Abstract
During a public meeting in San Francisco in the fall of 2005, I had the rare chance to ask the then Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski about his views on Polish-German relations, and was initially disappointed with his answer. I had phrased my question in terms of whether “the glass was half-full or half-empty,” and President Kwaśniewski answered rather evasively: “Half-full or half-empty? Oh no, not at all! When I am around my German colleagues, we always drink from full glasses of beer.”
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Notes
As, for instance, just two book titles can attest: Janusz Konrad Dobrosz, Polska, Niemcy—Trudne Sąsiedztwo (Warsaw: LSW, 2000); and
Andrzej Więckowski, Wypowiedzieć wojnę Niemcom (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Krakowskie, 2003).
The term was first coined by Klaus Bachmann, a former German correspondent in Poland and current university professor at the Willi-Brandt Center in Wrocław. See an exhaustive discussion of this term, its history, and subsequent diverse applications in Hans Henning Hahn, Heidi Hein-Kircher, und Anna Kochanowska-Nieborak (eds), Erinnerungskultur und Versöhnungskitsch (Marburg: Verlag Herder-Institut, 2008).
Quoted by Edmund Dymitrów, “The Role of Myths and Stereotypes in Mutual Perception,” p. 493, in : Anna Wolff-Powę ska and Dieter Bingen (eds), Polacy-Niemcy: sąsiedztwo z dystansu (Poznań: Instytut Zachodni, 2004).
This attitude had a much more complicated and complex foundation. For instance, one astute author wrote: “While fighting against the Steinbach proposal, we exposed ourselves with national insecurities and anti-German phobias.” Piotr Buras, “Sad Truth about the Lack of Reconciliation,” in Rzeczpospolita (September 26, 2003). See also my article:
Paweł Lutomski, “The Debate about a Center against Expulsions: A Surprising Crisis in German-Polish Relations?” German Studies Review 27, no. 3 (2004): 449–468.
Article XIII of the Potsdam Agreement reads: “The three Governments, having considered the question in all its aspects, recognize that the transfer to Germany of German populations, or elements thereof, remaining in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, will have to be undertaken. They agree that any transfers that take place should be effected in an orderly and humane manner.” As quoted in: Norman Naimark, The Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), p.111.
See, for example, Felix Ermacora, Das Deutsche Vermögen in Polen, Ein Rechtsgutachten (Munich: Wirtschaftsverlag, 1996).
Jan Barcz, “The Legal Bases of Poland’s Relations with United Germany,” in: Witold Góra lski (ed.), Poland — Ger many 1945 –20 07: Fr om Conf rontation to Cooperation and Partnership in Europe (Warsaw: Polish Institute of International Affairs, 2007). See also:
Witold Góralski, “The Legal Bases and Aims of the Programme of Alienating German Property,” in: Witold Góralski (ed.), Polish-German Relations and the Effects of the Second World War (Warsaw: Polish Institute of International Affairs, 2006), p. 153.
Ibid. Frankowska is a professor teaching international law in the United States. See also Anthony Clark Arend, Legal Rules and International Society (Oxford: University Press, 1999), p. 58. Clark states there: “[W]hile not all unilateral declarations create law, if the state intends through its unilateral statement—whether expressed in writing or delivered orally—to establish a legal obligation, such an obligation is as binding as those established through or custom.”
Jan Barcz and Jochen Frowein, “Expert Appraisal in the Matter of Claims from Germany against Poland in Connection with the Second World War,” in Gazeta Prawna, Dodatek Specjalny (December 1, 2004). It can be also found online in Polish and German.
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© 2012 Kristin Kopp and Joanna Niżyńska
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Lutomski, P. (2012). “The Law Alleviates Concerns”: Legal Dimensions of Polish-German Reconciliation. In: Kopp, K., Niżyńska, J. (eds) Germany, Poland, and Postmemorial Relations. Europe in Transition: The Nyu European Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137052056_4
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