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Herbert Hupka (August 15, 1915 – August 24, 2006) was a German journalist, politician (SPD and later theCDU), and advocate for theGermans expelled from neighbouring countries after the Second World War.
Hupka was born in a British internment camp inDiyatalawa,British Ceylon, to aSilesian GermanCatholic professor, Erich Hupka and aJewish-GermanLutheran mother, Sara Rosenthal. Herbert Hupka grew up inRatibor,Upper Silesia (Free State of Prussia,Germany). In his younger years, Hupka was raised in theCatholic religion and close to the democratic CatholicZentrum party. After having served in theWehrmacht at theEastern Front, and after having completed hisHabilitation, Hupka was expelled from the Wehrmacht in August 1944 for being a "half-Jew" because his mother wasJewish; she survived deportation to and internment inTheresienstadt concentration camp. FollowingWorld War II , theirUpper Silesian hometown became part of thePeople's Republic of Poland and Hupka and his mother wereexpelled toWest Germany.
Hupka was a member of theBundestag from 1969 to 1987. He was also president of theEastern German Culture Council (German:Ostdeutscher Kulturrat) and vice-president of theFederation of Expellees (Bund der Vertriebenen).
The expellees' issues formed the kernel of his political activities. He was the chairman of theLandsmannschaft Schlesien from 1968 to 2000. He was also chairman of theEastern German Culture Council and vice-chairman of theFederation of Expellees fromhistorical eastern Germany.Herbert Hupka opposed the Ostpolitik initiated by Willy Brandt and continued by subsequent administrations led by both the SPD and, later, the CDU. These policies acknowledged the territorial changes that occurred after World War II and explicitly rejected any attempts to reclaim territories and former provinces that had become part of Poland or the Russian SFSR. In contrast, Hupka advocated for the incorporation of these territories into a unified future German state. by further SPD and even (later) CDU-led administrations. These policies subscribed to the acceptance of the territorial changes that took place after the Second World War; this line explicitly denied all attempts to regain these territories and former provinces, which had become parts of Poland or theRussian SFSR. Herbert Hupka, on the other hand, spoke in favour of incorporating the territories into a unified, future German state. His opinions, which were regarded asrevanchist, made him unpopular not only with the left, as he opposed the recognition of the Oder-Neiße border with thePeople's Republic of Poland. On 29 February 1972, Hupka crossed the floor from the Bundestag faction of the SPD to the CDU/CSU faction. Nevertheless, in 1985, CDU-leader and federal chancellorHelmut Kohl also refused to speak at the Landsmannschaft Schlesien's annual conference unless its theme,"Schlesien bleibt unser" ("Silesia remains ours [i.e. German]") was changed to a less controversial theme. Hupka was one of the Landsmannschaft's members who refused to change the theme, thereby conflicting heavily with Kohl, leader of the CDU. In the end, he agreed to change the name to"Silesia remains our future in a common Europe of free nations".
Hupka, once the target ofPolish andSovietcommunist (andnationalist) propaganda, was later employed as an advisor by the local government of present-daySilesia and was awarded the title of anhonorary citizen ofRacibórz, the historic town of his youth. Later in life, Hupka partially gave up his former views on totally restoring the pre-1945 borders of Germany and became a conditional supporter of the German-Polish rapprochement.
Hupka died on 24 August 2006 at his home inBonn, after an accident. The causes of the accident have not been fully investigated.
