Have Germans expelled from Eastern Europe been re-enfranchised?

Question

After World War II, large numbers of ethnic-Germans who had lived in Eastern Europe were expelled - by the local (post-Nazi-occupation) government, by the USSR and even with some Western power involvement; some just fled due to local violence / threat of retribution. By 1950, it seems there were over 12 Million of them overall.

In those states from which the largest number of residents/citizens were expelled - were the expellees ever re-enfranchised? Allowed to return as residents, to regain their citizens, to regain property confiscated from them, or reparations for it? And what about the descendants of expellees who died while their parents had not regained any status?

Notes:

• To be more specific about states: Czechoslovakia, Poland, USSR-constituent republics, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia and its constituents... I think that covers most expellees.
• In Eastern Europe there were expropriations/nationalizations unrelated to one's being ethnic Germans. Naturally I'm not asking about the ability to obtain property confiscated in that manner beyond what regular citizens/residents can obtain.
• I realize that, with the formation of the EU, one can relatively easily reside in another EU member; but not all of Eastern Europe is in the EU, and some of it only asceded relatively recently, so the status of expellees up to the ascession is relevant to the answer here.

Answer 1

I think your question is misleading because disenfranchisement is the wrong category. With most nations having become EU members, residence is settled, and what remains to ask is the question of historical expropriations. (Which affected everybody under Communism.)

• When the German Reich took territory in Central Europe after 1938, they handed German citizenship or privileges to the Volksdeutsche population. There might have been some who refused, but by and large they accepted it.
• At the end of the war, Germans were expelled from some countries and fled from others. A few groups did stay.
• Also at the end of the war, countries in Central Europe became communist and nationalized property, especially but not exclusively from Germans.

So if the Germans in question had gotten a right to get their citizenship back -- and accepting a new citizenship is generally seen as a valid reason to strip the old one -- their property would still have been subject to Communist laws for several decades.

The right question would be if the heirs of former residents living outside the countries were disadvantaged during the winding-up of communist rule, and the answer to that is "yes."

Answer 2

Hungary was actually rather reluctant to expel its German population, starting only at the behest of the occupying Soviet forces and continuing only under pressure by the Allied Control Council. After expelling some 180,000 ethnic Germans (mostly to West Germany) the Hungarian government halted the process in 1948. In 1950 they went so far as to rescind the expulsion orders, opening the door for the expellees to return.^*

According to this post by our own LаngLаngС, historian Agnes Tóth estimates that some 10,000 Germans eventually returned to Hungary. The topic of repatriation is also the subject of a 2017 monograph by Sebastian Sparwasser: Identität im Spannungsfeld von Zwangsmigration und Heimkehr: Ungarndeutsche Vertriebene und die Remigration ("Identity in the field of tension between forced migration and homecoming: Displaced Hungarian Germans and the remigration").

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^*Balázs Apor. The Expulsion of the German Speaking Population from Hungary. In: S. Prauser and A. Rees (eds.), The Expulsion of the 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at the End of the Second World War. EUI Working Paper HEC No. 2004/1, European University Institute, Florence, Department of History and Civilization, 2004.

Answer 3

In the case case of Czechoslovakia the citizenship of persons of the German or Hungarian nationality was lost based on the presidential decree no. 33/1945. The agricultural land was confiscated by decree no. 12/1945 and the rest property by no. 108/1945. The latter two decrees remain valid and there is no compensation in place nor foreseen.

The application of these decrees is still questioned at courts, mostly by the aristocracy, because there is less ambiguity about the actual nationality and potential anti-nazi activity for ordinary people. So, certain members of aristocracy still question that their parents and grandparents were marked as Germans or traitors. In the area where I live the Czernin heirs filled actions against all non-private holders of their former land (but are careful not to try to suit private persons). A well-known international case with a large property in question is the case of the house of Liechtenstein because it is indeed questionable whether they can be marked "German". They claim huge properties mainly in south Moravia.

The post 1948 communist nationalization and collectivization is unrelated and had been restitued.

The question of the post-war German reparations often comes in the discussion in the connection with the expulsion. The Czechoslovak governments were careful not to tie these officially and to NOT include this property into the foreign German property that was shared during the reparations. However, president Beneš was a bit careless in 1945 and did actually say that the confiscated property could be an advance or reserve for the reparations. It is not clear whether Czechoslovakia would not become a net payee and would not have to pay other western countries certain financial share if that became true. However this two questions still come to the discussion somewhat connected even in this age many years after the war, especially after Poland voiced their claims (the situation of Poland is very different because USSR claimed their reparations on behalf of Poland - and gave them nothing).