In Germany there are several hundred Ostlandkreuze, most of which are located in cemeteries. The following list is restricted to the most prominent Ostlandkreuze erected on exposed locations.
Bad Harzburg
Cross near Bad Harzburg
On 24 June 1950 a 20.5-metre-high (67ft), wooden cross, the Kreuz des Deutschen Ostens, was dedicated on the Uhlenklippen crags near Bad Harzburg in the presence of Ernst Reuter. This cross stood for over 47 years before being blown down on 4 March 1998 during a hurricane. On 30 September 2000 a new 17.7-metre-high (58ft) and 6.3-metre-wide (21ft), partly wooden-clad, steel cross was dedicated on the same spot. The construction cost came to 180,000 DM. Around the cross in a wide arc is a footpath on the outside of which are small rough-hewn stone monuments facing the cross; each one with a shield representing one of the former German provinces in Central Europe, east to its modern border. The cross is checkpoint no. 122 on the Harzer Wandernadel hiking network.
Geislingen
The Geislingen Ostlandkreuz is a memorial cross built in 1950 south of Geislingen, on the Schildwacht mountain. It remembers specifically the expulsions from the South Moravian Region in and around the towns of Znojmo, Mikulov, Nová Bystřice and Slavonice.
It is a steel framework construction covered with copper plates. Its height is 22.7m/74.5ft and it weighs 8.5 tons. The span of its arms is 7.5m/24.5ft. A landmark of Geislingen, the cross was renovated in 1992, further refurbished in 2003 and received a light installation for illumination at night.
The wooden "Cross of the German East" (Kreuz des deutschen Ostens) was erected in 1961 on the Bocksberg near the village of Heyersum. After being destroyed it was newly consecrated in 1990 and 2006.
Winterbach
The cross and an altar, both made of concrete, are located on the Hungerberg, a slope on the northern edge of the Rems valley between Winterbach and Schorndorf.
Once a year around 5:30 am on Easter morning there is a service at this Ostlandkreuz.
In the town of Dülken (Viersen district) a cross in memory of the war and German refugees was erected at the cemetery in 1951. It was restored in 2005.
During the later stages of World War II and the post-war period, Germans and Volksdeutsche fled or were expelled from various Eastern and Central European countries, including Czechoslovakia, and the former German provinces of Silesia, Pomerania, and East Prussia, which were annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union. In 1957, Walter Schlesinger discussed reasons for these actions, which reversed the effects of German eastward colonization and expansion: he concluded, "it was a devastating result of twelve years of National Socialist Eastern Policy." The idea to expel the Germans from the annexed territories was considered by Winston Churchill and by the Polish and Czechoslovak exile governments in London at least since 1942. In late 1944 the Czechoslovak exile government pressed the Allies to espouse the principle of German population transfers. On the other hand, Polish prime minister Tomasz Arciszewski, in an interview for The Sunday Times on 17 December 1944, supported the annexation of Warmia-Masuria, Opole Regency, north-east parts of Lower Silesia, and parts of Pomerania, but he opposed the idea of expulsion. He wanted to naturalize the Germans as Polish citizens and to assimilate them.
A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans, 1944–1950 is a 1994 non-fiction book written by Cuban-born American lawyer Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, former research fellow at MPG in Heidelberg, Germany. The work is based on a collection of testimonials from German civilians and the Third Reich military personnel; and devoted to the expulsion of Germans after World War II from states previously occupied by the Nazis. It includes as well selected interviews with British and American politicians who participated at the Potsdam Conference, including Robert Murphy, Geoffrey Harrison, and Denis Allen. The book attempts to describe the crimes committed against the German nation by the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia at the end of World War II – as perceived by the expellees themselves and settlers brought in Heim ins Reich from the east.
Bad Harzburg is a spa town in central Germany, in the Goslar district of Lower Saxony. It lies on the northern edge of the Harz mountains and is a recognised saltwater spa and climatic health resort.
Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union was considered by the Soviet Union to be part of German war reparations for the damage inflicted by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union during the Axis-Soviet campaigns (1941-1945) of World War II. Soviet authorities deported German civilians from Germany and Eastern Europe to the USSR after World War II as forced laborers, while ethnic Germans living in the USSR were deported during World War II and conscripted for forced labor. German prisoners of war were also used as a source of forced labor during and after the war by the Soviet Union and by the Western Allies.
Demographic estimates of the flight and expulsion of Germans have been derived by either the compilation of registered dead and missing persons or by a comparison of pre-war and post-war population data. Estimates of the number of displaced Germans vary in the range of 12.0–16.5 million. The death toll attributable to the flight and expulsions was estimated at 2.2 million by the West German government in 1958 using the population balance method. German records which became public in 1987 have caused some historians in Germany to put the actual total at about 500,000 based on the listing of confirmed deaths. The German Historical Museum puts the figure at 600,000 victims, they maintain the official figure of 2 million cannot be supported. However, the German Red Cross still maintains that death toll in the expulsions is 2,251,500 persons.
Horst Ademeit (Adomaitis) was a German former Luftwaffe fighter ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves during World War II. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat.
The expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II was part of a series of evacuations and deportations of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe during and after World War II.
Joachim Brendel was a Luftwaffe flying ace of World War II. Brendel was credited with 189 aerial victories—that is, 189 aerial combat encounters resulting in the destruction of the enemy aircraft. All but six of his victories were claimed over the Soviet Air Forces on the Eastern Front in more than 950 combat missions, including 162 ground support missions.
Kurt-Werner Brändle was a German Luftwaffe military aviator during World War II, a fighter ace credited with 180 enemy aircraft shot down in over 700 combat missions. The majority of his victories were claimed over the Eastern Front, with 25 claims over the Western Front.
Viktor Bauer was a former Luftwaffe fighter ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves during World War II. A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. Bauer is credited with 106 aerial victories, achieved in over 400 combat missions, all but four claimed on the Eastern Front.
Hans Dammers was a German World War II fighter ace and was credited with 113 aerial victories, with 23 unconfirmed claims. During his numerous ground attack missions he destroyed 11 aircraft, 8 locomotives, 39 horse-drawn wagons, 34 trucks, 3 anti-aircraft emplacements and 1 armoured reconnaissance vehicle. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II.
Hartmann Grasser was a World War II German fighter ace. He was credited with shooting down 103 Allied aircraft while flying 700 missions on the Western Front, Eastern Front, and in North Africa. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.
The German name Spinnerin am Kreuz is the title given to two separate Austrian stone-tower sculptures, one in Vienna and the other in the nearby city of Wiener Neustadt. They are related to the story of a wife spinning beside a cross. Both columns had been designed originally by Meister Michael Knab:
Wilhelm Lemke was a Luftwaffe flying ace of World War II. Lemke was credited with 131 aerial victories—that is, 131 aerial combat encounters resulting in the destruction of the enemy aircraft. All but six of his victories were claimed over the Soviet Air Forces in 617 combat missions.
Heinrich Sterr was a World War II Luftwaffe military aviator. As a flying ace, he is credited with 130 aerial victories predominantly claimed on the Eastern Front. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. On 26 November 1944, he was shot down and killed in action by USAAF fighters.
Rudolf Miethig was a Luftwaffe flying ace of World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. Miethig was credited with 101 aerial victories—that is, 101 aerial combat encounters resulting in the destruction of the enemy aircraft—and was killed in action following a midair collision with an enemy aircraft on 10 June 1943.
Vlasatice, is a village and municipality (obec) in the Brno-Country District of the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic.
The Kreuzschule in Dresden is the oldest surviving school in Dresden and one of the oldest in Germany. As early as 1300, a schoolmaster was mentioned. It was founded as a grammar school for the singers of the capella sanctae crucis, now the Dresdner Kreuzchor. The school is now a Protestant Gymnasium, officially called the Evangelisches Kreuzgymnasium.
A wayside cross is a cross by a footpath, track or road, at an intersection, along the edge of a field or in a forest. It can be made of wood, stone or metal. Most wayside crosses are designed as crucifixes. Stone crosses may also be conciliation crosses. Often they serve as waymarks for walkers and pilgrims or designate dangerous places. They are particularly common in Europe, for example in Germany, Galicia, Ireland and the Alps.
Centum Prata is the name of a Roman Vicus, whose remains are located on the eastern Zürichsee lakeshore in Kempraten, a locality of the municipality Rapperswil-Jona in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Centum Prata is the most important archaeological site from the Gallo-Roman era in the canton of St. Gallen.
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