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The Oder-Neisse line (German Oder-Neiße-Grenze, Polish Granica na Odrze i Nysie Łużyckiej) is the current border between Germany and Poland. The line consists mostly of the rivers Oder and Neisse, leaving the city of Stettin, located on both banks of the Oder, in Poland. Some speculate that this boundary is basically the same as the Polish-German border in the 10th–14th centuries (see also the Dagome Iudex), but this is not clear. In any case medieval borders cannot be applied to modern nations, as population shifts have occured multiple times in past six centuries. For example, Germans formed a large part of the population of the medieval Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and in many places formed a majority on the 'wrong side' of the supposed border, whereas because of post-WW2 expulsion of Germans they now form a very remote minority.
Before WW I, nearly all of this territory was a part of the German empire (Deutsches Reich). After the Treaty of Versailles of 1918, Great Poland Uprising and Silesian Uprisings a part of the territory consisting historical region of Silesia and acquired by then Prussia in effect of Partitions of Poland in 18th century, was granted to Poland. Both the German and Polish parts of Silesia contained a very mixed population, Germans forming the majority in most German parts, and Poles forming the majority in most Polish parts, although many Germans now lived in Poland, and many ethnic Poles lived in Germany. For a factual account read 1921 Plebiscite in Silesia and Korfanty led violence. In 1939, Nazi Germany proposed to shift Poland's borders back to the East, re-establishing the pre-1918 borders. Germany was to get Free City of Danzig (Freie Stadt Danzig) and some other border corrections, mainly areas where Germans formed the majority. Poland was to join Germany in the war against Soviet Union. The reward was to be either Lithuania or Western Ukraine with the port in Odessa, to be determined by the Polish authorities. These areas were historically a part of Poland, but had been claimed by the Russians. Having a British guarantee of protection, the Polish government refused.
The next chapter in the history of Poland's borders during WWII happened on August 23, 1939, when Poland was divided in Non-Aggression Treaty between Germany and Soviet Union (see Nazi-Soviet pact). The very general map suggested, that the border between those countries should go from the source of the San river to the mouth, then along Vistula River, dividing Warsaw in 2 parts, and then with Narew river to the border of East Prussia. Lithuania was to be assigned to Germany, while Latvia, Estonia and Finland would be granted to the Soviet Union.
Nazi Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, and the Soviet Union attacked on September 17. On September 28 both aggressive powers signed yet another border treaty. Lithuania was to be transferred to Soviet Union in exchange for the Lublin region (between the San, Vistula, Bug and Narew rivers). In addition, since the Narew River never actually crossed the border of East Prussia, the Pisa River was to join the Narew line and East Prussia. East Prussia was also enlarged by the Suwalki region.
After the invasion was concluded, the German strip had an area of 188,000 km² with 21.5 million people, while Soviets got 201,000 km² and 13.5 million population.
In October 1939, Germany re-annexed 94,000 km² of West Prussia or Pomerania, those parts of Silesia which were within Poland after WW I, and Posen Greater Poland, populated by around 10 million people, including significant number of Germans. The annexed territories included some areas that before 1914 were not part of Germany, such as Lodz. About 860,000 Poles were immediately deported from the annexed territories to the German-controlled remnant of Poland, while at the same time the Soviet Union began to expel Germans from the Baltic countries. 360,000 Baltic Germans settled down in the re-annexed lands. Poles living on the German re-annexed territories were deprived of their human rights, and faced serious persecutions.
The remainder of the re-annexed lands and occupied Poland itself, was formed in a so-called General Government.
In 1941 Nazi Germany (becoming aware of the Soviet plan to conquer Germany) attacked its Soviet ally without a formal declaration of war. The German armies advanced into the Soviet Union, but in January 1944 the Soviet Army marched back into Polish territory. Stalin was determined not to give back anything that had been gained due to his agreement with the Nazis.
The new communist government of Poland was established by Stalin in July 1944. Stalin supported his new satellite state with the promise that Poland would be compensated for the loss of the Eastern Poland by the acquisition of some areas of defeated Germany.
The decision to move Poland's western boundary westwards was made by the Allies at the Yalta Conference, without involvement of the Polish side, shortly before the end of World War II. The precise location of the border was left open; the western Allies also accepted in general the principle of the Oder-Neisse line as the future western border of Poland and of population transfer as the way to prevent future border disputes. The open question was whether it should be the eastern or western Neisse and if it should include Stettin or not.
Originally Germany were to keep Stettin and the Poles were to get East Prussia with Königsberg, but after Stalin decided he needed Königsberg as a year round warm-water port, the Poles were given Stettin as compensation. Poles also insisted on keeping Lviv in Galicia, but Stalin refused and offered Lower Silesia with Wroclaw (then Breslau) instead. (Incidently many people from Lviv were later moved to Wroclaw and to Gdansk).
The intention of the Allied powers was to punish Germany for its aggression in World War II, and to compensate Poland for lands taken by the Soviet Union at the beginning of the war. It has been suggested that the real reason was Franklin Delano Roosevelt's strong desire to appease Stalin any way he could, to gain his support for the war in the Pacific.
The final agreements compensated Poland for 187,000 km² located east of the Curzon line with 112,000 km² of former German territories. The northern part of East Prussia were directly annexed by Stalin. The property in that territory that at that time belonged to Germany, German organizations and Germans citizens was to be used as a partial compensation for property of Poles, their organizations and the Polish state, that had been lost in Eastern Poland, or for the damages caused by Germany during the war. Nevertheless, most of people from both sides of conflict that lost their property during the war, have never been compensated.
After the German surrender, Soviet armies were in control of Eastern Europe. Faced with this fait accompli, the United States, Great Britain, Soviet Union and France decided at the Potsdam Conference to put the German territories east of the Oder-Neisse line (by communist propaganda in Poland referred to as "Western Territories" or "Regained Territories") under Polish administrative control. It was then expected, that a final peace treaty would follow quickly and would either confirm the border or determine the exact border; it was also agreed that Germans remaining in Poland should be transferred to Germany. The affected areas included western and southern East Prussia, most of Pomerania and nearly all of Silesia; the northern part of East Prussia was added to the Soviet Union.
One of the reasons for the final version of the border line was the fact that
it was possibly the shortest possible border between Poland and Germany. It is
only 472 km in length, because it stretched from the northernmost point of the
Czech Republic to one of the southernmost points of the Baltic Sea in
the Oder river estuary. The previous border had been one of the longest borders in Europe, comprising more than 1400 km.
Putting the "regained territories" into an order met with usual post-war difficulties.
When the Red Army approached, many Germans fled, in defiance of Nazi orders. Individual German military men, such as admiral Doenitz, took it upon themself to individually aid the millions of refugees and expulsed, thereby limiting the loss to 'only' three million. Had they not aided the refugees and expulsed at the same time heavy Soviet assaults were overrunning the eastern German lands (since 1945 Western Poland), the death toll would have been many millions more. A large part of the population of East Prussia was murdered, men killed immediately and women tortured, raped, and then killed. At the same time US and British bombers heavily damaged cities and refugee camps. Caravans of fleeing people and hastily assembled private evacuation transports were often bombed, and evacuation ships were torpedoed by submarines. It was argued that this resembled exactly the hardships endured during WWII by other European nations attacked by Nazi Germany. Attempts were made by the Germans to demolish bridges in order to slow the Soviet advance. When the Red Army captured a city, everything valuable was taken as war loot. After that, the territory was further devastated by partisans and para-military looters accompanying the Soviets.
NKVD deported most of the surviving men to Siberia, without any distinction between the local Germans, ethnic Polish or any other people such as refugees from further east.
A new Soviet communist controlled Polish authority, with the help of recently moved into German territory given to Poland as Polish Corridor Poles, Polish slave workers and Polish prisoners of the concentration camp liberated in the neighborhood, tried to bring order to the cities and to get basic services running.
Somewhat of an obstacle was the Wehrwolf, a Nazi conspiracy of young individual German children and youth, many orphaned by the bombardements of their cities, now left defend their ravaged homeland by sporadic continuation of individual fighting against the new military occupation forces after the final defeat of Germany.
Before the 1939, all Regained Territories as they were called by the Poles, had a population of 8.8 million people, an unknown number belonged to the Polish minority that was illegal in Nazi Germany. There was also a Jewish minority, that was murdered during the Holocaust. German historians say that during the war around 1 million people were killed, through conscription into the German army, bombing, evacuation and mainly Soviet violence. A significant amount of population was deported to Siberia by NKVD, without much distinction between the local Kashubian Prussian , now claimed as Polish or Germans.
When taken over by Polish administration, the remainder of the population was around 4.5 million, including 1 million Polish slave workers or prisoners concentration camps that were caught in the country at the end of war. German citizens were confronted to a process of verification to see if they were fit for Polish citizenship. Local Poles gave their opinions and helped verify the behavior of the Germans during the war, taking into account the level of support for Nazi Germany.
Eventually, at least 2.2 million German citizens, who despite all odds, where still holding on to their homeland and did not 'volunteer' to be 'verified' were expelled to the occupation zones of Germany. Other sources give figures leading up to 15 million. (This is an approximate total of German and ethnic Germans ousted from eastern Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line and other eastern European countries.)
The communist government of the Soviet satellite state of East Germany signed a treaty with Poland in 1950 recognizing the Oder-Neisse line as a "border of friendship". In 1952, recognition of the Oder-Neisse line as a permanent boundary was one of the conditions for the Soviet Union to agree to a reunified Germany. The reunification was rejected by West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer for several reasons.
In West Germany the recognition of the line as permanent was initially regarded as unacceptable. In fact, West Germany as part of the Hallstein Doctrine did not recognize either Poland or East Germany. The West German attitude changed with the policy of Ostpolitik led by Willy Brandt; in 1970 West Germany signed treaties with Poland and the Soviet Union recognizing the Oder-Neisse line as a factual border of Poland, thus making family visits by the displaced eastern Germans to their former homelands possible. On November 14, 1990 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. The 1991 Polish-German border agreement finalized the Oder-Neisse line as the Polish-German border and was also supposed to grant the German minority in Poland several rights such as the right to use German surnames, their native language, schools, and churches, rights which they often were denied previously.
After World War II many expellees (German: Heimatvertriebene) from the land east of the Oder-Neisse received refuge in both West-Germany and East-Germany. Some of the expellees are active in politics and belong to the political right-wing, many others do not belong to any organizations, but continue to maintain what they call a lawful right to their homeland. The vast majority pledged to work peacefully towards that goal, while rebuilding post-war Germany and Europe. In a document signed 50 years ago the Heimatvertriebene organisations have also recognized the plight of the different groups of people living in today's Poland who were by force resettled there. The Heimatvertriebene are just one of the groups of millions of other people from many different countries, who all found refuge in today's Germany. In today's Germany there is little political support for reopening the border issue.
Relations between Poland and Germany are good, and there are no fears within Poland that Germany would annex the land east of the Oder-Neisse line. There are, however, some worries among Poles that descendants of the expelled Germans would buy the land. It is believed this may result in large price increases since the current Polish land price is low compared to Western Europe. This led to Polish restrictions on the sale of property to foreigners, including Germans, (a special permission is needed), comparable to similar restrictions on the Baltic Åland Islands. These restrictions will be lifted in 12 years after accesion of Poland to the European Union, i.e on May 1, 2016.
The Heimatvertriebene in general are aware and recognize the fact that Poles since 1945 live in the eastern German homelands. The official proposed policy is not to repeat the Potsdam Agreements expulsions with new persecutions and population transfers. Most Heimatvertriebene welcome the Slavic peoples now living on German lands as welcome friends and neighbours in the European Union.
Situation before World War II
The question of Polish borders during World War II
Allies decide Polish border
Implementation of the new border line
Forced population transfers summary
Recognition of the fact of the border by Germany
Today and the future
