The past, the present, and virtual reality: A comparative assessment of the German

This article seeks to examine contemporary perceptions of Heimat held by the various Landsmannschaften (Homeland Organizations) that claim to represent the interests of ethnic German expellees, refugees and subsequent German migrants from the Czech Republic/Czechoslovakia and Poland. The attitudes and standpoints of these organizations are compared with those of the Deutsch-Baltische Landsmannschaft im Bundesgebiet (German-Baltic Homeland Association in the Federal Area/DBLiB), which performs an analogous role for ethnic Germans whose origins lie in Estonia and Latvia. The early part of the article presents some observations on the origins, role and nature of these organizations. Their activities with regard to the former Heimat are then assessed. The paper demonstrates that the Landsmannschaften show clear and obvious interest in their former countries of residence. Yet their perception of Heimat is of the “virtual” variety. In other words their perceptions correspond to the concrete world, and are not wholly separate from it, but nevertheless, they are guided by nostalgia for what has vanished and can never be restored.