German Foreign Policy interviews President of the "German Polish Society" 21/4/2005 - translated by Rodney Atkinson

Berlin. The German Polish Society of Germany demands that the German Parliament should "unconditionally and in a legally binding form" recognise the border between Germany and Poland. In an interview with German Foreign Policy the President of the society, Professor Christoph Koch confirmed that in the German Polish Border Treaty of 14th November 1990 Germany merely agreed to forego violence in its relations with Poland. Poland had had the "unique historical opportunity" at that time with the support of the anti-Hitler Allies, to enforce the unconditional recognition of its borders but the German Government in Bonn had "cold bloodedly" exploited differences between Warsaw and the Allies.

Germany at that time had succeeded in escaping what the victorious allies had intended to be the definitive settlement of the relations between a re-united Germany and Poland.

Instead of a legal recognition of the western Polish border the Treaty had merely asserted a non aggression pact - which had already existed in the Treaty of 7th December 1970. Poland had shown itself so flexible that the Allies had simply "shrugged their shoulders", said Professor Koch.

Continuation of the German Reich

The basis of the "deception" say the German Polish Society is the assertion by the German Constitutional Court, formulated on several occasions since the German surrender on 8th May 1945, of the so called German Doctrine of the Continuation of the German Reich.

For instance in the judgment of the German Constitutional Court of 31st July 1973 it is laid down that "The German Reich continues to exist, maintains its legal identity but, lacking organisation and in particular lacking any institutions, is not capable of action."

This ruling, maintains Germany's highest court, is anchored in the German constitution. "According to that doctrine the German State is forbidden to undertake any activity which anticipates the end of the German Reich in case that Reich one day re-establishes its capacity to act." Explains Professor Koch. "That is the reservation which affects all foreign policy decisions of the German State."

The "Germany Doctrine" is an "abstract legal position" the concrete effects of which are not easy to recognise. Koch warns not to underestimate its power. The lack of recognition of the German Polish border already has significant consequences for Poland. It finds expression in the debate about German refugees and in the compensation claims lodged in Strassbourg by Germans who used to live in Poland.

While most of the "German Polish Societies" in the 1970s were founded to exert influence in the spirit of the Social Democrat Party's "New Eastern Policy" (Ostpolitik), the "German Polish Society of Germany", the oldest, has followed since its foundation in 1950 a more principled position. In particular it concerned itself early on with the unconditional recognition of the Polish border with Germany. The causes of the "spurning" of German Polish relations lay in the "difficulties Germany had in being a calm and fruitful neighbour to its European and in particular eastern neighbours" as the Society's Journal describes the situation.