Suchergebnisse

The Czech-German borderlands are an archetypal European border region. They evoke not only Cold War histories, but also shelter layers of European memories of the ethnic reshaping of early post-war Europe. By means of life story interviews with German speakers of the border region, this article analyzes the symbolic meaning of and the individual dealing with the local Iron Curtain. It will shed light on the biographical and narrative interconnectedness of experiences of ethnic cleansing in the early post-war period and retrospective perceptions of the Iron Curtain in these borderlands. In particular, it inquires whether and to what extent the local Iron Curtain intensified fractures caused by the region's post-and pre-war attempts to halt the multiethnic composition of the border communities. The article suggests that the local Czech-German Iron Curtain would have never endured as strongly if the border communities' common identity had not already been severely damaged in the course of the region's traumatic history and forced population transfers. Adapted from the source document.

The article investigates the role of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty as a crucial junction of cross-Iron Curtain communication throughout the Cold War. It explores how the radio stations turned into both real as well as imaginary targets of letters, underground literature, and private phone calls from the 'Other Europe'. After outlining the radios' mission in the early 1950s, the article concentrates on the practical as well as the symbolic employability of exiles. This will help further the understanding of the central role of exiles in closing gaps between the radio stations' mission and their actual transmission. By reestablishing means of real cross-border communication, exiles turned into the key players of this 'Cold War of the ether'. Adapted from the source document.