Mass membership coexisted with fading desire to actually return home

Evidence

If, as the coming chapters argue, fewer and fewer expellees actually planned to return to the lost East (already in the late 1940s and 1950s, to say nothing of the 1960s), why did so many of them join expellee organizations, read their papers, attend their rallies, and even vote for their politicians? — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East, 503

Categorization

• QUESTION: This open question — memberships decoupling from literal return-desire — is a genuine puzzle worth chasing for what solidarity and affiliation mean when the stated goal decays.
• XREF: connects to: Recognition that home was gone, not political pressure, eroded revanchist desire — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East: Forced Migration…, 229; Past mass membership was more institutional inertia than free choice. — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization…, 244; Awareness of group membership differs from desire for that membership (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Refugees’ professed desire to return fades once they urbanize #exemplifies (0.85) — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East, 1635
• Past mass membership was more institutional inertia than free choice. #corroborates (0.82) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 244
• Awareness of group membership differs from desire for that membership #expands (0.80)