Expellee database

Between 1944 and 1950, almost eight million expellees (Heimatvertriebene) arrived in West Germany. As part of the project “Die volkswirtschaftlichen Effekte der Vertriebenen und ihre Integration in Westdeutschland, 1945-70”, funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (project number 267108021), we have collected detailed county-level data on the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of expellees and non-expellees in West Germany after World War II. You can find the data here: DOI:10.15456/vswg.2021067.075645 .

The cornerstone of the database is the occupation and population census of 1950. Other data sources include the census of 1939, 1946, and 1961. The following paper, which we kindly ask users to reference, describes the database in detail:

Braun, Sebastian T. and Richard Franke (2021). A County-Level Database on Expellees in West Germany, 1939-1961. Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 108(4): 522-540.

Data and code for replication

“Railways, Growth, and Industrialization in a Developing German Economy, 1829-1910”, JEH 2022: https://doi.org/10.3886/E174461V1

“How Do Regional Labor Markets Adjust to Immigration: A Dynamic Analysis for Post-war Germany”, JIE 2021: https://doi.org/10.3886/E123821V1

“Local Labor Markets and the Persistence of Population Shocks: Evidence from West Germany, 1939-70″, JoEG 2021: https://doi.org/10.3886/E119967V1

“Resettlement Location Shapes the Integration of Forced Migrants: Evidence from Post-war Germany”, EEH 2020:  https://doi.org/10.3886/E118223V1

“The Employment Effects of Immigration: Evidence from the Mass Arrival of German Expellees in Post-war Germany”, JEH 2014: https://doi.org/10.3886/E118364V1