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Poland |
German–Polish relations have a long and complicated history. From the 10th century on, the Kingdom of Poland had relations with the Holy Roman Empire, which were however soon overshadowed by the Polish-Teutonic wars, as a result of which, Prussia became a fief of the Kingdom of Poland. Prussia retained a certain level of autonomy under Polish rule. Later, the Kingdom of Prussia rose and eventually became one of the partitioners of Poland.
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Like the Kingdom of Germany grew out of the German stem duchies of East Francia in the 10th century, the West Slavic Polan tribes under the Piast prince Mieszko I about 960 were able to establish a sovereign state around Poznan and Gniezno in an area later called Greater Poland. Mieszko significantly enlarged his territory by conquering Masovia beyond the Vistula river, the Silesian lands at the border with Bohemia (Czechia), and the former Vistulan lands of Lesser Poland. By pushing further westwards into Pomerania and the lands of the Polabian Slavs, he for the first time met with the forces of King Otto I of Germany, who in 937 had established the Saxon Marca Geronis between the Saale and Bóbr rivers, starting the German Ostsiedlung. As he could not prevail against Margrave Gero, Mieszko I resorted to consolidate his realm: he strengthened the relations with the Bohemian duke Boleslaus I by marrying his daughter Dobrawa and converted to Christianity in 966. The next year however, he once again entangled with the troops of the Saxon renegade Wichmann the Younger, fighting over the island of Wolin on the Baltic coast. He defended the Polish border on the lower Oder river against the German forces of Margrave Odo I of Lusatia at the 972 Battle of Cedynia.
Meanwhile Poland had to face the claims to universal power raised by Otto I when he had conquered the Kingdom of Italy and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII in 962. According to the idea of the translatio imperii, the Emperor would continue the tradition of the Roman and Carolingian Empire as guardian of the Catholic Church superior to all secular and ecclesiastical rulers. Mieszko sought to improve the relations with Otto I: he appeared as amicus imperatoris at the 973 Reichstag of Quedlinburg and in 978 secondly married Oda, the daughter of Dietrich of Haldensleben, margrave of the Northern March. In 984 Mieszko's son Bolesław I Chrobry was married to a daughter of Margrave Rikdag of Meissen. However, in the same year the Polish ruler, instigated by Duke Boleslaus II of Bohemia, interfered in the conflict between minor King Otto III of Germany and the deposed Bavarian duke Henry the Wrangler. He timely switched sides, when he realized that Otto's mother Theophanu would gain the upper hand and in turn sparked a long-term conflict with the Bohemian dukes over Silesia and Lesser Poland. Mieszko backed the German forces several times against the revolting Lutici (Veleti) tribes (though to no avail) and until his death in 992 remained a loyal supporter of the Emperor. Nevertheless Mieszko precautionally had the Dagome iudex document drawn up, whereby he put his realm called Civitas Schinesghe under the auspices of the Holy See.
After Poland regained independence in 1918, it received parts of what had been German territory during the partitions. Much of this territory had been part of Poland in earlier centuries. However, particularly in border regions of Upper Silesia and Greater Poland, Polish and German nationalists fought over the right to the disputed land. Eventually, Poland won back almost all of the province of Greater Poland and the industrialized part of Upper Silesia.
Two conferences were organised to discuss the school history books being used in Poland and Germany:[1]
The Polish contingent consisted of Professors Dabrowski, Nawroczynski and Kowalski. The German delegates consisted of Aubin, Fitzek and Arnulf Shroder.
In 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland and partitioned the country together with the Soviet Union. In 1941 Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, attacking the Soviet Union.
In 1943 Stalin demanded at the Tehran Conference that the post-war territory of Germany and Poland be redrawn further west as a buffer between Soviet Russia and Germany.
Following the defeat of Germany in 1945, this policy lead to the expulsion of Germans from the territories assigned to Poland.
During the Cold War, communist Poland had good relations with East Germany, but during the early Cold War, relations with West Germany were strained.
The relations between West Germany and Poland improved through Willy Brandt's Ostpolitk. West Germany recognized the Oder-Neisse line as Poland's western border in the Treaty of Warsaw.
After the fall of communism, Poland and the reunited Germany have had a mostly positive but occasionally strained relationship due to some political issues. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Germany has been a proponent of Poland's participation in NATO and the European Union.
The Polish-German border is 467 km long.[2]
German–Polish relations have historically been difficult and not always friendly (the two countries were often rivals and adversaries), but are steadily improving. The relations are sometimes strained when topics like World War II and Nazi crimes or the postwar forced expulsion of the German citizens from the territories annexed by Poland are brought up.[3]. Occasional xenophobic statements of conservative politicians on both sides, most notably Erika Steinbach and Jarosław Kaczyński, have also slowed the improvement of the two states relations.
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