Land borders enter Germany and Poland

The border enters the Germany and the Poland measurement 472 kilometers. It essentially follows the course of the Oder and its affluent the Neisse. For this reason, one usually indicates it by the expression line Oder-Neisse , granica Na Odrze I Nysie in Polish, and German Oder-Neiße-Linie in . In GDR, its official name was “Oder-Neiße-Friedensgrenze” (border of peace on Oder-Neisse). The border was truly recognized by the FRG only in 1990.

The current border passes clearly to the west of the preceding border, reducing in a significant way the German territory. It was defined by the Alliés at the time of the Conférence of Potsdam in July - August 1945. It was, at the origin, a provisional line of demarcation between the areas under German administrations, and those under Polish administration. The definite location was to be established by a peace treaty, but this one was not born.

The Oder-Neisse line was recognized like border by GDR as of 1950 (Accords of Görlitz). It, on the other hand, caused tension between the Poland and the FRG which claimed its revision. However, by the Treated of Warsaw, this one was committed in 1970 not employing the force to put forward its claims. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the four winners of 1945 imposed the final recognition of the border like precondition to grant the reunification. In 1990, the FRG accepted the layout of the border and gave up any territorial claim in Poland in two series of international agreements: the treaty Deux-plus-Quatre signed in the September 12th which act as peace treaty between Germany and the allies, and the germano-Polish agreements of November 14th, 1990.

The border before 1945

After the First World War, an independent Polish state is reconstituted on old Russian and German territories

Its border with the Germany was fixed by the Traité of Versailles in 1919. It generally followed the historical borders of Poland of the 18th century, but included/understood some adjustments intended for better respecting ethnic separations than traditional division in large provinces did it. However, the Eastern Poméranie, the High-Silesia and the Mazurie had been divided, by leaving German side of great areas populated by rural populations Slaves (although often germanized, like the Slovinces) and on the Polish side of strong German urban populations. Who more is, the border was very long and separated from the remainder of Germany, the free city of Danzig populated as a large majority of Germans.

The Allies of the Second world war fix the Polish border

At the end of Second world war in 1945, because of the territorial changes required by the Soviet Union, the border was moved deeply towards the west in German territory, following what is called the Oder-Neisse line, placing to Poland almost all the Silesia, more half of the Poméranie, part of the Eastern Brandebourg and a small area of Saxony. The Polish territory included also the area of Gdańsk and southern two thirds of the Eastern Prussia, with the Mazurie and the Warmie. The territorial changes were followed demographic transfers to large scales, with expulsion of almost all the Germans of the Polish territory. Moreover, the Polish population of the Eastern half of old Poland, now incorporated by the Soviet Union, was in expelled majority and reinstalled itself in the old German territories which constituted now Western Poland. The Poles and the Germans were not besides the only ethnicities with being expelled of their traditional fatherlands because of the territorial requirements of Joseph Stalin.

The difficulty of fixing the new germano-Polish border was increased by the resentment of the Poles against the invasion Nazi of Poland in 1939 which had been followed even annexation of new territories beyond the German borders of 1918; by Soviet insistence to preserve the Polish areas taken by Stalin at the beginning of the war with the east of the line Ribbentrop - Molotov and of what one calls the Ligne Curzon, which had been conceded with the Conférence of Yalta and by the brutal evacuation of the 800.000 people who remained in the ruins of the city after the Insurrection of Warsaw. Among the Poles, there was little of it to be opposed on a humane basis to the territorial increases in Poland at the expense of Germany: all saw a right punishment there to have started the war and to have perpetrated the genocide. One reproached the German minority for having brought his assistance to the German Reich during the invasion and the occupation of Poland and to have played an active role in the persecution and the murder of Pole mass. There was little of it to regard the territorial changes as excessive and to see in German expulsions who were the consequence a humane disaster.

Chronological summary since 1945

May/June 1945: The Soviet Union place under Polish civil administration most of the territories in the east of the Oder and the Neisse without being itself heard with the allies.
August 2nd 1945: Under the pressure of Stalin, the Allies decide in the Conférence of Potsdam that the areas hitherto a41dernier $c-b1, e,10 $c-b26 ce $c-b16 $c-b43, bn,84 German located at the East of the Oder and the Neisse of Lausitz must pass under Polish administration until the payment of the question of the borders by a peace treaty. The North of the Eastern Prussia with Kœnigsberg returns to the the USSR. The the United States explain why they will grant the annexation of this area by the the USSR with the conference of peace, but refuse a similar engagement in favor of the Poland
autumn 1945: Poland refuses like insufficient the line of demarcation and occupies in the west of the Oder the town of Szczecin (Stettin).
the authorities of the Soviet zone of occupation refuse the line of demarcation, but with an opposite argumentation
March-April 1947: the Conférence of Moscow bringing together the Foreign Ministers defines officially the Ligne Oder-Neisse like “border of peace”
Destitution by the SMAD (Soviet military administration in Germany) of Jakob Kaiser, president of the CDU of East Germany and opposing to the mode
January 11th 1949: Official integration in the administration of the Polish State of the areas obtained thanks to the new borders. Officially, they are called from now on “the recovered Western areas and the areas of North” or more briefly “new fields of the West” to distinguish them from the “old fields of the West” acquired as of 1919.
October 18th 1949: Establishment of the diplomatic relations between the Poland and GDR. The East-German president Wilhelm Pieck informs the president of the Polish Republic Bierut which he recognizes the Oder-Neisse border.
June 6th 1950: Agreements of Görlitz between GDR represented by its minister-president Otto Grotewohl and the Poland represented by the minister-president Cyrankiewicz. The Oder-Neisse border is recognized like “the inviolable border of peace and friendship which does not separate the two people, but links them”. The problem of Szczecin was however not mentioned, not more than it had been it at the time of the Conférence of Potsdam, and the delimitation of the border is valid only until the “final fixing of the Western border of Poland” in a payment of peace to come.
June 7th 1950: The France recognizes officially the concerning territory German State “in the borders of 1937”.
June 8th 1950: The the United States and the the United Kingdom condemn the Traité of Görlitz.
June 9th 1950: The agreement between the governments East-German and Polish is regarded by the Federal republic as no one and nonwhich occurred. The government is based besides on a condition that the Traité of Görlitz did not fill: Namely that a decision on the Eastern territories of Germany placed under Polish and Soviet administration could not intervene that within the framework of a peace treaty.
Transfer by the East Germany of part of the island of Usedom in Poland.
July 6th 1950: Official signature of the Treated of Görlitz.
August 5th 1950: By a proclaimed charter with Stuttgart the elected representatives of the expelled Germans of the territories of the East give up solemnly any recourse to the force and any spirit of revenge, but not with the right to repossess in their country.
September 27th 1951: Convention with Frankfurt-on-the Oder about the marking of the borders.
1963 : In a speech of welcome at the time of a convention of the Silesians in Germany, Willy Brandt pushes back in an abrupt way the recognition of the Oder-Neisse border with these words: “To give up our rights would be a treason. ”.
1965 : In a memorandum of the German Évangélique Church devoted to the problems of the West, one suggests with prudence for the first time that it would be advisable to accept the new border. Such a recommendation, very disputed inside the Church, does not have of them less one considerable weight because 90% of the refugees are of Protestant confession.
1968 : Willy Brandt pleads for the respect of the Oder-Neisse border until a payment by a peace treaty. He is the first German politician to be expressed thus.
1969: in its governmental declaration as a federal chancellor with the head of the first socialdémocrate-liberal coalition Willy Brandt explains rather clearly why it for recognizing the Oder-Neisse line like border. He does not speak about Polish counterparts - for example the granting of the rights of minorities for some 1,2 German million living still at the time in Polish territory.
December 7th 1970: Treaty of Warsaw enters the the Federal Republic of Germany and the Popular republic of Poland. The two parts accept that the line of demarcation existing following the decisions of Potsdam constitutes the “Western frontière of State of the popular republic of Pologne”. None of both has towards the other of territorial requirements and will not present any either in the future. One does not agree on any right to repossess for expelled nor of rights of minorities for the Germans remained to the country and on this point the Germans had not required anything besides.
fine of 1971: DEBATEs of interior policy on the treaties concerning the Eastern border. The majority of the CDU chooses to abstain from at the time of the vote, which allows the adoption by the Bundestag.
the May 10th 1972: The Bundestag confirms the provisional character of the treaty. It constitutes “une by no means bases legal for the borders existing aujourd'hui”. One is based on the capacities that reserved the four victorious powers and who regard Germany as a whole. Consequently the Federal republic, which does not enjoy a full sovereignty, is not entitled to undertake modifications which would have consequences on the international law of the borders of 1937.
in 1985: The extension of territorial water of GDR in the gulf of Szczecin causes a tension with Poland.
the May 22nd 1989: Agreement between GDR and the popular republic of Poland on the delimitation in the area of the lakes of the gulf of Szczecin (Stettin).
end of the year 1980: In the old German Eastern areas still approximately 800.000 Germans live, including 750.000 of them in High-Silesia. As of 1989 the number drops by emigration; in 2005 there remain nothing any more but approximately 400.000 about it.
September 27th 1989: In a speech before the plenary assembly of UNO the Genscher Foreign Minister ensures the Polish people that “its right to life in sure borders is called in question by us the Germans, neither now nor in the future by territorial claims”.
June 21st 1990: The federal chancellor Helmut Kohl announces the recognition in international law of the border of Poland with Germany, “such as it exists now today”.
September 12th 1990: Confirmation of the existing borders between reunified Germany and Poland in the “Deux-plus-Quatre Treaty” (Zwei-plus-Vier-Vertrag). The text contains an explicit and implicit confirmation of the recognition of the new border.
September 29th 1990: With the implementation of the contract of reunification between GDR and the Federal republic the modifications necessary of the fundamental law of the Federal republic come into effect of which removal of article 23.
November 14th 1990: With Warsaw, the Skubiszewski Foreign Minister for the Republic of Poland and the Genscher Foreign Minister for the the Federal Republic of Germany sign the treaty on the germano-Polish border confirming that it “is determined by the Treaty of Görlitz… and Traitéde Warsaw. ”
June 17th 1991: With Bonn, the federal chancellor Kohl and the Genscher Foreign Minister for the FRG and minister-president Bielecki and the Skubiszewski Foreign Minister for the Republic of Poland sign the contract of good neighborhood germano-Polish in which it is codified inter alia the respective minorities have the right to express their ethnic identity freely, cultural, linguistic and religious” - what means the official recognition of the German minority in Poland. Moreover it is agreed to create an organization of youth germano-Polish.
December 16th 1991: The German Bundestag ratifies the treaty on the border and also the treaty of good neighborhood.
January 16th 1992: The treaties on the good neighborhood and the border come into effect with the exchange of the respective documents of ratification.

Recognition of the border by Germany

In 1950 the governments of East Germany and Poland signed the Treaty of Zgorzelec which recognized the Oder-Neisse border, indicated like the “Border of Peace and the Friendship”. Another treaty signed in 1989 between Poland and East Germany, defined the maritime border.

In 1952, the recognition of the Oder-Neisse line as permanent border was one of the conditions of Stalin so that the Soviet Union accepted the German reunification. The offer was rejected by Konrad Adenauer, Chancelier of the West Germany, for several reasons.

In West Germany, where had settled the majority of the 12 million moved refugees, the recognition of the Oder-Neisse Line was regarded a long time as unacceptable. In fact, the West Germany within the framework of the Hallstein Doctrines recognized neither communist Poland nor East Germany dominated by the Soviet Union. This Ouest-Allemande attitude changed with Ostpolitik led by Willy Brandt. In 1970 the West Germany signed treaties with the Soviet Union (Treated of Moscow) and Poland (Treated of Warsaw) where she recognized the Oder-Neisse line like a border in fact with Poland. That allowed German families expelled to return visit to their old fatherland.

The November 14th 1990, after the German reunification, the the Federal Republic of Germany (which had just absorbed GDR) and the Republic of Poland signed a treaty confirming the border between them, as that had been requested from Germany according to the Treaty relating to the Final Payment. Earlier, Germany had amended its constitution and had abolished article 23 of the Fundamental law, that which it had used for the reunification and which it could also have used to claim its old territories of the East. For this period Helmut Kohl, the German Chancellor, had initially refused to recognize the Polish border and one needed energetic diplomatic interventions to obtain the agreement of Germany to the final payment. The frontier agreement germano-Polish of 1990 defining the Oder-Neisse line as border between the two countries came into effect the January 16th 1992 at the same time as a second, a Treaty of good neighborhood, signed the June 17th 1991, in which the two countries recognized inter alia political and cultural rights fundamental to the minorities as well German as Polish living on each side of the border. (Approximately 150.000 ethnic Germans always live in Poland, especially in the Voïvodie d' Opole, with a smaller presence in areas like Silesia and Mazurie and of a half-million to a million Pole in Germany, either in result of a recent migration or that the families reside there since centuries. An unknown number to these Polish immigrants can be made up of ethnic Germans who emigrated only later of the old German territories).

In spite of the treaty of good neighborhood, so much Poland which Germany refuse to date a great number of cultural and political rights to the minorities. In Poland the Germans of the minority of Opole (Oppeln) always complain to be victims of negative discrimination, although they are protected on the economic plan since their German passports enabled them during the ten last years to freely work in the Western States members of the European Union.

See too

Source

Simple: Oder-Neisse line

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