German political magazine "Cicero", after the fresh visit of president Karol Nawrocki in Berlin, devoted extended material to Polish reparation claims against Germany. The president of Poland raised this subject in talks with German president Frank Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Friedrich Merzem.
Author Thomas Urban describes Nawrocki as "a typical of a nationalist camp", who did not shun anti-German accents in his campaign. He stressed that the visit had gone without diplomatic failures and political confrontations.
Most Poles request reparation
Urban pointed out that the overwhelming majority of Polish commentators shared the opinion that German guilt rests on the morals and thus the work for bringing about historical justice and payment of reparations. He recalled that nearly 60% of respondents support Nawrocki's actions, and only about 20% are against it.
Urban noted that the majority of Polish public opinion is outraged erstwhile German representatives remind of the resignation of the Polish government in 1953 from the reparation. "There is no uncertainty that the Polish Stalinists have issued appropriate statements under force from Moscow," said the author, erstwhile longtime correspondent "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" in Warsaw and Moscow.
Berlin treats German east lands as compensation
Urban expressed surprise that no of the commentators in the leading Polish media pointed out that the right reason for Berlin's rejection of Polish reparation claims was not a 1953 statement, but alternatively the Germans' resignation of Poland from the German east lands after planet War II.
The author criticises the deficiency of a clear position of the German government Chancellor Olaf Scholz in consequence to the study on war losses, presented by the Polish side in 2022, calling the attitude of the government a "doubt". As he added, it is besides amazing to ignore this aspect in the German press, although "large German political parties agree on this issue".
According to a German politician considered to be the creator of the relaxation policy, Chancellor Willy Brandt (1969-1974), considered the resignation of Silesia, Pomerania and the confederate part of East Prussia to Poland as compensation for German crimes. At the time the management in Warsaw saw it the same way – the author emphasized.
The German government avoids taking a clear stand
"Currently, German politicians avoid publically naming this context as if they were afraid that the reminder of the expulsion of millions of Germans from the lands of Oder and Nysa and of the acquisition of their property by the Polish state could trigger its own negative dynamics" – reads "Cicero".
According to Urban, the dispute over reparations could be easy neutralised if German politicians stopped burying themselves behind "rightly apt, but politically unhelpful" arguments about the resignation of claims in 1953, and alternatively said clearly: "Germany treats the abandonment of east lands as compensation that clearly exceeds the size of Polish reparations claims".
Urban draws attention to the counterarguments of the Polish side, which claims that German east lands were granted Poland as compensation for Polish east territories taken over by the USSR. The author admitted that this was in line with the facts. However, this position means that Germany would pay for the annexation made by Stalin. In his opinion, there will never be a majority in the Bundestag accepting specified a position, and the overwhelming majority of Germans, including those who engage in Polish-German dialogue, will be opposed.
At the end, Urban called for a conference of Polish and German historians devoted to reparations. In his opinion, the German Historical Institute in Warsaw would be an appropriate place.
Jacek Lepiar
This text is simply a discussion of an article from the German press, not a reflection of the position of the DW editorial board.
