Today Emperor, Tomorrow Beggar…

In 1944, the German Luftwaffe established a regional headquarters in occupied Denmark, located in the forest area of Dyrehaven, Skanderborg. The Wehrmacht cleared the Sølund Psychiatric Institution and constructed bunkers, barracks, trenches, weapons depots and vehicle sites. After Germany’s surrender in 1945, these barracks were repurposed as a refugee camp for German civilians – mainly women and children – fleeing the collapsing Reich. While the German occupation has long attracted scholarly attention, the postwar refugees have largely fallen into oblivion. Whether this is because they were defeated, poor, women, children, or considered to be ‘victims’, their history has only recently begun to resurface. In parallel to historical research, archaeological investigations now aim to recover this hidden narrative of German postwar refugees in Denmark. This article presents the 2022 archaeological excavations at the former Sølund camp, assessing the potential of observing the change of power behind the barbed wire of the camp through an exploration of materiality. Since the physical traces of the soldiers are far more prominent than those of the refugees – and given the lack of ‘uncontaminated’ contexts or structures used by refugees only – this research argues for a reflexive archaeological approach in order to access the experiences of the displaced inhabitants who lived at Sølund camp.