Gateway to freedom and instrument of order: the Friedland transit camp, 1945-1955

This thesis examines the history of the Friedland transit camp for German refugees, expellees from Eastern Europe, and returning prisoners of war from 1945 to 1955. It contends that the camp functioned as a crucial provider of regulated humanitarianism for the over one million individuals processed there and for the surrounding West German society. The facility offered humanitarian assistance, but it also regulated the flow of incoming individuals in order to prevent a deluge from uprooted masses. To accomplish this mission, the camp both relied upon and fostered the reestablishment of civil organizations. Yet, as this thesis also demonstrates, the camp became a space onto which locals, German administrators, and Allied authorities projected fears of the very instability it was meant to solve. The Friedland facility thus stood at the intersection of postwar stability and security concerns and informs the history of postwar German reconstruction