The territorial revisions following the Second World War had severe repercussions for Germany. With Moscow incorporating East Prussia into the Soviet Union, and Poland (compensated for the loss of its eastern territories to the Soviet Union) annexing Pomerania and Silesia, Germany lost all its territories east of the Oder and Neiße rivers. Furthermore, with the Allies not being able to reach agreement on the future status of Germany, two German states came into being, which were separated by the Iron Curtain. The purpose of this chapter is descriptive: What were the perimeters within which West Germans tried to make sense of this situation and possible future improvements? The chapter traces the evolution of the repertoire of commonplaces pertaining to the German Question. This is the necessary first step of the argumentation analysis. Only after identifying the repertoire in this chapter can the next chapter then inquire into how agents pick topoi from the repertoire, link them to advocated ideas, and succeed or fail to win over an audience.

The analysis of this chapter reveals continuity and change. Four important aspects remained fairly constant from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. First, the identity narrative on Germany's homeland did not change. For most West Germans, the territories lost after the Second World War remained part of Germany's historical homeland, and East Germans were self-evidently regarded as fellow Germans.