The story about German- Polish reconciliation

I constantly run into Net articles about an exemplary cooperation of Poland and Germany in today`s Europe.

MediaWatch made a good thread once:

polishforums.com/history-poland-34/poland-germany-look-back-years-things-common-53755/ - Poland and Germany look back 1000 years of things in common

How did it go that two mortal enemies changed into partners? (Friends would be too much).

An old Polish saying goes: Jak świat światem, nie będzie Niemiec Polakowi bratem. As long as the world is going, never will a German be a brother for a Pole.

It seemed true during and after WW2. Let`s recall facts what Germans did in Poland:

3 million Polish Jews annihilated in death camps or ghettos.
1.7 - 1.9 million Poles exterminated in executions, pacifications, raids, roundups.
0.65 million died in military campaigns.

Not to mention destroyed cities, devastated industry, culture, historical monuments.

Poland wasn`t the Land of Plenty before the war, true, but afterwards it was like The Waste Land.

How did burying the hatchet start?:

Due to allies` post war scheme, Polish borders were shifted westwards, thus eastern German lands became Polish western territory. A few million Germans were resettled to Germany proper.

In Cold War era, with two conflicted blocks, the Polish borders became a hot issue:


goethe.de/ins/jp/lp/prj/wza/depl/en2260368.htm

In 1961 a few representatives of German protestant churches issued a declaration of border recognition, which later, in 1965, grew into an official memorandum, calling for the German government to acknowledge the new Polish German borders.

Soon afterwards, in November 1965, Polish bishops issued a famous declaration of forgiveness, known as the Letter of Reconciliation.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_Reconciliation_of_the_Poli sh_Bishops_to_the_German_Bishops

While recalling past and recent historical events, the bishops stretched out their hands in forgiveness and are asking for forgiveness. Here referred to as Letter of Reconciliation of the Polish Bishops to the German Bishops it is actually only one part of the extensive groundbreaking invitation and letter, where they declared: "We forgive and ask for forgiveness" (for the crimes of World War II).

Among prominent supporters of this letter was Archbishop Karol Wojtyła, who later became Pope John Paul II in 1978.
The letter was answered by bishops of both of the then-two Germanys together.

Polish communist rulers were furious:


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_Reconciliation_of_the_Polish_Bishops_to_the_German_Bishops

TBC

I can give you a great example - in Frankfurt/Slubice, the Poles in Slubice all speak German, while the German supermarkets accept Zloty. Works well :)

(and saved my ass once - I was buying stuff in Frankfurt, only to realise that the Germans are morons that don't accept Visa Electron in a normal supermarket. Faced with looking exceptionally stupid, the guy saw a 100zl note in my wallet and said (in Polish!) - we can accept Zloty. Very useful!)

:):):):)

Border cooperation and all interpersonal contacts (provided they are positive for both sides) is much better than official declaration of partnership of politicians.

Exactly. All this official declarations are just that, declarations - what matters is how things are on the ground.

I've got a photo for this thread - a kamienica in Germany (about 20m from Poland) - full of Polish names ;)

So.... :):):):)

no peace under Germanic conditions!

Jebite se svi! Jebo vas NATO i EU!

Crow, take it onto your chest like a man. Przyjmij to na klatę jak mężczyzna.

Polish German cooperation within EU is well under way. It can`t be stopped despite various obstacles.

I am sorry. I do pity you because your Serbian Kosovo cause is lost here completely.

Da primim? Primi ti


yes. Directly to pizda materina


i know that. Only if Germany collapse, things could move in other direction


me too.

Dear Crow, my Slavic brother. You feel now like an average Pole felt in 1945 when he/she found out that Poland was shifted westwards, losing such important centres of Polish life as Wilno, Lwow and a few other.

You feel like an average eastern German who learnt in 1945 that he/she had to be relocated from their homeland to the West, losing Stettin, Danzig, Breslau and a few other.

But time heals the wounds. At least, it is supposed to. Also wounds imposed by cruel decrees of History.

Germans and Poles managed to start and develop cooperation in many aspects of everyday life. With their politicians` help and without it, too.

You and your Serbian compatriots have to think in the same categories. People can`t cherish animosities for ever. It is simply unhealthy for us.

Well then, Germans are just germanized Serbians. So, after all, they deserve chance

Exactly. Give peace a chance.

In 1970 West Germans decided to sign a border treaty with Poland.
Between 1970 and 1990, the West German political establishment gradually recognised the "facts on the ground" and accepted clauses in the Treaty on the Final Settlement, whereby Germany renounced all claims to territory east of the Oder-Neisse line. In the Treaty of Warsaw (1970; ratified in 1972) West Germany recognized the Oder-Neisse line as Poland's western border and renounced any present and future territorial claims;



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oder-Neisse_line

Dear friends, before I continue with past acts of reconciliation, I need to make a digression with this entry:

very interesting thread Pawian.

You got to be careful with that delph, you do know that Frederick the Great counterfeited the Polish currency(:


it turned out that he already had a copy of this poster, he will take one home and leave the other in the office(:

Wow! I understand it as an incentive to work harder.

So, back to topic.

Right after signing the border treaty, The story about German- Polish reconciliation German Chancellor, Willy Brandt, decided to make an even more spectacular move. He honoured Poles of Jewish descent who perished by German hands during WW2.


/wiki/Warschauer_Kniefall

His act of repentance wasn`t received too warmly in Germany:

It wasn`t appreciated by communist authorities, either. The Polish press was censored by communists and photos of kneeling Brandt were cut out from next day articles.

Brandt was repeatedly interviewed about the genuflection and about his motives. He later noted that:
(German original) "Unter der Last der jüngsten Geschichte tat ich, was Menschen tun, wenn die Worte versagen. So gedachte ich Millionen Ermordeter."[3]

(English translation) Under the weight of recent history, I did what people do when words fail them. In this way I commemorated millions of murdered people.

Today, there is Willy Brandt Square in Warsaw with a small monument.

positive feedback is always a good thing :)

You couldn't be more right with that.

Unfortunately Poles and Germans lost their traditional area of contact, which was one of the biggest areas of mixed populace in Europe, due to the consequences of WWII.

Here is a map how the situation was in 1925: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Historical_German_l inguistical_area.PNG. A vast area stretched from Silesia via Greater Poland to Pomerania. The dominant language could be different from village to village. Somethimes even language and nationality did not fit together. The Polish speaking Mazurians (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masurians) for instance had no problem voting in absolute majority for the Nazi party in the 1930s, while some German speakers in Poznan, descendants 18th century immigrants from Bamberg (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambrzy), desclared themselves as member of the Polish nation to completely perplexed Nazi invaders in 1939.

As we all know since 1945 the situation is like this: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/German_standard_var ieties.png. Poles and Germans now live along the smallest border possible. Neighbours along the Oder Neisse border don't know one another but there are some rays of hope.

We should intensify cross national cooperation at the divided cities Görlitz/Zgorzelec, Guben/Gubin, Frankfurt (Oder)/Słubice, Küstriner Vorland/Kostrzyn nad Odrą. We need much more bilingual kindergartens and stuff like that. Szczecin should intensify contacts towards Berlin and the East of Vorpommern should reestablish contacts to its old capital. Did you know that some inhabitants of Scczecin now move to the German side of the Border because the prices for housing and stuff like that are cheaper than at the Polish side of the border? The city of Löcknitz is one good example for that: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%B6cknitz.

Yes, I do. It has been taking place for a few years now. German East is slowly depopulating, so Poles are entering.




mercatornet.com/demography/view/5433


It seems local authorities in the German East say prayers so that Poles come and settle there:

nytimes.com/2011/06/28/world/europe/28iht-letter28.html?pagewanted=all

Drang nach Westen! ;-)

We are only recovering ancient Slavic lands. :):):):):):)

Just joking. :):):):):)

I love this thread! Keep it coming :)

Don't underestimate our power to Germanize Slavs. We are masters in that art. It will only take two generations and you will find perfect Germans there, and for a good German it's totally normal to have surnames like Kowalski, Wischnewski, Nowak, Kaminski, Schimanski, Nowitzki and so on :) :) :)

You should search more to find out how it was done with these names . Read more about germanization which took place on Polish soil under the Bismarck Germany.

Germans are not capable to Germanize us . They were trying to do it in the last 1000 years and failed , so don`t overestimate your power.

You obviously don`t know the story of Konrad Wallenrod, a "perfect" Germanised Slav. Read it please. :):):):):):):):)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Wallenrod



Hmm, thank you guys, but I have never been showered with so many compliments before. I am a bit suspicious - I smell a hamster. Why are you praising me? Do you want to borrow money? Go to bed with me? Or else?

You still haven't understood what our discussion was about, have you, Monia? Please read the last posts! It is pretty simple...

We were talking about people from the Szczecin metropolitan area moving to the German side of the border that is gradually depopulating because East Germans keep on moving to the West of Germany. I thought it may be funny to call this "Drang nach Westen". (If you don't get this please read this article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drang_nach_Osten. The pawian "reminded" me that in the year 950 the language border between "Germans" and "Western Slavs" was about here:

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/West_slavs_9th-10th_c..png
Then I made a joke about that Germans did a "good job" in Germanizing about 50 Slavic tribes and millions of ethnic Poles and Czechs over the centuries.

You may not find this funny but I did. If you really seek reconciliation between our two people then start laughing about the sad parts of our pasts might help.

Who he himself inspired a 'Germanized' Pole Hans Kloss :) (Stanisław Kolicki) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Kloss
The fictional character's communist era series was made into a movie this year..

No.
After the WW2 resettlements, they lost the traditional area of conflict. :):):):)

Nice word for an ethnic cleansing that turned out to be quite deadly for a lot of people.

Troll, get out of this thread. :):):):)

PS. Germans were treated very fair compared to what they had done before. :):):)

Your problem if you cannot cope with the truth. Guess you were indoctrinated too much during your commie education... :)

I do know Adam Mickiewicz, but to be honest I never heard about his poem Konrad Wallenrod. Thanks for the hint. Too much of my countrymen, including me, know too little about our Polish neighbours.

There are plenty of examples of Germanized Slavs that re-discovered their Slavic roots in the past, inspired by Johann Gottfried Herder's romantic language based nationalistic ideas like: Josef Jungmann, Christoph Mrongovius and Josip Juraj Strossmayer.

But I won't hold back the negative examples like: Odilo Globocnik, Otto Skorzeny or Michael Swierczek.