Timelines

Migration is a natural part of living systems, and human history is no exception. Yet it remains one of the most debated public issues of our time.

Both people and borders move. Who is allowed to move, and who is granted rights, lies at the heart of how nations define belonging. In Germany and the United States alike, these debates have been deeply intertwined with evolving ideas of race and ethnicity.

These timelines trace how citizenship and belonging have been constructed, challenged, and redefined through laws, social movements, global events, and cultural works — and how those histories continue to shape the present.

1914

1918

Forced Labour in World War I

At the outbreak of World War I approximately 3 million Germans who worked in the agriculture sector leave their work places as volunteers for military service or for compulsory military service. As a result of this, forced working migrants, primarily from Poland, become indispensable in order to maintain German agriculture in the course of the war.

Many foreign workers were prohibited from returning to their home countries, as had previously been ordered, in order to ensure the productivity of Prussian agriculture. As the demand for agricultural produce increased, more workers were recruited in the occupied eastern territories and, especially in the fall and winter of 1916/17, even forcibly deported. Polish Jews were particularly affected by this. Prisoners of war from Russia, Serbia, and Belgium were also deported to work as civilian laborers. The living conditions of forced laborers were extremely poor, with Poles in particular subject to strict regulations. They were prohibited from changing their place of residence and were bound to their employers.

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S10014

Russian prisoners of war working in the fields

Germany

Sources

Klaus J. Bade, Jochen Oltmer. Zwischen Aus- und Einwanderungsland: Deutschland und die Migration seit der Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Zeitschrift für Bevölkerungswissenschaft). Opladen: Verlag Leske + Budrich, 2003. Seiten S. 799–842. Aufgerufen am: July 11, 2015.
Klaus J. Bade, Jochen Oltmer. Normalfall Migration: Texte zur Einwandererbevölkerung und neue Zuwanderung im vereinigten Deutschland seit 1990. passage - Gemeinnützige Gesellschaft zu Arbeit und Integration mbH. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 2004. Aufgerufen am: July 11, 2015.
Der Erste Weltkrieg. Zwangsarbeit im NS-Staat). Das Bundesarchiv, 2010. Aufgerufen am: July 11, 2015.

Additional Resources

Themenschwerpunkt: Der Erste Weltkrieg. Arte TV. Aufgerufen am: July 11, 2015.
100 Jare Erster Weltkrieg: Gegen das Vergessen. 2014-2018: 100 Jahre Erster Weltkrieg. Aufgerufen am: July 11, 2015.
Jährliche Fluktuation der kontinentalen Zuwanderung. Legitimationsdaten der Deutschen Feldarbeiterzentrale / Deutschen Arbeiterzentrale 1910–1920. 1980. Seiten 265–323

Related Events

1939

Forced labor under National Socialism

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