The Threatening Other in the East: Continuities and Discontinuities in Modern German-Polish Relations

Abstract

The relationship between (West) Germany and Poland after World War II seems to be utterly deprived of any trace of colonialist domination or dependency. Even if one is willing to characterize Hitler’s brutal occupation of Poland as a form of imperialistic policy in a colonialist tradition the postwar environment of a defeated Germany and the quickly emerging Cold War division of the continent appear to have put an end to any thought about the continuity of this legacy. Recent developments after 1989 and most notably Poland’s membership in the European Union seem to add weight to a reading of German-Polish relations geared toward reconciliation and equal partnership. In short, the dominant reading is that 1945 marked the beginning of an entire new era in the relationship between the two countries in which domination and enmity was replaced by respect and, after the collapse of Communism, a slowly emerging partnership. In this reading, Germany’s relationship with Poland is destined to follow the exemplary rapport that Germany has developed with France since the war. The end of Communism and Poland’s “return to Europe” has generated an environment in which this process is bound to complete its course that had been belated by the divisiveness of the Communist rule in Central Eastern Europe.