Former eastern territories of Germany

In the Potsdam Agreement the description of the territories transferred is "The former German territories [east of the Oder-Neisse line]", and permutations on this description are the most commonly used to describe any former territories of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line.

Due to the 20th century border shifts, the term East Germany gradually changed its meaning. While it had been used for the former eastern territories of Germany before the second world war^{citation needed}, it since has been used to denote the post-war German Democratic Republic and the respective five states of the reunited Germany (pre-war Middle Germany, German: Mitteldeutschland). Some governmental institutions in states that are near the modern geographical centre o Germany which is in Eichsfeld like the Free State of Saxony, still use the term Middle Germany when referring to their territory.

The former eastern territories in 20th century politics

From 1919 till 1990 sovereignty over some or all of these territories was subject to much diplomatic activity. Between the two world wars, many in Germany claimed that the territories ceded by Germany in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles (most of which were taken in Partitions of Poland) should be returned to Germany. This claim was an important precursor to the Second World War. In 1939 after its invasion of Poland, Germany reoccupied and annexed these territories. Germany subsequently lost all territories east of the Oder-Neisse Line at the end of World War II in 1945, when international recognition of its right to jurisdiction over any of these territories was withdrawn.^[1] The Eastern German areas east of the Oder-Neisse Line, and within the 1937 German Border, with the exception of Soviet Administered Northern East Prussia, became known as the Recovered Territories in Poland following World War II.

After World War II, the so-called "German question" was an important factor of post-war German history and politics. The debate affected Cold War politics and diplomacy and played an important role in the negotiations leading up to the reunification of Germany in 1990. In 1990 Germany officially recognised its present eastern border at the time of its reunification, ending any residual claims to sovereignty that Germany may have had over any territory east of the Oder-Neisse line.

Eastern territories of Germany 1871-1945

Foundation of the German Empire

At the time of the foundation of the German Empire in 1871, Prussia was the largest and dominant part of the empire. Thus, the territories of East Brandenburg, Silesia, Pomerania and the provinces of Prussia and Poznań(Posen) were all integral parts of the initial territory that comprised the German Empire in 1871. Later, these territories would come to be called in Germany "Ostgebiete des deutschen Reiches" (Eastern territories of the German Empire).

In some areas, such as the Province of Posen or the east-southern part of Upper Silesia, the area that would later became Polish Corridor the majority population was Polish, while in others it was predominantly German. Under Treaty of Versailles territories with Polish majority were ceded to Poland. However the demands of ethnic Germans in Poland would fuel an ongoing conflict over whether these territories should belong to Germany or Poland. This debate would continue for at least three quarters of a century and German expansion towards the East would be the reason of World War II.

Treaty of Versailles

The provisions of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I obliged Germany to transfer some territory to other countries. In Central Europe, these included:

German annexation of Hultschin Area and the Memel Territory

In October 1938 Hlučín Area (Hlučínsko in Czech, Hultschiner Ländchen in German) of Moravian-Silesian Region which had been ceded to Czechoslovakia under the Treaty of Versailles was annexed by the Third Reich as a part of areas lost by Czechoslovakia in accordance with the Munich agreement. However, as distinct from other lost Czechoslovakian domains, it was not attached to Sudetengau (administrative region covering Sudetenland) but to Prussia (Upper Silesia).

World War II

With the defeat of Poland in 1939 in the beginning of World War II, Germany annexed eastern territories lost under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, and annexed other eastern territories. These territorial changes were not recognised by the Allied governments, that after the 1942 Declaration by the United Nations were also known as the United Nations.

After invading Poland in 1939, the Third Reich annexed the lands the German Empire had ceded to the Second Polish Republic in 1919-1922 by the Treaty of Versailles, including the "Polish Corridor", West Prussia, the Province of Posen, and parts of eastern Upper Silesia. The council of the Free City of Danzig voted to become a part of Germany again, although Poles and Jews were deprived of their voting rights and all non-Nazi political parties were banned. Parts of Poland that had not been part of the German Empire were also incorporated into the Third Reich.

Two decrees by Adolf Hitler (October 8 and October 12, 1939) provided for the division of the annexed areas of Poland into the following administrative units:

These territories had an area of 94,000 km² and a population of 10,000,000 people. The remainder of the Polish territory was annexed by the Soviet Union (see Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) or made into the German-controlled General Government occupation zone.

Potsdam Conference

After World War II, as agreed at the Potsdam Conference (which met from 17 July until 2 August 1945), all of the areas east of the Oder-Neisse line, whether recognised by the international community as part of Germany until 1939 or occupied by Germany during World War II, were placed under the jurisdiction of other countries. The relevant paragraphs in the Potsdam Agreement are:

Post World War II

Between 1945 and 1990, the dispute over the final disposition of these territories was the subject of contentious international debate that extended even to the very naming of the territories. To refer to these territories as "former eastern German territories" ("ehemalige deutsche Ostgebiete") was considered by Poles and other Europeans as a suggestion that these territories could in fact revert to Germany at some future point in time (presumably at the final settlement of the border between Germany and Poland).^{citation needed}

The government of West Germany preferred to use the phrase "former German territories temporarily under Polish and Soviet administration" (Note: those "former German territories" are those of Eastern Germany within the 1937 Germany Border). This was the wording used in the Potsdam Agreement, but was used only by the Federal Republic of Germany because the Polish and Soviet governments refused to use it, objecting to the obvious implication that these territories should someday revert to Germany.

The Polish government preferred to use the phrase Recovered Territories to assert that these territories had been Polish (600?) years prior to World War II and had been "recovered" from Nazi Germany after 1945.

Expulsion of Germans and resettlement

The majority of the German-speaking population east of the Oder–Neisse line (roughly 10 million in the ostgebiete alone) that had not already been evacuated by the Nazi authorities or fled from the advancing Red Army in the winter of 1944–1945 was expelled. Although in the post-war period earlier German sources often cited the number of evacuated and expelled Germans at 16 million and the death toll at between 1.7^[4] and 2.5 million,^[5] the numbers are considered by some historians to be exaggerated.^[6] Some present-day estimates place the numbers of German refugees at 14 million of which about half a million died during the evacuations and expulsions.^[7].^[6] The exact number of civilian casualties therefore remains disputed.

At the same time, Poles from Central Poland, expelled Poles from former Eastern Poland, Polish returnees from internment and forced labour, Ukrainians forcefully resettled in Operation Wisla and Jewish Holocaust survivors settled in the territories gained by Poland, whereas the North of former East Prussia (Kaliningrad Oblast) was turned into a military zone and subsequently became settled with Russians.

Ostpolitik

During the 1970s while Willy Brandt was chancellor of the FRG, the FRG followed a foreign relations policy of Ostpolitik abandoning elements of the Hallstein Doctrine. The FRG "abandoned, at least for the time being, its claims with respect to German self-determination and reunification, recognising de facto the existence of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Oder-Neisse Line."^[8] Subsequently, between 1970 and 1973, the FRG concluded friendship treaties with, successively, the Soviet Union (The Treaty of Moscow), Poland (The Treaty of Warsaw), the GDR (The Basic Treaty) and Czechoslovakia (The Treaty of Prague), thereby accommodating the European order that existed in the 1970s.^[8]

Modern status

Over the last twenty years, the "German question" has been muted by three related phenomena^{citation needed}:

In the course of the German reunification process, Chancellor Helmut Kohl accepted the territorial changes made after the Second World War. This caused some outrage among the Federation of Expellees. Some Poles were concerned about a possible revival of their 1939 trauma through a second German invasion, this time with the Germans buying back their land, which was cheaply available at the time. This happened on a smaller scale than many expected, and since the Baltic Sea coast in Poland has become popular with German tourists, Germans are now frequent and welcome guests. The so-called "homesickness-tourism" which was often perceived as quite aggressive well into the 1990s now tends to be viewed as a good-natured nostalgia tour rather than an expression of anger and desire for the return of the lost territories.

German organisations with claims against Poland

Several organisations exist in Germany who claim those territories or property there for Germany. The Prussian Trust (or the Prussian Claims Society), that probably has less than a hundred members,^[10] re-opened the old dispute when in December 2006, it submitted 23 individual claims against the Polish government with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg asking for compensation or return of property allegedly appropriated from its members at the end of World War II. An expert report jointly commissioned by the German and Polish governments from specialists in international law have confirmed that the proposed complaints by the Prussian Trust had little hope of success. But the German government can not prevent such requests being made and the Polish government has felt that the submissions warranted a comment by Anna Fotyga, the Polish Minister of the Foreign Affairs who "express [her] deepest concern upon receiving the information about a claim against Poland submitted by the Prussian Trust to the European Court of Human Rights".^[11]

Other organisations make claims with support of former German officials demanding borders from 1937.^[12].

On his first conference in Berlin after scoring win^clarify in elections in Mecklenburg the leader of the party Udo Voigt declared that NPD demands Germany in "historical borders" and questioned current border treaties^[13].

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