At the end of the Second World War, in August 1945, the Allies met at Potsdam and passed the decision to expel millions of people of German heritage living in Eastern Europe. Among some 3 million expelled from the Sudetenland in the Czechoslovak borderlands, were the violin makers of Schönbach. After the expulsion, German integration authorities attempted to resettle the Schönbach violin makers in Mittenwald, Bavaria. Though the village of Mittenwald was famous for its violin making industry, the integration of the two communities failed and the Schönbach masters were relocated a second time. The failure was due in large part to the two communities' inability to integrate their distinct violin making cultures. The study addresses the resettlement process from the perspective of government officials, local Germans and expellees and the debates among these groups in the postwar era. It is through these interacting perspectives that one comes to understand the culture of each community, the agency of its members, and the complexity of the resettlement process on a local level. Using Mittenwald as a case study, I argue that the process of integrating two German cultures was problematic, as each community sought to maintain their own local, cultural identity rather than subscribe to a shared German national identity. The failure of the Mittenwald plan demonstrates the pertinence of the local culture of each community and the limitations of a national imaginary in general processes of forced migration and resettlement.

At the end of the Second World War, in August 1945, the Allies met at Potsdam and passed the decision to expel millions of people of German heritage living in Eastern Europe. Among some 3 million expelled from the Sudetenland in the Czechoslovak borderlands, were the violin makers of Schönbach. After the expulsion, German integration authorities attempted to resettle the Schönbach violin makers in Mittenwald, Bavaria. Though the village of Mittenwald was famous for its violin making industry, the integration of the two communities failed and the Schönbach masters were relocated a second time. The failure was due in large part to the two communities' inability to integrate their distinct violin making cultures. The study addresses the resettlement process from the perspective of government officials, local Germans and expellees and the debates among these groups in the postwar era. It is through these interacting perspectives that one comes to understand the culture of each community, the agency of its members, and the complexity of the resettlement process on a local level. Using Mittenwald as a case study, I argue that the process of integrating two German cultures was problematic, as each community sought to maintain their own local, cultural identity rather than subscribe to a shared German national identity. The failure of the Mittenwald plan demonstrates the pertinence of the local culture of each community and the limitations of a national imaginary in general processes of forced migration and resettlement.

At the end of the Second World War, in August 1945, the Allies met at Potsdam and passed the decision to expel millions of people of German heritage living in Eastern Europe. Among some 3 million expelled from the Sudetenland in the Czechoslovak borderlands, were the violin makers of Schönbach. After the expulsion, German integration authorities attempted to resettle the Schönbach violin makers in Mittenwald, Bavaria. Though the village of Mittenwald was famous for its violin making industry, the integration of the two communities failed and the Schönbach masters were relocated a second time. The failure was due in large part to the two communities' inability to integrate their distinct violin making cultures. The study addresses the resettlement process from the perspective of government officials, local Germans and expellees and the debates among these groups in the postwar era. It is through these interacting perspectives that one comes to understand the culture of each community, the agency of its members, and the complexity of the resettlement process on a local level. Using Mittenwald as a case study, I argue that the process of integrating two German cultures was problematic, as each community sought to maintain their own local, cultural identity rather than subscribe to a shared German national identity. The failure of the Mittenwald plan demonstrates the pertinence of the local culture of each community and the limitations of a national imaginary in general processes of forced migration and resettlement. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

This study fills a critical gap in research on the immediate postwar history of Japanese American community culture in Los Angeles and South Bay. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute research and literature of the immediate postwar period between the late 1940s resettlement period and the 1960s. During the early to mid-1940s, Americans witnessed World War II and the unlawful incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans. In the 1960s, the Sansei (third generation) started to reshape the character and cultural expressions of Japanese American communities, including their development of the Yellow Power Movement in the context of the Black and Brown Power Movements in California. The period between these bookends, however, requires further research and academic study, and it is to the literature of the immediate postwar period that this thesis contributes. Furthermore, this thesis contributes to the nearly absent literature of Japanese American community redevelopment in the transboundary Los Angeles/South Bay area. It is in this area that we find the largest and fastest growing postwar Japanese American population in the country. This community built lasting networks and relationships through the revival of cultural celebrations like Obon and Nisei Week, sport and recreation – namely baseball and bowling, and ethnic resources in the form of food and ethnic markets. These relationships laid the foundations for later social activism and the redefining of the Japanese American community. Far from a period of silence or inactivity, Japanese Americans actively shaped and reshaped their communities in ways that refused to allow the wartime incarceration experience, so fresh in their minds, to define them.