Comparing Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs: Introduction

After 1945 and 1962, Germany and France witnessed immigration movements of unprecedented scale and type. Military defeat and the loss of significant parts of their territory pushed millions of refugees and expellees from Central and Eastern Europe and from North Africa to the two neighboring countries: the Germans from the East (Vertriebene) and the French of now independent Algeria (rapatries, later often referred to as Pieds-Noirs). This demographic influx from former national provinces and imperial borderlands posed serious financial, logistical, and administrative challenges for both societies. Since many of these immigrants and their ancestors had lived far away from the core regions of postwar Germany and France — speaking unfamiliar dialects or different languages, practicing different cultural and religious traditions — they were perceived as culturally different, if not inferior, and were rejected by many of their fellow citizens.