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Poland Germany
Together with securing the removal of Soviet troops
from
Polish territory, the reemergence of a united,
economically
powerful Germany presented Warsaw's greatest foreign
policy
challenge after 1989. Fear of a resurgent Germany
motivated
Skubiszewski's initial desire to preserve the Warsaw Pact
as a
political alliance guaranteeing the Oder-Neisse Line as
Poland's
western border. Warsaw also welcomed the continued
presence of
United States forces in Europe as a check on potential
German
expansionism. At the same time, however, Germany
represented the
largest potential source of economic assistance and
investment
for Poland, accounting in 1990 for one-fifth of Warsaw's
imports
and one-quarter of its exports.
Throughout the postwar period, relations between Warsaw
and
the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) had ranged
from
cool to hostile. In 1981 Poland's international isolation
following the imposition of martial law further set back
bilateral relations. Despite the overall expansion of
economic
ties in the postwar period, intractable differences
remained over
such issues as treatment of the 300,000 ethnic Germans in
Poland,
German territorial claims on Poland, compensation for
Polish
victims of Nazi persecution, and the permanence of the
OderNeisse border. Warsaw consistently and energetically
opposed all
movement toward German reunification and revanchism. On
the other
hand, bilateral relations between Poland and East Germany
were
never warm, in spite of their official alliance in the
Warsaw
Pact. Poles resented East Germany's general enthusiasm for
communist orthodoxy and its support of Jaruzelski's
martial law
decree in 1981.
West German chancellor Helmut Kohl visited Warsaw in
November
1989 to accelerate the recent improvement of relations
between
the traditional enemies. Kohl hoped to gain Polish
guarantees for
German minority rights and to quiet fears about German
revanchism
that had escalated with impending reunification. West
Germany
extended some US$2 billion in economic assistance to
Warsaw and
acknowledged Germany's guilt for attacking Poland in World
War
II. Kohl also reaffirmed a 1970 bilateral treaty promising
to
respect existing borders. After Kohl subsequently caused
an
international stir by hedging on that commitment, the
border
issue was buried when Germany officially renounced all
claims on
Polish territory and recognized the permanence of the
existing
border in May 1990.
December 1991 marked a milestone in Polish-German
relations
when the parliaments of both countries ratified a treaty
of
friendship and cooperation. On that occasion, Prime
Minister
Bielecki stated that the common strategic goal of a united
Europe
had inspired Poland and unified Germany to a level of
mutual
trust unprecedented in the long history of their
coexistence.
Bielecki and his successors viewed Germany as Poland's key
to
integration into the West. In turn, Germany considered
Warsaw the
gateway to vast economic opportunities in the East. A
central
element of the treaty was strict adherence to
international
standards in the treatment of ethnic minorities.
In 1992 bilateral relations continued to improve. On an
official visit in the spring, Walesa praised Germany as a
democratic, liberal, and modern state and urged greater
investment in Poland. In July the new German foreign
minister,
Klaus Kinkel, visited Warsaw to sign routine customs and
border
agreements. Kinkel praised Poland's treatment of its
German
minority, which had gained seven representatives in the
Sejm and
one in the Senate in the October 1991 parliamentary
elections.
Despite the many positive signs of a lasting
rapprochement
between Germany and Poland, however, in 1992 Poles
remained
suspicious of their powerful western neighbor. European
economic
instability during the late summer brought into question
the
feasibility of the EC goal of monetary and political union
and
rekindled fears of German economic domination. Widespread
vandalism and violence by xenophobic extremists in Germany
also
contributed to Polish unease.
Data as of October 1992
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