arts in exile

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• 2 September 1945

  Japan capitulates, bringing the Second World War to an end.
• 24 October 1945

  The Charter of the United Nations, a treaty on human rights between all 51 member states, comes into effect. Changes to the charter require a two-thirds majority.
• 20 November 1945

  The Allied Control Council approves the Relocation Plan.
  Under the plan, about 3.5 million German from the Polish-administered territories east of the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers are to be resettled in the Soviet and British occupation zones.
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  Posters with the accused and convicted at the Nuremberg trials

  Bundesarchiv, Plak 004-005-007-T1, graphic designer: not stated

  20 November 1945

  Beginning of the Nuremberg Trials of the leading war criminals of the Nazi dictatorship
• 1 June 1946

  Premiere of Mother Courage and Her Children
  Bertolt Brecht’s drama is performed for the first time in Germany at the international culture week in Constance. Brecht wrote the piece during his exile in Sweden.
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  Propaganda poster for the national referendum on expropriations in Saxony calling people to vote "yes"

  Bundesarchiv, Plak 100-031-021, graphic designer: not stated

  30 June 1946

  Referendum on dispossession
  A referendum takes place in Saxony on whether to expropriate the commercial holdings of active Nazis and war criminals. The large majority vote in favour of expropriation.
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  Der Komponist Hanns Eisler bei der Arbeit, fotografiert von Gerda Goedhardt, 1944

  Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Hanns Eisler Archiv, Nr. 10215-F-230, © Gerda Goedhardt

  October 1946

  An article in the Hollywood Reporter marks the beginning of a press campaign against composer Hanns Eisler. 
  Eisler's commitment to communism leads to him being questioned before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in 1947. In 1948 he is expelled from the U.
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  Conference of Prime Ministers in Munich inviting displaced persons to return to Germany
  

  Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H27936, photographer: not stated

  1947

  A resolution on the return of ethnic Germans is passed by a conference of the minister presidents of the German states.
  The resolution states: “The heads of the German state governments gathered together in Munich cordially call upon all Germans who were expelled by Nazis from their country to return home. [.
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  Poster promoting the Marshall Plan (1948)

  Bundesarchiv, Plak 005-002-007, graphic designer: not stated

  5 June 1947

  US Foreign Secretary George C. Marshall puts forward what becomes known as the "Marshall Plan".
  This plan is intended both to help the countries of Europe that are languishing economically, including the German zones of occupation, and also to prevent the spread of communism.
• 2 December 1947

  The draft law "on the Citizenship of the Denaturalised" is passed
  The law stipulates that denaturalisation can be revoked only on written request. It is argued that some of the returnees no longer want to be Germans.