Remembrance and Commemoration then, the square has been an important site for the annual commemorative gatherings of expellee associations, a practice that has continued beyond German reunification in 1990. Ostdeutsche Heimatstuben, small private museums run by volunteers from expellee organisations, have been indicative of West German remembrance. Within sixty years, about 600 of HANDMADE BONNET, PART OF A TRADITIONAL COSTUME FROM THE LINGUISTIC ENCLAVE OF WISCHAU Southern Moravia (Czechoslovakia), before 1945 This bonnet was part of the luggage of a family expelled to Bavaria in 1945. It is still used today for displays of traditional costume and in performances of traditional dance. them sprung up, notably in the 1950s and 1980s. Ostdeutsch (east German) was used as an umbrella term here, to include all those regions where (ethnic) Germans had lived before 1945, even if some of these areas had never been in Germany. The most recent Heimatstuben were established after 1990 in the new Länder, that is the former East Germany. These museums were furnished by expellees with everyday items that reminded them of their former homes: furniture, household utensils or crockery, tools used in regionally prevalent trades or professions, objects related to old customs and traditions or indeed religious practices. Such keepsakes helped them come to terms with the loss of their Heimat. Expellees and visitors alike used these objects to cherish their visions of a quotidian life lived in
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