The
German-Polish Border Treaty of 1990 finally settled the issue of the Polish-German border, which in terms of international law had been pending since 1945. It was signed by the foreign ministers of Poland and Germany,
Krzysztof SkubiszewskiKrzysztof Skubiszewski is a Polish politician, former Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as an established scholar in the field of international law. He served in the successive cabinets of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, Jan Olszewski and Hanna Suchocka...
and
Hans-Dietrich GenscherHans-Dietrich Genscher is a German politician and member of the Free Democratic Party . He was Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1974 to 1982 and, after a two-week pause, from 1982 to 1992, making him Germany's longest serving Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor.- Early...
, on 14 November 1990, ratified by the Polish
SejmThe Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. Each member of Sejm is called Poseł.Before the 20th century, the term "Sejm" referred to the entire three-chamber Polish parliament, comprising the lower house , the upper house and the King. It was commonly termed a three-estate parliament...
on 26 November 1990 and the German
BundestagThe Bundestag is the parliament of Germany. It was established with Germany's constitution of 1949 and is the successor of the earlier Reichstag...
on 16 December 1991, and entered into force with the exchange of the instruments of ratification on 16 January 1992.
The full title of the treaty is "Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland on the confirmation of the frontier between them, 14 November 1990" (
Vertrag zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Republik Polen über die Bestätigung der zwischen ihnen bestehenden Grenze in German, and
Traktat między Rzecząpospolitą Polską a Republiką Federalną Niemiec o potwierdzeniu istniejącej między nimi granicy in Polish, the order of the countries being reversed in the Polish name).
In the
Potsdam AgreementThe Potsdam Agreement was an agreement on policy for the occupation and reconstruction of Germany and other nations after fighting in the European Theatre of World War II had ended with the German surrender of May 8, 1945...
of 1945, the Allies of World War II had defined the
Oder-Neisse LineThe Oder-Neisse line was drawn in the aftermath of World War II as the eastern border of Germany and the western border of Poland. The line is formed primarily by the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers, and meets the Baltic Sea west of the seaport cities of Szczecin and Świnoujście...
as the line of demarcation between the
Soviet occupation zoneThe Soviet Occupation Zone was the area of central Germany occupied by the Soviet Union from 1945 on, at the end of World War II...
in Germany and Poland, pending the final determination of Poland's western frontier in a later peace settlement.
The
German-Polish Border Treaty of 1990 finally settled the issue of the Polish-German border, which in terms of international law had been pending since 1945. It was signed by the foreign ministers of Poland and Germany,
Krzysztof SkubiszewskiKrzysztof Skubiszewski is a Polish politician, former Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as an established scholar in the field of international law. He served in the successive cabinets of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, Jan Olszewski and Hanna Suchocka...
and
Hans-Dietrich GenscherHans-Dietrich Genscher is a German politician and member of the Free Democratic Party . He was Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1974 to 1982 and, after a two-week pause, from 1982 to 1992, making him Germany's longest serving Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor.- Early...
, on 14 November 1990, ratified by the Polish
SejmThe Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. Each member of Sejm is called Poseł.Before the 20th century, the term "Sejm" referred to the entire three-chamber Polish parliament, comprising the lower house , the upper house and the King. It was commonly termed a three-estate parliament...
on 26 November 1990 and the German
BundestagThe Bundestag is the parliament of Germany. It was established with Germany's constitution of 1949 and is the successor of the earlier Reichstag...
on 16 December 1991, and entered into force with the exchange of the instruments of ratification on 16 January 1992.
The full title of the treaty is "Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland on the confirmation of the frontier between them, 14 November 1990" (
Vertrag zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Republik Polen über die Bestätigung der zwischen ihnen bestehenden Grenze in German, and
Traktat między Rzecząpospolitą Polską a Republiką Federalną Niemiec o potwierdzeniu istniejącej między nimi granicy in Polish, the order of the countries being reversed in the Polish name).
Historical background
In the
Potsdam AgreementThe Potsdam Agreement was an agreement on policy for the occupation and reconstruction of Germany and other nations after fighting in the European Theatre of World War II had ended with the German surrender of May 8, 1945...
of 1945, the Allies of World War II had defined the
Oder-Neisse LineThe Oder-Neisse line was drawn in the aftermath of World War II as the eastern border of Germany and the western border of Poland. The line is formed primarily by the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers, and meets the Baltic Sea west of the seaport cities of Szczecin and Świnoujście...
as the line of demarcation between the
Soviet occupation zoneThe Soviet Occupation Zone was the area of central Germany occupied by the Soviet Union from 1945 on, at the end of World War II...
in Germany and Poland, pending the final determination of Poland's western frontier in a later peace settlement. The
Treaty of ZgorzelecThe Treaty of Zgorzelec was signed on 6 July 1950 in the east of the Oder- Neisse line part of the divided city of Görlitz, since 1945 called in Polish Zgorzelec...
of 1950 between East Germany and
People's Republic of PolandThe Polish People's Republic was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990.Although the Polish People's Republic was a sovereign state as defined by international law, its leaders were at the very least approved by the Kremlin...
confirmed this border as final.
West GermanyWest Germany is a common English name for the period of the Federal Republic of Germany between its' formation in May 1949 to German reunification in October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic was dissolved and the five states on its territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany,...
, which saw itself as the only legal successor to the German Reich and did not recognize East Germany, insisted that final settlement on the Polish-German could only be accepted by a future reunited Germany. Although West Germany, for all practical purposes, accepted the Oder-Neisse border in the
Treaty of Warsaw (1970)The Treaty of Warsaw was a treaty between West Germany and the People's Republic of Poland. It was signed on 7 December 1970, and it was ratified by the German Bundestag on 17 May 1972....
, its legal caveat that only a future peace treaty would formally settle the issue remained in effect.
With
German reunificationGerman reunification is the process in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and Berlin was united into a single city-state. The start of this process is commonly referred to by former citizens of the GDR as die Wende...
finally within reach in 1990, the Allies of World War II made full sovereignty for Germany conditional on the final recognition of the Oder-Neisse border, as stipulated in in article 1.2 of the
Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to GermanyThe Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany was negotiated in 1990 between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic , and the Four Powers which occupied Germany at the end of World War II in Europe: France, the United Kingdom, the United States of...
. The signing of a treaty between Germany and Poland recognising the Oder-Neisse Line as the border under international law was also one of the terms of the Unification Treaty between the West and East Germany that was signed and went into effect on 3 October 1990. Poland also wanted this treaty to end the ambiguity that had surrounded the border issue since 1945.
The agreement was supplemented by a
Treaty of Good Neighbourship and Friendly CooperationThe Polish–German Treaty of Good Neighbourship and Friendly Cooperation was signed between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland on 17 June 1991...
, signed between Poland and Germany on 17 June 1991.
A follow-up curiosity
In 2004, in his
The Polish-English-German Glossary of the Regional Terminology of the Opole VoivodeshipOpole Voivodeship is a Polish voivodeship, or province, created on January 1, 1999, out of the former Opole Voivodeship and parts of Częstochowa Voivodeship, pursuant to the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998...
, the European scholar,
Tomasz KamusellaTomasz Kamusella is a European scholar pursuing interdisciplinary research in language politics, nationalism and ethnicity.-Education:...
, presented, side by side, the Polish and Soviet view that Poland’s post-
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
western frontier on the
Oder-Neisse lineThe Oder-Neisse line was drawn in the aftermath of World War II as the eastern border of Germany and the western border of Poland. The line is formed primarily by the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers, and meets the Baltic Sea west of the seaport cities of Szczecin and Świnoujście...
had been final in light of
international lawPublic international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states, analogous entities, such as the Holy See, and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
since 1945, alongside the western Allies and
West GermanyWest Germany is a common English name for the period of the Federal Republic of Germany between its' formation in May 1949 to German reunification in October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic was dissolved and the five states on its territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany,...
’s position that the status of the border had not been settled until the ratification of the German-Polish Border Treaty in 1991. (Poland’s pressure on the wartime Allies and
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
to contract this treaty, actually underscored the latter opinion.) The then Polish MP from the Opole Voivodeship, Jerzy Czerwiński, convened a press conference, and falsely announced that Kamusella claimed that “Silesia still was part of Germany”. This pronouncement was repeated by numerous journalists without checking what was actually written in the Glossary, and became an overnight sensation in the mass media across Poland, in the wake of Poland’s May 1, 2004 accession to the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
(EU), prior to which some parties had adopted the rhetoric of “German danger” to prevent Poland from joining the EU.
None of the journalists attempted to contact T. Kamusella, then doing research in the
John W. Kluge CenterThe John W. Kluge Center occupies study and meeting spaces within the Library of Congress' restored Thomas Jefferson Building. The Center brings together a group of 21 international scholars, the Kluge Scholars' Council, to stimulate, energize, and distill wisdom from the rich resources of the...
,
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress and is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books. The head...
,
WashingtonWashington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the...
DC. The same was true of his employers, the
University of OpoleUniversity of Opole is a university in Opole. It was founded in 1994 from a merger of two other educational institutions.It has seven faculties:* Faculty of Philology;* Faculty of History and Pedagogy,* Faculty of Theology,...
and the Self-Governmental Regional Authority of the Opole Voivodeship (Urząd Marszałkowski, UM). The former publicly condemned him of “ignorance” and “polonophobia”, without providing any proof, and the university’s rector, Józef Musielok, regretted that there was no law available that would allow him to punish Kamusella. The latter employer, the UM, contributed to the first act of official
censorshipCensorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.-Rationale:...
carried out in postcommunist Poland by emotionally appealing to burn the entire run of the Glossary, and ordering the publisher, Roman Hlawacz of the Oficyna Piastowska, to destroy all the copies of the book, then awaiting imminent distribution. The publisher obliged, though no law required him to follow this arbitrary decision, blatantly in breach of the
freedom of speechFreedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship or limitation. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
. Furthermore, the UM formally lodged with the
OpoleOpole is a city in southern Poland on the Oder River . It has a population of 129,553 and is the capital of the Opole Voivodeship, and also the seat of Opole County. It is the historical capital of Upper Silesia...
regional public prosecutor an accusation that Kamusella was guilty of acting in breach of the Polish raison d’état; obviously in democratic Poland there is no law defining such a crime, so this accusation was dropped.
Andrzej Mazur, President of the Regional Parliament of the Opole Voivodeship, demanded of the University of Opole to dismiss Kamusella, even if that meant a breach of Polish employment law. The public political condemnation and social ostracism of Kamusella in the Opole Voivodeshhip was total, and as such reminiscent of show trials in the communist period. Voices in defence of the freedom of speech and of historical truth were few and apart, and hardly heard. The Opole Archbishop, Alfons Nossol, commented that it was regrettable that all the elites of the Opole Voivodeship, in an extremely emotional and unthinking manner, united for the sake of defending a cherished national myth, even if that meant falsifying the past or destroying a man.