Löcknitz: Polish Lifeline for an Ailing German Town

It is boom time in Löcknitz, a small town in one of the poorest regions of eastern Germany. The many houses that fell empty after German reunification in 1990 when the young and educated from what had been Communist East Germany moved out have found new owners. The kindergartens are full. New schools are being built. Placards hanging on streetlights have big, bold print that is hard to miss: Property Wanted!

The reason for this boom is the Poles.

In a surprising twist of the Polish-German relationship, which for centuries had been dominated by war, conquest and ethnic cleansing, some Poles have now come to settle among their less-well-off German neighbors.

Lothar Meistring, the town's mayor, said nearly a fifth of new births each year are to Poles, who already make up 13 percent of the town's 3,200 inhabitants.

nytimes.com/2011/06/28/world/europe/28iht-letter28.html

Actually Poles settled for centuries in Germany, and German settled for centuries in Poland.
And this part of Germany is the traditional hinterland of Szczecin. That's also the reason why this German region is so poor.

Germans in Poland since the 12th century. Polish entrepreneurs opening businesses in Germany to get the "Made in Germany" label on their products, at the same time employing Germans works out both ways.