People with German ancestors that were expelled in 1945, do you think this influenced how much of your extended family you still interact with?
I am wondering if other Germans find that they are closer to their extended family members?
On one parents side I have a lot of ancestors from there, but we find there is no need for missing East-Prussia, all of us are very happy not to live in the middle of nowhere and in West-Germany instead.
The only thing pretty much everyone does is a trip to where my ancestors fled from at the end of WW2.
One perk of my ancestors having to flee is that we still have pretty extensive family gatherings. Our family gatherings consist of all descendants of my great grandfather and his siblings.
In Germany extended family commonly is not as important as compared to some other parts of the world. So I am quite happy to still have close ties to so many family members.
I think the reason for all of us still doing so much together is that the generation of my grandparents and great grandparents had lost everything and heavily relied on each other to make it in West-Germany. When they arrived they had nothing, many of the men where killed in the war, the Women that did not manage to flee before the frontline caught up to them where probably raped, and many of the children froze and starved to death on their route to West Germany and in internment camps in Poland.
Currently I still have 5 living family members born in East-Prussia, and their stories are the only thing that keeps the memory of East-Prussia alive. Only they miss it.