Multiperspektivität als Schlüssel zur Kontingenz von Zugehörigkeit. Der organisierte Umzug von deutsch-polnischen Arbeitern und ihren Familien aus dem Ruhrgebiet nach Frankreich von 1922 bis 1925

Since Germany’s brief “summer of migration” in 2015, the question of whether, under what conditions, and with what consequences migrants are considered part of society or merely intermittently tolerated workers, refugees, or asylum seekers has again become a hotly contested issue in politics and the public sphere. Behind this lies the deeper question of the criteria currently and historically used to assess what constitutes belonging to a “society.” Following on recent relational approaches to the analysis of human mobility, this article discusses the organised relocation of German-Polish workers and their families from the Ruhr area to France at the beginning of and during the occupation of the Ruhr. On the level of historical interpretation, it builds upon historical studies of border regions such as Alsace, Upper Silesia, and Bohemia and demonstrates that an investigation of the Ruhr area as a zone of intensified mobility can help scholars better grasp various iterations of how and with what consequences constructions of belonging changed under conditions of contested state sovereignty such as those during the First World War or decolonialisation. Secondly, on the methodological level, the article argues that a multi-perspective analysis can facilitate more precise descriptions of processes of categorising people and relocating the “self” as well as better understandings of their interactions, including the long-term effects on those being categorised. In the context of efforts in the social and cultural sciences to describe types of belonging primarily in relation to biographical and situated contexts, historians can use these methods to contribute to discussions on the intersection between self-location processes, on the one hand, and organised, often legally binding processes of categorisation on the other, while simultaneously historicising various constructions of belonging.

Friedrichs, Anne 2021: Multiperspektivität als Schlüssel zur Kontingenz von Zugehörigkeit. Der organisierte Umzug von deutsch-polnischen Arbeitern und ihren Familien aus dem Ruhrgebiet nach Frankreich von 1922 bis 1925, Historische Zeitschrift 313 , H. 3, S. 645–685.