Oder–Neisse line
The Oder-Neisse line is the current border between Germany and Poland. The line consists of the Rivers Oder and Neisse and was the line at which the Soviet Army stopped in late 1944 to regroup for the final assault on Berlin in April 1945.
Near the end World War II, it was decided at the Potsdam Conference to put the German territories east of this line under Polish administrative control until a final peace treaty would determine the exact border. The intention of the Allied powers was to punish Germany for its aggression in World War II and to compensate Poland for land which had been taken by the Soviet Union in 1939. Winston Churchill described the settlement as putting Poland on rollers and moving the entire nation west.
Once Poland gained administrative control of the territory east of the Oder-Neisse line, it proceeded to expel ethnic Germans living in those areas and replace them with ethnic Poles displaced by the Soviet annexation of what had been Eastern Poland.
East Germany signed a treaty with Poland in 1950 recognizing the line as a permanent border. In 1952, recognition of the Oder-Neisse line as a permanent boundary was one of the conditions for the Soviet Union to agree on a reunified Germany. This proposal was rejected by Konrad Adenauer, although for reasons unrelated to this condition.
In West Germany, recognition of the line was complicated by the fact that West Germany as part of the Hallstein Doctrine, did not recognize either Poland or East Germany and by the fact that many of those displaced from the land east of the Oder-Neisse line settled in West Germany and were active it its politics. This situation changed with the policy of Ostpolitik led by Willy Brandt and West Germany in 1970 signed treaties with Poland and the Soviet Union recognizing the Oder-Neisse line as the legitimate and permanent border of Poland. In 1991 as a prerequisite for the unification with East Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany amended its constitution, the Basic Law, to remove the article concerning unification of pre-war German areas, as a further sign of recognition of the line. Some right-wing elements in Germany and descendants of those displaced continue to maintain that the territories should be returned to Germany, but support for this within Germany is insignificant. Although there is no fear within Poland, that Germany would annex the land east of the Oder-Neisse, there are worries that descendants of the expelled Germans would attempt to buy land and resettle within Poland. This has led to Polish restrictions on the sale of property to foreigners and has complicated Poland's efforts to join the European Union.