Painful return: discovering German roots in Kaliningrad

Painful return: discovering German roots in Kaliningrad

On February 7, 2026, the second part of a television trip by WDR journalist Klaus Bednarz from 1994 will be broadcast in a new documentary. This journey leads through the northwestern part of the former East Prussia, today's Kaliningrad, and traces the traces of German culture and past, which are shaped by the war and expulsion. The documentary addresses the relationship of the current residents to their German heritage and to German migrants.

Bednarz visits places like the Curonian Spit and meets various people who have a connection to the history of the region. The interviewees include both artists and agricultural workers from Tharau. The perspective of homesick tourists and a Russian farmer with her daughter, who are hoping for support from the German side, is also presented. A particularly exciting point of discussion is the expulsion of the Germans, which is also being discussed among Russian students at the University of Albertina in Königsberg. A public voice in the documentary is the commander of a naval unit in Königsberg.

Memories of expulsion

Parallel to the documentary journey, the story of Anna Buttkus is discussed, who wrote in her diary between 1947 and 1948 about her family life and her escape. After her escape from West Prussia, she returns to East Prussia, where she remains as the only survivor of her family. Her experiences are marked by grief, as she lost her parents, both sons and her husband between 1941 and 1945.

The dramatic part of her story begins in 1947 with her deportation to a collective farm near Königsberg, where she has to work as a housekeeper and farm worker. In her diary entries, Anna reflects on the loss and loneliness of living in the homeland of her ancestors but feeling like a stranger. She writes a poem with the lines: “The cranes go mournfully homeward”, which describes her farewell and the sadness over the loss. After a year and a half on the collective farm, she is finally relocated to Germany and finds a new home there with her sister Berta. Anna Buttkus lived in the Nienburg/Weser district in Lower Saxony until her death in 1982.

The flight of millions

The in-depth analysis of the escape stories shows that Anna Buttkus is not alone. Millions of Germans had to leave their homeland in 1945, which shaped the country's history. As the documentary makes clear, refugees like Ingrid van Bergen and Eva-Maria Hagen experienced similar fates. Ingrid, who is fleeing the Red Army with her family, and Eva-Maria, who is forcibly relocated from Pomerania with her family, both go through the terrible circumstances of their escape. Their descriptions, which are characterized by hunger, cold and discrimination as refugees, correspond to the reality of many displaced people at that time.

The WDR documentation and Anna Buttkus' recordings are important testimonies that not only record the personal stories of those affected, but also reflect part of European history. The handover of Anna Buttkus' diary and other documents to the documentation center shows that commemorating and dealing with these difficult topics is of great importance. The memories of displacement and loss are thus kept alive and offer a deep insight into the human fates behind the historical events.

Documentation is an important medium for preserving the past and addressing the ongoing search for identity and reconciliation. Further information can be found in the documentation: ARD media library and in the documents of Flight, expulsion, reconciliation.