Poland's foreign policy

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States with Polish embassies
States with embassies in Poland

The foreign policy of Poland of the Third Republic is determined by the history and geographical location of the country. The Foreign Minister, currently Jacek Czaputowicz , is responsible , supported by the President .

Foreign minister

European politics

Immediately before and after EU accession , the Polish government showed itself to be under pressure from the Eurosceptic opposition , more of a brake on the way to deeper EU expansion. Reasons for this were, on the one hand, concerns about Germany, above all, being too dominant in the EU, historically based fears of a loss of sovereignty to Brussels and, on the other hand, the critical assessment of the Brussels bureaucracy and those in core Europe (Germany, Belgium, France) from Poland's point of view , foreign policy directed against Poland.

The Polish government is trying to maintain and develop stable, friendly relations that are favorable to Poland's economy with the former Eastern Bloc allies .

Polish foreign policy is, to a certain extent, geared towards its own ideas of national size and as unrestricted sovereignty as possible: In the EU, people are looking for a high degree of independence. That is why the Leszek Miller administration supported US foreign policy in the Iraq conflict and has expressed its skepticism about some points of the EU constitution (together with José María Aznar ).

Poland in NATO

As a NATO member, Poland advocates close security policy cooperation between Europe and the USA. This includes, in particular, the transfer of NATO troops to Poland and the Baltic states on a rotation basis .

Bilateral relations

Relations with Germany

German-Polish relations
Location of Germany and Poland
GermanyGermany PolandPoland
Germany Poland
Coat of arms of the couple Hedwig Jagiellonica and Georg the Rich of Bavaria-Landshut in the Burghausen castle

history

Choppy German-Polish relations go back (at least) to the 10th century. The very first early German-Saxon written source ( Widukind von Corvey ), which names a Polish ruler, namely Mieszko I , the founder of the Polish state in 966, describes him as amicus imperatoris (friend of the emperor), namely of the emperor Otto III. In the Middle Ages - especially after the depopulation of large parts of Poland in the Tatar storm in 1241 - it was particularly marked by the fact that Polish rulers invited German farmers, craftsmen, merchants, artists and religious to settle in Poland. Many cities adopted German (city) law, but this did not automatically require the arrival or participation of German settlers (as was often mistakenly assumed in the past). In addition to the peaceful settlement in the east, there was also a policy of individual German rulers (dynasties) aimed at conquering Polish territories. The best known is the conflict between the Teutonic Order and Poland over the Pomeranians , primarily a conflict between the respective rulers. Polish and Lithuanian mercenaries also fought in the armies of the Teutonic Order. The magistrates of many German-speaking cities at the time - for example Graudenz and Thorn - supported the Polish king in the fight against the Teutonic Order. Regardless of dynastic territorial conflicts, German-Polish relations (nation states in today's sense did not know the Middle Ages) were not bad. Poles and Germans lived together peacefully in cities and villages. Poland-Lithuania was the only major European power that did not intervene in the German wars of religion - especially the Thirty Years' War. The Polish fiefdom of Prussia even received permission from King Sigismund I to be the first state in the world to convert to Protestantism in 1526. The Hohenzollern, Habsburg and Wittelsbachers were connected to the Polish Jagiellonians through marriages. With the Polish-Saxon personal union under the Wettins from 1696–1764 , many Saxons came to Warsaw and Bambergs to Posen .

With the partitions of Poland by the great powers Prussia, Russia and Austria and the Napoleonic Wars, the relationship between Prussia and Poland deteriorated. Nonetheless, numerous friendships grew between Polish and German artists. B. between Adam Mickiewicz and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and between the former and Heinrich Heine . Many liberals, especially those from southern Germany, also supported the Poles' struggle for freedom in the pre-March period . The high point of this friendship was the Hambach Festival in 1832.

The Hambach Festival of 1832: Train to Hambach Castle ; based on a contemporary representation

The enthusiasm for Poland was widespread from the July Revolution of 1830 to the German Revolution of 1848/1849 and found its expression, among other things, in Polish clubs, Polish speeches and Polish boobs. In the spring of 1848, Polish and German liberals fought against the Metternich restoration. The Berlin trial against the "Polish conspirators" was one of the factors that triggered the March events in the Prussian capital. The main defendant, Ludwik Mierosławski , commanded the Poznan uprising in 1848 and in 1849 led the defense of the last fortress of the Rastatt March Revolution in Baden.

However, with the policy of cultural warfare and the Germanization of Polish areas initiated by Bismarck and continued by the German Ostmarkenverein , German policy towards Poland became more aggressive. The Polish language was banned and Poland was expelled from their country. After the First World War , there were several border disputes between Germany and the newly founded Poland in Upper Silesia , East Prussia , West Prussia and Danzig . The Polish government pursued a restrictive policy towards the German population in the areas ceded to Poland: in 1925, a large part of the German property was expropriated, and Poland was granted a right of first refusal on land sales by Germans . German-speaking traders were z. T. the trade concession revoked. Around one million German-speaking citizens emigrated, mainly from the larger cities. At the time of the Weimar Republic there were also foreign policy efforts aimed at changing borders. In October 1930 the German-Polish liquidation agreement was concluded . It regulated the mutual renunciation of financial claims by both states and created legal security for the German minority in Poland . It is considered one of the few concrete steps to normalize German-Polish relations.

A low point in German-Polish relations was the Second World War and the extermination policy of the Nazi regime in German-occupied Poland . Hitler sought to incorporate the previously Polish areas into the German Reich. The expulsion of most of the Germans from Silesia , Pomerania , Danzig and southern East Prussia, which went along with the Westward shift of Poland decided by the Allies , hardened the fronts in the Cold War .

Relations with the GDR

At the unification party convention of the KPD and SPD to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in 1946, the eastern border with Poland was not yet declared final. In January 1948, the Soviet Union made it clear to a delegation led by Wilhelm Pieck that the Polish western border was final. Thereupon Otto Grotewohl pointed out the importance of friendly relations with Poland at the second German People's Congress and recognized the Polish western border. On October 18, 1949, Poland recognized the GDR, and at the end of February of the following year, both states established diplomatic relations. On July 6, 1950, the GDR recognized the eastern border of Germany in the Görlitz Agreement . On January 1, 1954, Poland waived further reparations payments from the GDR in order to enable internal stabilization of the GDR and to withdraw support from the protests against the German-Polish border.

Władysław Gomułka's reforms at the end of the 1950s were viewed with skepticism by the GDR leadership. Poland was also cautious about the GDR, among other things, because rumors about a border shift surfaced there. From 1957 on, relations loosened again and so the GDR agreed to the Rapacki Plan in 1957 . On March 15, 1967, the two states signed the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Assistance . On November 8, 1968, a scandal broke out in Moscow when Walter Ulbricht refused to sign a contract negotiated by the deputy prime minister. When Poland started negotiations with the Federal Republic of Germany, the GDR leadership, which had been surprised by this step, also responded with an offer to negotiate with the Federal Republic. In doing so, she put the Oder-Neisse border up for discussion as a recognition limited to ten years. This open affront to Poland led to an ice age in diplomatic relations. This was also borne by personal differences between Ulbricht and Gomułka.

On January 1, 1972, the visa requirement between the two countries was lifted. This made Poland a popular holiday destination for GDR citizens, and numerous contract workers came to the GDR from Poland. For GDR citizens, the more liberal political situation in Poland and the confrontation with German history, which was only conveyed to a limited extent in the GDR, became an important magnet when traveling to Poland. Poles, on the other hand, traveled to the GDR to buy highly subsidized consumer goods.

The emerging system change after the August strikes in Poland in 1980 led to the revocation of the visa-free regime by the GDR at the end of October that year. The proclamation of martial law in Poland was welcomed by the GDR, and diplomatic contacts between the two countries increased again from 1982 onwards.

Relations with the Federal Republic of Germany

In May 1969, Władysław Gomułka offered the government under Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU) talks on normalizing relations. Negotiations with the Soviet Union began in the fall of that year . On December 7th, 1970 the Warsaw Treaty was signed, which guaranteed the inviolability of the borders of the two states. Before that, the then Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt laid a wreath at the memorial of the heroes of the ghetto in Warsaw and knelt down ; internationally this was understood as a request for forgiveness and a symbol of the new Ostpolitik , for which Brandt received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 .

With the rapprochement of the German and Polish churches and the German-Polish treaty of 1970, this hardening began to dissolve, at least in some parts of the societies in West Germany and Poland. In 1975, following negotiations between the Jaroszewicz and Schmidt governments, Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany agreed to allow up to 125,000 people of German origin to leave Poland within four years. In return, the federal government paid 1.3 billion DM for pension claims of Polish citizens and granted Poland a loan of one billion DM.

In the cultural field, among others, Karl Dedecius and Theo Mechtenberg campaigned for good relationships.

Relations with the united Germany

In the two-plus-four treaty of September 1990, which paved the way for the reunification of Germany in terms of foreign policy , the Germans recognized the Oder-Neisse border . The German-Polish border is 442 kilometers long.

After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989/1990, German-Polish relations initially developed very positively. Germany was a staunch supporter of Poland's efforts to join NATO and the European Union. Relations were, however, overshadowed by discussions and disagreements about the Center against Expulsions called for by Erika Steinbach and other personalities , the compensation claims of the Prussian Trust and the construction of the Northern European Gas Pipeline . The future Polish President Lech Kaczyński was criticized in parts of the German press for stirring up anti-German resentment in the 2005 election campaign .

On August 1, 2004, Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder declared that the Federal Republic would not raise or support any claims against Poland over property issues from the Second World War. In the same year, the Polish Sejm passed a resolution stating that Poland had not yet received any compensation from Germany and that appropriate steps should be taken against the Federal Republic. The resolution was not binding on the Polish government and the government under Marek Belka finally fought off the demand.

On April 30, 2005, Federal President Horst Köhler and his Polish colleague Aleksander Kwaśniewski officially opened the German-Polish Year. As part of this, more than 1,000 events were to take place in both countries by spring 2006, including exhibitions, concerts, theater and film productions, and scientific conferences. Encounters between young people from both countries should have a special significance. In 2006, Germany also took part in the Warsaw Book Fair, an important hub for book sales from western to eastern countries, as a guest country on an additional 300 square meters (18-21 May). Poland ranks third as a buyer of German licenses.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle's first official visit abroad was to Poland. This was taken as evidence for his statements that he wanted to do more for the states east of Germany.

A large majority of the population in both Germany and Poland regard German-Polish relations as good or very good.

In the course of the Ukraine crisis in 2014 , fears were voiced in Poland that the Bundeswehr was too weak to provide Poland with effective support against Russia if necessary. After almost sixty years in which Germany was perceived as a threat, the ailing condition of the military equipment of the Bundeswehr caused some concern among Polish politicians and newspapers. According to surveys, only 7% of the Polish population see Germany as a threat.

Summary

Herbert Ludat has summarized the German-Polish relationship history in six epochs:

  1. State establishment ( 962 or 1000 ), Christianization and consolidation of statehood: 10th to 12th century (first phase of westernization ).
  2. 12th to 14th century: the era of "colonization" ( expansion of the country ) and the second stage of westernization and alignment.
  3. The 15th century with the political eastward turn of Poland (to Lithuania : Jagiellonian ), the cessation of the flow of German settlers, the non-violent polonization of the German bourgeoisie and the overthrow of the religious state by Poland.
  4. The emergence of the aristocratic republic as a constitutional system in its productive significance for relations with neighbors.
  5. The epoch of the primacy of external state relations with Prussia and Austria in the 17th and 18th centuries, in which the escalation of foreign policy, however, still shows independent German-Polish solidarity in the fight against absolutism .
  6. Since the partitions at the end of the 18th century, the modern German-Polish antagonism with the catastrophic deterioration of the relationship image until 1945.
  7. In the period from 1949 to 1989, there were two German states with different relationships due to their respective block affiliations. The GDR felt connected to the “socialist brother people” through the Warsaw Pact and Comecon , while the FRG belonged to NATO and the EU. Willy Brandt's new Ostpolitik was opposed to the demands of the expellees' associations .
  8. The dissolution of the two great power blocs of the Cold War offered the chance for better relations from 1989, especially because Poland soon belonged to NATO and the EU.

Relations with Austria

Austro-Polish relations
Location of Austria and Poland
AustriaAustria PolandPoland
Austria Poland
Jan Sobieski in the Battle of Kahlenberg

The Polish-Austrian contacts have their origins in the good relations between the Jagiellonian and Habsburg dynasties , which were underpinned by several marriages in the 15th and 16th centuries. Finally, in 1526, the Habsburgs inherited Bohemia and Hungary from the Jagiellonians. Since that time the Habsburg lands shared a border with Poland in Silesia as well as the Beskids and Carpathians . From these dynastic connections Maximilian I derived his claim to the Polish throne after the death of the last Polish Jagiellonian Sigismund II in August 1572. He could not enforce this, however, after he was defeated by the hetman Jan Zamoyski in 1576 and taken prisoner. Both states were also linked by the relatively successful Counter-Reformation. Although Polish troops took part on the side of the Habsburgs in the Battle of White Mountain in 1619, the Polish kings Sigismund III stayed. Wasa and Władysław IV. Wasa neutral in the Thirty Years War. In 1683 the Polish King Jan Sobieski saved Vienna from the Ottoman troops Kara Mustafa in the Battle of Kahlenberg .

Relations worsened in 1772 with the First Partition of Poland , in which Maria Theresa had Galicia and Lodomeria occupied. Nonetheless, she has stated that she regards the division as an injustice that would still bring great harm. Frederick the Great wrote "She wept, but she took". The Habsburgs also took part in the Third Partition of Poland. After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Austria retained Galicia and Lodomeria and in 1846 received the Republic of Krakow . After 1867 this area got a certain autonomy with its own parliament in Lviv . The Polish language was also reintroduced at universities and offices after it was banned there in 1850. Polish politicians, artists and scholars often made careers in Vienna right up to parliamentary presidents. Overall, the Poles made up the fourth largest population group in Austria-Hungary with over 10%. The cultural relations between southern Poland and Austria are shaped by this time to this day.

During the First World War, many Poles fought on both sides of the k. u. k. Monarchy as well as Russia against each other in Galicia and the Carpathian Mountains. After the Second World War, relations between the People's Republic of Poland and neutral Austria were better than with any other country in the West.

Relations with Switzerland

Polish-Swiss relations
Location of Switzerland and Poland
SwitzerlandSwitzerland PolandPoland
Switzerland Poland

In the Middle Ages and the early modern period, Swiss-Polish contacts consisted primarily of academic exchange, which began with the study of the Swiss upper class at the Kraków Academy (especially mathematics and astronomy) and Polish magnates at the University of Basel (especially humanistic departments) . Swiss artists, builders, doctors and soldiers were recruited from the Polish kings and city councils. So built z. B. Bernardo Quadro from Lugano the town hall of Poznan . The Swiss reformers were in regular correspondence with the Polish humanists, especially Jan Łaski and King Sigismund II. August, who were open to the ideas of the Reformation. The last Polish king, Stanisław August Poniatowski , employed a particularly large number of Swiss doctors and architects at his court. After the partitions of Poland and especially after the November uprising in 1830, a large part of the Polish intelligentsia emigrated to Switzerland. Tadeusz Kościuszko spent his twilight years in Solothurn and Count Plater in Rapperswil , where he founded the Rapperswil Poland Museum at the castle , which still exists today and which was headed by Stefan Żeromski for a long time . The great romantics Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki praised the landscape of Switzerland in their poems, the former was also a professor in Geneva. The most important Polish politicians of the Second Republic came from exile in Switzerland. B. Józef Piłsudski (Zurich), Ignacy Jan Paderewski (Morges), Gabriel Narutowicz (Zurich) etc. Many of them belonged to the Morges Front , which, with the support of many Swiss, campaigned for Polish independence. The Nobel laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz founded a charitable organization in Switzerland that took care of the Polish wounded in the First World War. Many Poles managed to flee to Switzerland during the Second World War. A whole regiment was interned in Switzerland and then helped to expand many large Swiss projects. During the Cold War , too , many Poles emigrated to Switzerland, where they were mostly received very warmly. In a referendum in 2005, the Swiss decided to open their labor market to workers from Poland. In 2006, the Polish-Swiss dual citizen Claude Janiak is Switzerland's first National Council President.

Relations with the USA

On August 14, 2008, Poland signed a provisional US military assistance treaty. The main point of the contract was the authorization to station ten US interceptor missiles at Słupsk as part of the National Missile Defense .

Relations with Russia

The perception of Russia in Poland is historically shaped by the partition of Poland in the 18th century, the invasion and occupation of Eastern Poland as a result of the " Hitler-Stalin Pact " (1939) and the establishment of the communist dictatorship and hegemony of the Soviet Union after the Second World War I until 1989.

The Polish-Russian relationship after the fall of the Warsaw Pact is marked by permanent tensions. At the beginning of the 1990s there were positive signs of a new start in bilateral relations. In 1993 the two sides signed a joint neighborhood agreement, and Poland was considered one of the greatest supporters of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline . However, from 1994 onwards, with Poland's commitment to integration into the West, relations took their negative course. Over time, Warsaw developed into a stronghold of Eastern European democracy and demanded that Moscow come to terms with the Soviet past.

In the Kremlin, the anti-Russia activities of the Polish side in Eastern Europe are causing great displeasure. Warsaw was one of the main initiators of the EU's Eastern Partnership and supported the color revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia. By cooperating closely with Germany and France, Russia for its part is trying to curb Polish influence, which is supposedly aimed at pushing Moscow out of its natural zone of interest. In retrospect, Russia has always been perceived in Poland as a threat and an occupying power. On the other hand, the Kremlin is praising itself as the liberator of Poland from Nazi rule and evaluating the country's western orientation as a sign of ingratitude.

Relations with Ukraine

Poland sees itself as Ukraine's lawyer in relations with NATO and the EU.

During the conflict over the presidential elections in Ukraine in November and December 2004 , the then Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and the Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus acted as mediators between the conflicting parties in the so-called Orange Revolution , while the Polish public and the media were particularly active Solidarity with Ukraine and its new president Viktor Yushchenko exercised.

In February 2014, during the unrest in Ukraine , Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski represented the European Union with Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Laurent Fabius in the signing of an agreement between then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and representatives of the government opponents.

Relations with Lithuania

Both countries emphasize common interests in the field of security, energy and economic policy. The demands made by the Polish minority for years for Polish names, bilingual place and street signs and the preservation of the Polish minority school system remain open.

Relations with Belarus

Poland is working in the EU to gradually normalize the political dialogue with Belarus . Another important issue for the Polish government is the situation of the Polish minority in Belarus, which also leads to bilateral burdens.

From January 2011, the visas for Belarusians were issued free of charge. Until then, a visa cost around 20 euros and around 50,000 were issued annually. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the abolition of the fees is a sign of solidarity with the Belarusian people in view of the presidential elections there in 2010 .

Relations with Portugal

Today's EU and NATO members Poland and Portugal have been linked since the 15th century. Their bilateral relations today are characterized by economic, political and cultural points of reference.

References

literature

  • Daria Dylla:
    • The European policy of the new Polish government. An inventory. In: Winand Gellner, Martin Reichinger (ed.): The new German-American relations. National sensitivities between supranational visions and international realities. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2007, pp. 123-130.
    • Between national interest and election tactics. European politics and the public in today's Poland. In: WeltTrends. 56/2007, pp. 113-112.
    • Bezpieczni dzięki USA? In: Nowe Sprawy Polityczne. 33, 2007.
    • US missile defense base and Polish security interests. In: European Security. 7, 2007, pp. 20-22. (PDF)
  • Daria Dylla, Thomas Jäger :
    • Politics and the public in Poland. To legitimize EU accession. In: Operations. 6, 2, 2003, pp. 26-35.
    • German-Polish European visits. In: APuZ . 5-6, 2005.
    • (as editor): Germany and Poland. European and international politics. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-15933-1 .
  • Heiko Fürst: European foreign policy between nation and union. The Polish, Romanian and Hungarian discourse structure on the CFSP. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2008.
  • Thomas Goll, Thomas Leuerer: Poland and Germany after the EU expansion. A difficult neighborhood. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2005.
  • Adam Holesch: Missed new beginning? Germany, Poland and the EU. Bouvier-Verlag, Bonn 2007.
  • Andreas Lawaty, Hubert Orlowski (Ed.): Germans and Poles. History, culture, politics. Munich 2003.
  • Krzysztof Miszczak:
    • Poland and the development of the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). In: Central European Review. 46, 2007.
    • The foreign and security policy of Poland. In: Franz Merli , Gerhard Wagner (ed.): The new Poland in Europe. Politics, law, economy, society. Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2005, ISBN 3-7065-4319-2 .
  • Burkhard Olschowsky: Agreement and Conflict. The relationship between the GDR and the People's Republic of Poland 1980–1989. Osnabrück 2005, ISBN 3-929759-94-2 .
  • Olaf Osica:
    • Poland: A New European Atlanticist at a crossroads? In: European Security. 13, 4, 2004, pp. 301-322.
    • Iraq - poczatek nowej epoki w polityce zagranicznej III RP? In: CSM Raporty i Analizy. 4, 2004.
  • Joachim Rogall : The Germans in Poland. 2005.
  • Jan-Philipp Sommer: Norms as a basis for bilateral foreign policy - German foreign policy towards Poland at the beginning of the 21st century. Dissertation. Springer VS, 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-10123-7 .
  • Marcin Zaborowski: From America's Protege… 2004.
  • Klaus Zernack : Prussia - Germany - Poland. Essays on the history of German-Polish relations. ed. v. Wolfram Fischer and Michael G. Müller . 2., act. Edition. Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-10652-0 .
  • Adrian Hartschuh: The Change in German-Polish Relations from 1989 to 1998 . Master thesis. Heidelberg 2010, ISBN 3-640-68165-7 .

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Poland: The anti-German card played. on: taz.de , August 16, 2007.
  2. ↑ a b c d foreign policy . Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  3. ^ Brigitte Jäger-Dabek: Poland - A neighborhood customer. Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-89331-747-3 , pp. 103-104.
  4. ↑ David Dreimann: The Diplomatic Protocol. Koelhen & Amelang, Leipzig 1985, p. 167.
  5. ^ Brigitte Jäger-Dabek: Poland - A neighborhood customer. Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-89331-747-3 , p. 105.
  6. ^ Brigitte Jäger-Dabek: Poland - A neighborhood customer. Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-89331-747-3 , p. 106.
  7. ^ Brigitte Jäger-Dabek: Poland - A neighborhood customer. Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-89331-747-3 , pp. 107-108.
  8. ^ A b Brigitte Jäger-Dabek: Poland - A neighborhood customer. Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-89331-747-3 , p. 109.
  9. ^ Brigitte Jäger-Dabek: Poland - A neighborhood customer. Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-89331-747-3 , p. 110.
  10. ^ Brigitte Jäger-Dabek: Poland - A neighborhood customer. Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-89331-747-3 , p. 111.
  11. ^ Brigitte Jäger-Dabek: Poland - A neighborhood customer. Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-89331-747-3 , p. 112.
  12. ^ Brigitte Jäger-Dabek: Poland - A neighborhood customer. Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-89331-747-3 , p. 108.
  13. ^ Thomas Urban: Germans in Poland. 4th edition. 2000, p. 92.
  14. ↑ 40 years ago: The establishment of diplomatic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the People's Republic of Poland.
  15. ↑ Adam Hölsch, Axel Birkenkämper: From Kaczynski to Tusk. 2008, p. 307.
  16. ↑ see also Deutsche Rentenversicherung (Ed.): The German-Polish Social Insurance Agreement of October 9, 1975. (PDF). 2nd edition 2015.
  17. ↑ Adam Hölsch, Axel Birkenkämper: From Kaczynski to Tusk. 2008, pp. 297-298.
  18. ↑ Adam Hölsch, Axel Birkenkämper: From Kaczynski to Tusk. 2008, p. 299.
  19. ^ Inaugural visit from Foreign Minister Westerwelle - The first trip is to Poland. ( Memento from November 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) on: tagesschau.de , October 31, 2009.
  20. ↑ Westerwelle: “German-Polish relations are core concerns!” In: Polskie Radio. October 31, 2009.
  21. ↑ a b The ailing Bundeswehr worries Poland - of all people. In: time online. October 7, 2014, accessed December 28, 2014.
  22. ↑ Points 1 to 6 according to Herbert Ludat in: News of the Giessen University Society. 26, 1957, pp. 171–196, quoted from Klaus Zernack: The millennium of German-Polish relationship history as a historical problem area and research task . In: Klaus Zernack: Prussia - Germany - Poland. Essays on the history of German-Polish relations. ed. v. Wolfram Fischer and Michael Müller. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1991, p. 30.
  23. ^ The difficult Polish-Russian relationship or Poland's neighborhood policy in the shadow of Russia . In: Poland Today . February 20, 2015 ( polen-heute.de [accessed November 7, 2017]).
  24. ↑ Compromise in Kiev - Sikorsky relieved. on: polen-heute.de , February 22, 2014.
  25. ↑ Free visas for Belarusians.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Polskie Radio. January 3, 2010.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www2.polskieradio.pl