Oder–Neisse line
The Oder-Neisse line (German: Oder-Neiße-Grenze, Polish: Granica na Odrze i Nysie Łużyckiej) is the border between Germany and Poland. The line consists mostly of the rivers Oder/Odra and Neisse/Nysa Łużycka, but deviates westward of the Oder/Odra to include the seaport city of Szczecin (Stettin) within Poland.
History of the line
Before World War II, Poland's western border with Germany had been fixed under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919. It generally ran along the historic borders of Great Poland, but with certain adjustments that were intended to reasonably reflect the ethnic compositions of small areas beyond the traditional provincial borders. However, eastern Pomerania, Upper Silesia and Masuria had been divided, leaving large areas populated by rural Slavic populations on the German side and large German urban populations on the Polish side. Moreover, the border was one of the longest possible borders and it left two exclaves in northern Poland (the independent Free City of Danzig and Germany's province of East Prussia).
At the end of World War II in 1945, under the territorial changes demanded by the Soviet Union, the border was moved westward deep into territory claimed by the German state, to the so-called Oder-Neisse line, which placed almost all of Silesia, more than half of Pomerania (including Stettin), the eastern portion Brandenburg and a small area of Saxony within Poland. Polish territory included also the area of Danzig/Gdańsk and the southern two-thirds of East Prussia, Masuria and Warmia. The territorial changes were followed by large-scale population transfers, including the expulsion of nearly all the ethnic Germans from the Polish territory and the return to Poland of the Polish displaced persons then inside Allied occupied Germany. In addition to this, the Polish population from the eastern half of former Poland, now annexed by the Soviet Union, was mostly expelled and resettled in the former German territories that now constituted western Poland. Poles and Germans were not the only ethnic groups to be expelled from their traditional homelands by Joseph Stalin's territorial demands.
Resentment and the difficulty accepting the arbitrarily defined post-war Polish-German borders were exacerbated by: the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 that even enlarged the country beyond the 1918 German frontiers; the Soviet insistence on retaining Polish areas seized by Stalin early in the war east of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Line and so-called Curzon Line, which had been agreed to at Yalta Conference, and the brutal evacuation of the 800,000 people remaining in the ruins of Warsaw after the Warsaw Uprising. Among the Poles, there were not many who opposed Poland's territorial gains from Germany on a humanitarian basis, since they were perceived as justice for starting the war, genocide conducted by German state and territorial losses of Poland. But several groups did consider the territorial changes and the associated German expulsions to be excessive and a humanitarian disaster.
Allies decide Polish border
The final decision to move Poland's boundary westward was made by the US, Britain and the Soviets at the Yalta Conference, shortly before the end of the war. The precise location of the border was left open; the western Allies also accepted in general the principle of the Oder River as the future western border of Poland and of population transfer as the way to prevent future border disputes. The open question was whether the border should follow the eastern or western Neisse rivers, and whether Stettin, the traditional seaport of Berlin, should remain German or be included in Poland. The western Allies sought to place the border on the eastern Neisse, but Stalin refused to budge. Compromises suggestions of either the Queiss or the Bober rivers were also brushed aside by the Soviets.
Germany originally was to retain Stettin, while the Poles were to annex East Prussia with Königsberg, as the Polish government had in fact demanded at the start of World War II, due to East Prussia's proximity and political and geographic inclusion within the historical Kingdom of Poland. Other territorial changes proposed by Polish government were the inclusion of Silesian region of Opole, Gdańsk, straightening the border in Western Pomerania and areas near Bytów and Lębork[1]. Most of those areas had large Polish population[2] Eventually, however, Stalin decided that he wanted Königsberg as a year-round warm water port for the Soviet Navy and argued that the Poles should receive Stettin instead. The pre-war Polish government in exile had little to say in these decisions, but did insisted on retaining the historic Polish city of Lwów (now L'viv) in Galicia. But Stalin refused to give it up and instead offered Lower Silesia with Breslau. (Incidentally many people from Lwów would later be moved to populate Wrocław [formerly Breslau] and Gdańsk [formerly Danzig].) It should be also noted that the border isn't the most far reaching territorial change that was proposed. They were also plans to include areas of Slavic settlement that were settled by German colonists in Ostsiedlung, which would put the Polish border further West, quite near the city of Berlin, so that the Polish state could include the population of Slavic Sorbs[3]
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At the Potsdam Conference the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union placed the German territories east of the Oder-Neisse line (Poland referred to by the Polish communist government as the "Western Territories" or "Regained Territories") as formally under Polish administrative control. It was anticipated that a final peace treaty would follow shortly and either confirm this border or determine whatever alterations might be agreed upon. It was also decided that all Germans remaining in the new and old Polish territory should be expelled, to prevent any claims of minority rights. The final agreements in effect compensated Poland for 187,000 km² located east of the Curzon line with 112,000 km² of former German territories. However, the land Poland gained was generally well developed and rich in natural resources, and more than made up for the poorer areas lost to the Soviets. The northerneastern third of East Prussia was directly annexed by the Soviet Union and remains part of Russia to this day.
One of the reasons for the final version of the border was the fact that it was the shortest possible border between Poland and Germany. It is only 472 km in length, because it stretches from the northernmost point of the Czech Republic to one of the southernmost points of the Baltic Sea in the Oder river estuary. The rights of the inhabitants of the formerly German territories, many of the people themselves originally of Slavic origin, were completely disregarded by the victorious powers.
It was Stalin who first insisted that Poland's western frontier be extended to the Oder at the Tehran Conference in late 1943. The Americans, however, were not interested in discussing any border changes at that time. (US State Department, Foreign Relations of the US: The Conference at Cairo and Tehran 1943, "Tripartite Dinner Meeting, 28 Nov 1943" pp. 509-14). British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden wrote in his diary that "A difficulty is that the Americans are terrified of the subject which [Roosevelt advisor] Harry [Hopkins] called 'political dynamite' for their elections. But, as I told him, if we cannot get a solution, Polish-Russian relations six months from now, with Russian armies in Poland, will be infinitely worse and elections nearer." (Anthony Eden, The Reckoning (London, 1965) p. 427).
At the Yalta Conference, Poland was again discussed. President Roosevelt said that it would "make it easier for me at home" if Stalin was generous to Poland with respect to Poland's eastern frontiers. (US Dept of State, Foreign Relations of the US, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, Third Plenary Meeting 6 Feb 1945, Matthews Minutes, p. 77). Winston Churchill said a Soviet concession on that point would be admired as "a gesture of magnanimity" and declared that, with respect to Poland's post-war government, the British would "never be content with a solution which did not leave Poland a free and independent state." (Ibid., Bohlen Minutes, p. 669). With respect to Poland's western frontiers, Stalin noted that the Polish Prime Minister in exile, Stanisław Mikołajczyk, had been pleased when Stalin had already told him Poland would be granted Stettin and the German territories east of the Western Neisse River. (Llewellyn Woodward, British Foreign Policy in the Second World War, (London, 1962) p. 299). Churchill objected to the Western Neisse frontier saying that "it would be a pity to stuff the Polish goose so full of German food that it got indigestion." He added that many British would be shocked if such large numbers of Germans were driven out of these areas, to which Stalin responded that many Germans had already fled before the Red Army. Poland's western frontier was ultimately left to be decided at the Potsdam Conference.
At Potsdam, Stalin argued for the Oder-Neisse line on the grounds that the Polish Government demanded this frontier and that there were no longer any Germans left east of this line, a claim which prompted Admiral William D. Leahy, US President Truman's Chief of Staff, to whisper "The Bolshies have killed them all," into US President Truman's ear. (Harry Truman, Year of Decisions, (New York, 1955) p. 296). Later the Russians admitted that at least a million Germans still remained in the area at that time. On July 24, 1945, several Polish leaders appeared at the conference to advance arguments for an Oder-Western Neisse frontier. Stettin's port was demanded for Eastern European exports. If Stettin were Polish, then "in view of the fact that the supply of water is found between the Oder and the Lausitzer Neisse, if the Oder's tributaries were controlled by someone else the river could be blocked." (US Dept of State, Foreign Relations of the US, The Conference of Berlin (Potsdam) 1945, vol. II pp. 1522-1524.)
On July 25 both the US President and British Prime Minister stated that they could not tolerate Polish administration of part of one of the occupation zones (effectively making Poland a fifth occupying power after the UK, USA, France, and the USSR) and the expulsion of millions of people from it into other areas. (Ibid., pp. 381ff). Stalin responded that the Poles "were taking revenge for the injuries which the Germans had caused them in the course of centuries" (Ibid., p. 384).
On July 29, however, James Byrnes – who had become US Secretary of State earlier that month – advised the Soviets that the US was prepared to concede the area east of the Oder and the Eastern Neisse to Polish administration and not consider it part of the Soviet occupation zone, in return for a moderation of Soviet demands for reparations from the Western occupation zones. (Ibid., p. 1150). An Eastern Neisse boundary would have left Germany with roughly half of Silesia. The Soviets insisted that the Poles would not accept this (though in fact that had already informed the Americans that they would). The next day Byrnes told Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov that the Americans would reluctantly concede the Western Neisse (Ibid., p. 480). Mr Byrnes's concession undermined the British position, and although British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin raised objections (Ibid., p. 519), the British eventually agreed with the American concession.
Winston Churchill was not present at the end of the Conference as the results of the British election had made it clear he had been defeated. Churchill later claimed that he would never have agreed to the Oder-Western Neisse line, and in his famous Iron Curtain speech declared that "The Russian-dominated Polish Government has been encouraged to make enormous and wrongful inroads upon Germany, and mass expulsions of millions of Germans on a scale grievous and undreamed-of are now taking place" [4].
Recognition of the border by Germany
The governments of East Germany and Poland signed the Treaty of Zgorzelec in 1950, recognizing the Oder-Neisse line, officially designated the "Border of Peace and Friendship". In another treaty signed in 1989 between Poland and East Germany, the sea border was set.
In 1952, recognition of the Oder-Neisse line as a permanent boundary was one of Stalin's conditions for the Soviet Union to agree to a reunified Germany. The offer was rejected by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer for several reasons.
In West Germany, where the majority of the 12 million displaced refugees had settled, the recognition of the Oder-Neisse Line as permanent was long regarded as unacceptable. In fact, West Germany as part of the Hallstein Doctrine did not recognize either communist Poland or Soviet-dominated East Germany. The West German attitude changed with the policy of Ostpolitik led by Willy Brandt. In 1970 West Germany signed treaties with the Soviet Union (Treaty of Moscow) and Poland (Treaty of Warsaw) recognizing the Oder-Neisse line as a factual border of Poland. This had the effect of making family visits by the displaced eastern Germans to their lost homelands now possible.
On November 14, 1990, after German reunification, the (extended) Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland signed a treaty confirming the border between them, as requested by the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany. Earlier, Germany had amended its constitution and abolished Article 23 of West Germany's Basic Law, the one used for reunification, which could have been used to claim the former German eastern territories as well. During this period Helmut Kohl the Chancellor of Germany refused initially to recognise the Polish border and serious diplomatic attempts had to be made in order to secure German agreement towards final settlement.[5] The 1990 Polish-German border agreement finalizing the Oder-Neisse line as the Polish-German border came into force on January 16, 1992 together with a second one, a Treaty of Good Neighbourhood, signed on June 17, 1991, where the two countries among other things recognized basic political and cultural rights for both German and Polish minorities living on either side of the border. (Approximately 150,000 ethnic Germans still reside in Poland, mainly in the Opole Voivodship, with smaller presence in regions such as Silesia and Masuria, and one and a half milion Poles in Germany, both from recent migration as well as families living in Germany for centuries. An unknown number of these Polish immigrants may actually be ethnic Germans who only later emigrated from former east German lands).
Despite the treaty of Good Neighbourhood, both Poland and Germany to this day refuse to recognise many minority cultural and political rights. In Poland Germans of the minority in Opole (Oppeln) still complain, that they are negatively discriminated, though economically they are secured because of their German passes, which have allowed them for the last ten years to work freely in the European Union's Western European member states.
See also
References
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External links
- An East German pamphlet for propagandists entitled "Why is the Oder-Neiße Line a Peace Border?"
- CNN Cold War - The Oder-Neisse Line: Ethnic cleansing, 1940s style
- Treaty confirming the border between Germany and Poland (Warsaw, November 14, 1990) in Polish and German
- The Oder Neisse Line Problem (German) [6]
- Closing The Ring Winston Churchill; Excerpt on the Teheran conference, from his memoirs.
- Speaking Frankly James F. Byrnes; Excerpt on the Yalta conference, from his memoirs.
- Triumph and Tragedy Winston Churchill; Excerpt on the Yalta conference, from his memoirs.
- Churchill's statement to the House of Commons 27, February, 1945, Describing the outcome of Yalta