The Potsdam Conference, which was held in the summer of 1945, adopted Resolution XIII titled “About a well-organised relocation of the German population from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary”. The said countries set about fulfilling it.

The German-speaking minority in Hungary are descendants of immigrants from the 11th-17th centuries, primarily from Austrian territories. During the census of 1941, as many as 477,000 residents of Hungary called themselves Germans. The Hungarian population was generally tolerant towards Germans and didn’t seek to expel them, but the Allied Control Commission in Hungary, chaired by Kliment Voroshilov, insisted on the move. When determining which Germans should leave the country, the commission sought to keep top specialists and high-qualified workers in Hungary. On 29 December 1945, the Hungarian government once and for all determined the procedure for the Germans’ relocation.

The process would start from January 1946. It would be fulfilled more systematically and would not encounter failures, which happened when the Germans were expelled from Poland and Czechoslovakia.

By the year 1948, up to 180,000 people would be forced out of Hungary, after which the procedure would be stopped. As per the 1949 census, only 24,445 citizens of the Hungarian People’s Republic would identify themselves as Germans, while the remaining ones would call themselves Hungarians. Later on, the Hungarian government would endorse the return of Germans to the country.

by Ekaterina Chernetskaya