, he will be with the car later" ( Woman, 59 years old, 8 years old in Germany, works in the administration of Erlangen ).

“The local Germans see that the “Russians” have just arrived, and have already built a house. They are surprised. : "This one says they built a house, they keep themselves like that, everyone has a Mercedes. Germans, here she is - the boss - but she doesn’t turn up her nose "( She is ).

Seeing their "familiar, beautiful" social reflection as "ugly" in the eyes of local Germans, some of the Russian Germans are trying to find explanations for such a different perception of the world by different people. But, naturally, many do not seek to leave the world of this looking glass, in which they feel more comfortable, both psychologically and social sense. Otherwise, they must fully comply with the norms of German society, breaking away from the community of Russian Germans.

As psychological compensation, a negative image of a "typical German" is formed, with the help of which Russian Germans explain to themselves the "impossibility of integration" into German society. Moreover, often this image is formed by people who have a minimum number of contacts with local Germans. A “typical German” is a stingy, unfriendly, lazy, closed person who does not know how to raise children and has poor relations with relatives.

Here are a few examples from the interview:

"The Germans differ from us in that they are very unfriendly, very, very. Stingy Germans. Purely Germans are very stingy, greedy" ( Female, 24, 10 years old in Germany, works in a temporary job in a car service warehouse ).

"Local Germans do not go for close communication. At best, they contact when they live in the neighborhood. They do not allow others into their world, as we are used to. This is the Russian mentality - to invite guests immediately. They will talk nicely when they meet, on the streets , in transport, but they won’t call you to your home. Allow yourself to be allowed - this is not "( Woman, 59 years old, 8 years old in Germany, works in the administration of Erlangen ).

For representatives of this group of Russian Germans, the path to full integration will be long and difficult. In my opinion, their full integration is possible only after several generations, already for the children and grandchildren of migrants who moved to Germany in the 1990s.

findings

In the course of my research, I traced the relationship between the appeal of Russian Germans who moved to Germany to certain internal structures, the types of their ethnic self-identification and the degree of integration into the life of German society. Depending on the type of self-identification of Russian Germans, the role of internal structures in ensuring the process of integration of Russian Germans into the life of the host society changes.

For those groups of Russian Germans who have a fairly stable ethnic self-identification (those who consider themselves "German" Germans and those who consider themselves Russian Germans), internal structures play the role of reasonable compromises and implementers of certain spiritual needs. The duration of their positive impact on Russian Germans is determined not by weeks and months, but by years and decades. In the absence of a crisis of ethnic identity, other internal structures also play a positive role, no longer in the course of integrating Russian Germans into German society, but in maintaining the stability of their lives.

For other groups of Russian Germans who are experiencing a crisis of ethnic identity, the role of internal structures is somewhat different. On the one hand, they make it easier for newcomers to recognize the country, acquaint them with elementary norms of life and rules of conduct in a new living environment. On the other hand, under certain conditions, the entry of late settlers into the life of German society is hindered. They do not weaken, but only intensify the crisis of self-identity, causing difficulties in the process of integration into German society. The duration of the positive influence of internal structures can vary from several weeks to several months. Their negative impact can drag on for years. To prevent this from happening, a competent policy of accepting late settlers and a program for their integration in the new conditions should be carried out, based, among other things, on the above facts and reasons that make it difficult for Russian Germans to adapt in Germany.

Trostanovsky Zh. Foreigners in Germany: historical paradox or socio-economic reality. // Sociology: theory, marketing methods. Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. 2002, No. 3. pp. 173-185.
Fassman H. Auslander in der Stadt. Demographische Befunde, gesellschaftliche Problembereiche und Politische Strategien. // Berichte zur deutschen Landeskunde. 75 Band. Heft 2/3. Flensburg, 2001, pp. 124-136.
Ingenhorst H. Die Russlanddeutschen. Aussiedler zwischen Tradition and Moderne. Frankfurt/Main, 1997, pp. 108-109.
Kostinsky G. Immigrants in the city: the experience of developed countries. // Migration and urbanization in the CIS and the Baltics in the 90s. Under. edited by Zh.A. Zayonchkovskaya. M., 1999. S. 33-44.
Felten N.N. Migration of the population of Germany: spatio-temporal analysis. St. Petersburg, 2002. Abstract of the dissertation for the degree of candidate geographical sciences.
News of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. No. 52. 01/05/1965.
Fassman H. Auslaender in der Stadt. Demographische Befunde, gesellschaftliche Problembereiche und politische Strategien. // Berichte zur deutschen Landeskunde. Die Zukunft der Stadt - Visionen der Stadtentwicklung. Band 75. Heft 2-3. 2001. S. 124-136.
There. S. 131; Park R.E. Die Stadt als raeumliche Struktur und als sittliche Ordnung (leicht gekuerzte Fassung eines Aufsatzes aus 1925). // Atteslander P., Hamm B. (Hrsg.) Materialien zur Siedlungssoziologie. Koln, 1974, pp. 90-100.
There. S. 132; Lichtenberger E. Gastarbeiter - Leben in zwei Gesellschaften. Wien-Koeln, 1984.
There. S. 134; Hoffmann-Nowotny H.-J., Imhof K. Internationale Migration und Soziokultureller Wandel. // Boesler K.-A., Heinritz G., Wiessner R. (Hrsg.) Europa zwischen Integration und Regionalismus. Stuttgart, 1998. S. 28-37.
Elwert G. Probleme der Ausländerintegration. Gesellschaftliche Integration durch Binnenintegration? // Kölner Zeitschrift Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 34. 1982. S. 717-733.
Henkel R. Binneintegration als Faktor für Eingliederung Russlanddeutscher Aussiedler in die Bundesrepublik Deutschland - das Beispiel zweier Gemeinden in Rheinhessen. // Mainzer Geographische Studien. H. 40. S. 445-458.
Shanin T. Methodology of double reflexivity in the studies of the modern Russian village. // Reflexive Peasant Studies: A Decade of Research in Rural Russia. Under. ed. Shanina T., Nikulina A., Danilova V. M., 2002. P. 76-77.
There. or S. 81.
See for example: http://www.deutscheausrussland.de; http://www.bundesverwaltungsamt.de http://www.bundesauslaenderbeauftragte.de/publikationen ; http://www.bmi.bund.de ;http://www.aussiedlerbeauftragter.de ;
http://www.aussiedlerbeauftragter.de http://www.hfdr.de
Wroblewska A. Die Integration der Rußlanddeutschen aus Sicht einer Forscherin aus einer Drittkultur. // Wanderer und Wanderinnen zwischen zwei Welten? Zur kulturellen Integration russlanddeutscher Aussiedlerinnen und Aussiedler in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Referate der Tagung des Johannes-Kuenzig-Instituts fuer ostdeutsche Volkskunde. Hrs. Retterath H.-W. Freiburg, 1998. S. 77-93.
In my study, I did not specifically consider the role of religious communities in the life of Russian Germans, but based on the results of the work of fellow ethnologists and geographers, I can rightfully attribute religious communities to the internal structures of Russian Germans. For details on the confessions of Russian Germans in Germany, see: Kurilo O.V. Integration of Russian Germans in Germany (ethno-confessional aspect). // Ethnographic review. 1999. No. 2. pp. 113-126; Henkel R. Binneintegration als Faktor…
Kleinknecht-Straehle U. Deutsche aus der ehemaligen UdSSR: Drei Phasen der Migration and Integration in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland im Vergleich. S. 43-44. // Wanderer und Wanderinnen zwischen zwei Welten? Zur kulturellen Integration russlanddeutscher Aussiedlerinnen und Aussiedler in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Referate der Tagung des Johannes-Kuenzig-Instituts fuer ostdeutsche Volkskunde. Hrs. Retterath H.-W. Freiburg, 1998, pp. 39-60.
Gerlach T. Reise nach Germanistan. // Die Tageszeitung. 22-23.02.2003.
See for example: Dietz W., Hilkes R. Integrated or isoliert? Zur Situation rußlandeutscher Aussiedler in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Munich, 1994, pp. 15-17; Wroblewska A. Die Integration der Rußlanddeutschen aus Sicht einer Forscherin aus einer Drittkultur. S. 87-88. // Wanderer und Wanderinnen zwischen zwei Welten? Zur kulturellen Integration russlanddeutscher Aussiedlerinnen und Aussiedler in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Referate der Tagung des Johannes-Kuenzig-Instituts für ostdeutsche Volkskunde. Hrs. Retterath H.-W. Freiburg, 1998.
AT this case German is understood as Hochdeutsch - the modern state and literary German language, adopted for use in Germany, and not about the dialects of the German language, which are spoken by many pensioners - late settlers.
Under the "social mirror", I mean the reaction of a society to the actions of an individual, in connection with which he corrects his own norms of behavior and forms such life values ​​that are accepted in this society.