On the investigations of Ruth Hoffmann's "Die Schlesische Barmherzigkeit", Kurt Ihlenfeld's "Gregor's vain journey", Utta Danella's "The Mulberry Tree", Arno Surminski's "Jokehnen or How Long Do You Travel from Germany to East Prussia?" And Günter Grass' "Im Krebsgang" Frauke Janzen reconstructs the development of the German literary flight and expulsion discourse in relation to non-literary developments. Based on the identity-creating potential of literature, she examines the design of the topic in the area of tension between the literary, political and journalistic levels of discourse. By uncovering the genesis and development of literary victimization strategies, the author can demonstrate the continuous participation of literary adaptations in a construction of German victim identity.