EUROPE: Battered German-Polish Relations Take Another Hit

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Jess Smee

BERLIN, Aug 15 2006 (IPS) - What was already a chilly atmosphere between Poland and Germany has become icy – and all since a new exhibition opened in Berlin.

‘Forced Paths’ depicts the struggle of the millions of people forced to flee their home countries last century, including the story of the Germans who were forced out of Poland and Eastern Europe at the end of World War II.

Angered by the depiction of Germans as victims of a war they provoked, a group of Polish people protested at the opening night of the show. Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said it played down the real story of World War II and dubbed the exhibition a “very bad, worrying and sad event.”

Capping the diplomatic tensions, the acting mayor of Warsaw cancelled a visit to the German capital on the grounds he could not visit the city while such an exhibition was running.

The exhibition has close ties to the so-called Federation of the Expelled, a group representing the estimated 12 million Germans and their descendants, who were forced from their homes. Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 but following the defeat of the Nazi regime, Poland’s borders were moved west, meaning many Germans were forced to flee for their lives.

Those who created the exhibition hope the show will be the first step towards a new, permanent exhibition to tell the story of the German suffering.

That objective already sparks controversy at home but for the Polish government it would be beyond the pale as it would be seen as trying to distract public attention away from their responsibility for the war.

“At the moment many Polish people are of the opinion that Germany lacks awareness of Polish fears and concerns,” Marcin Zastrozny of the state-sponsored Polish Institute in Berlin told IPS. “This new exhibition makes relations between Germany and Poland more complicated.”

“It would be good for our relationship if the German government denounced the exhibition. But unfortunately we are given the opposite impression: government representatives even attended the opening.”

This is typical of the neighbours’ mutual mistrust – a mood which has been fanned by a recent spate of diplomatic spats.

The downward spiral started in summer 2005 when Polish politicians took offence at German-Russian plans to create a natural gas pipeline under the Baltic sea – which they saw as a case of their bigger neighbours plotting above their heads.

Then, earlier this year, Poland decided to clamp down on what it saw as misleading reporting on World War II. Politicians argued against the phrase “Polish death camps”, saying it was increasingly being used to describe concentration camps like Auschwitz – which were actually built by the Nazis on occupied land which reverted to Polish territory at the end of the war.

During the campaign some went as far as to say it was part of a larger German plot to rewrite history and avoid being appropriately blamed for the holocaust.

Warsaw officially asked the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to change the camp’s name on its World Heritage List from ‘Auschwitz Concentration Camp’ to ‘Auschwitz-Birkenau Former Nazi German Concentration Camp’. Meanwhile, local embassies complained to editors of newspapers publishing the expression “Polish death camps”, suggesting instead the term “Nazi German concentration camp”.

Just two months ago, diplomatic clashes topped the headlines again when the Polish leadership balked at a satire published in the German Tageszeitung newspaper. The article ruthlessly mocked President Lech Kaczynski and Jaroslaw, his twin brother and prime minister. It dubbed the twins “new potatoes” and snubbed Jaroslaw at the end of the article for still living with his mother.

It sparked what the German press has labelled the “potato war”. The Polish President himself described the article as “disgusting and mean”. His government demanded official apologies from Germany and threatened defamation charges against the journalist responsible.

But the German government repeatedly declined to comment on the contents of the article, saying it supports the freedom of the press.. According to media reports, German officials privately considered the diplomatic fracas somewhat ridiculous.

For Germany, the fact that a newspaper satire was taken so personally further dented their image of their neighbours. Commentators say Poland’s reputation has been in steep decline since last October when Kaczynski was elected on a platform of national security and traditional values.

Ralf Fuecks, former Green party head and current head of the Heinrich Boell Foundation says people have taken exception to the socially conservative and staunchly patriotic tendencies of the government.

“A negative treatment of homosexuals, an increase in euro-scepticism and culturally repressive attitudes towards groups like feminists have all contributed to the deteriorating impression the German public has of Poland since he (Kaczynski) took office,” he told IPS.

“The Polish government reverts to using old stereotypes of Germans which could be a strategy to boost their political position at home.”

Such questions of national pride and public opinion lie at the heart of the strained relationship. Now it remains to be seen how much either country is prepared to do to patch up relations.

But an improvement in the atmosphere would be a big advance, both for bilateral dealings and the European Union, which Poland joined in 2004. Moreover, there are economic issues at stake as Germany is Poland’s most important foreign market, buying almost a third of all its exports.

But a fix is still a long way off, according to observers on both sides. And as long as the Berlin exhibition continues, old wounds remain sensitive. By revealing the lingering mistrust relating to World War II, the show revealed that underlying issues need to be ironed out before there is any lasting improvement in Polish-German relations.

“There is no easy solution,” admitted the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, a German daily, on its comment page. “Politicians in Berlin need to patiently clarify first, that they are not seeking to rewrite history, and secondly, that the expelled German people cannot be left out of the process.”