Professor Ruth,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to have this opportunity as head of the German delegation to offer a few thoughts about German-Polish reconciliation. Some of those present who have been personally involved with this process or observed it at close hand are well acquainted with the whole story, perhaps more so than I myself.Yet as minister responsible for youth and education in a federal state that shares a common border with Poland, fostering German-Polish reconciliation is part and parcel of my daily work.

To describe the history of German-Polish relations as “difficult” or “troubled” would clearly be understating the true facts. For generations the relationship was poisoned by German participation in Poland’s successive partitions. Then came the German invasion of Poland in 1939: the brutality and rigour of the wholesale destruction that followed marked the nadir in relations between our two countries and peoples. The Holocaust carried out by the Nazis – mass murder on an unimaginable scale – largely took place on Polish soil. The wrongs committed, the suffering inflicted in those years can be neither undone nor redressed. Those that survived were left deeply scarred.

Against this background, the reality of German-Polish reconciliation is all the more remarkable. To anyone knowing to what depths of hatred and destruction those years gave rise, this process of reconciliation must seem little short of a miracle.Without the willingness manifested by many Poles to reach out to us Germans, to seek a dialogue despite all that had happened – and especially in the 50s and 60s that took a brave heart indeed as well as the courage of one’s convictions – the enormous progress achieved in our relations since the Iron Curtain was swept away would have been unthinkable.

The miracle of German-Polish reconciliation over the past decades may also have had something to do with the fact that in some ways Germans and Poles have had rather similar experiences. Many German and Polish families have endured war and the loss of their homes, known the reality of dictatorship as well as the meaning of freedom.

 
The message of forgiveness offered and requested which the Polish bishops addressed to their German counterparts on 18 November 1965 was eloquent testimony not only of generosity of spirit and the power of faith but also of a strong desire to heal the breach between the two nations. At the political level the signing on 7 December 1970 of the Warsaw Treaty and on 12 August 1970 of the Moscow Treaty marked a diplomatic breakthrough for Germany’s efforts to seek reconciliation with its eastern neighbours. Under Brandt’s policy of “venturing reconciliation”, our Polish neighbours for the first time saw themselves treated by us as truly equal partners. That was to be crucial in paving the way for those developments that subsequently overcame by peaceful means the division of Germany and of Europe as a whole.

For decades the question of whether the Federal Republic should recognize the Oder- Neisse line, Poland’s post-war western border, was a persistent bone of contention between the two countries. The GDR’s recognition of the “peace border”, as the Oder-Neisse line was termed in the relevant treaty concluded in 1950, could not hide the fact that the overwhelming majority in both German states, and the refugees and expellees in particular, were by no means resigned to the loss of their former homes. Right up to the 1960s any democratically elected government that recognized the Oder-Neisse line would have virtually been committing political suicide. As time passed by, however, the successful integration of the refugees, the wider public awareness and discussion in the 60s of the horrific crimes committed by Nazi Germany as well as a greater willingness to understand Poland’s situation and Polish sensitivities opened the way for a change of policy. The German-Polish border was recognized in two stages, de facto in 1970 and de jure in the 1990 treaty confirming the existing border between Germany and Poland. This gave Poland a measure of security on its western flank it had not known for centuries.

From where we stand today, there can be no doubt that the policy of reconciliation as well as the project – which many deemed visionary at first – of a German-Polish partnership are indeed a strong foundation on which to build. The 1991 Treaty on Good-Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation paved the way for institutionalised cooperation between our two countries of unparalleled breadth and intensity. Poland and Germany are already partners in NATO and will soon be partners in the European Union as well. A climate of mutual trust also makes it easier to address unresolved problems.With the establishment of the Federal Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future” and the beginning of payments last year to former forced and slave labourers, we have together found a satisfactory solution to a particularly painful problem that had been allowed to drag on for far too long.

Ladies and gentlemen, between Germans and Poles today it is possible to discuss in depth all aspects of our common history: the barbarous crimes of national socialism, the brutal abuse and oppression of the Polish nation, the fate of Polish forced labourers, both men and women, the suffering of those expelled from their homes as a result of the Nazis’ ruthless pursuit of power and conquest.We Germans understand that some of these discussions are for Poland, too, by no means a matter of course and touch on painful issues. Nevertheless, such discussions are extremely important. Reaching a shared understanding of our common history is the best way to ensure resentment and revanchism can gain to ground. Stereotypes and myths of all kinds thrive where information is lacking and ignorance prevails. If we want to prevent such negative developments we must strive to learn as much about and from each other as possible. Genuine reconciliation is only possible if we acknowledge the truth for what it is. As we know, many Germans and Poles have understood that and acted accordingly. But there is still a long way to go: quite apart from the question of language proficiency, Germans in general know a good deal less about their Polish neighbours than Poles about us.
That is why it is so important to promote cultural contacts and face-to-face encounters of all kinds between ordinary people in both countries. Let me give you some examples of a number of successful projects in this area.

Since the founding of the Polish-German Youth Office in 1993 a total of 750,000 young Germans and Poles, currently over 130,000 a year, have participated in its exchange programmes.

It is now something we take for granted to see young Poles in our schools preparing for the Abitur, our higher education entrance examination, alongside their German classmates, for them to learn with and from one another and spend their free time together. That happens in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and in Saxony, too; but above all it happens in Brandenburg, the federal state with the longest common border with Poland, where such German-Polish school projects have been running since 1992 and where I am responsible for education policy. In Brandenburg every year some 100 Polish students from the neighbouring regions of Lubuskie and Zachodniopomorskie are selected to attend our schools. They are clearly key players in our cooperation with Poland in the area of school education. This is something I feel very strongly about and am keen to expand, for I believe – with due modesty – it, too, can contribute to the process of reconciliation.

And what about higher education?

In this area as well we are working closely together. One third of the students at the Viadrina European University in Frankfurt on the Oder are from Poland; Professor Schwan, the Vice-Chancellor, who is with us today, will of course be able to tell you more about the University and its special role. In 1998 the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) opened an office in Warsaw. The German Historical Institute has been represented in the Polish capital since 1994. The Goethe Institute Inter Nationes has branches in Warsaw and Cracow and there are Polish cultural institutes in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. The Joint German-Polish Textbook Commission established back in 1972 meets regularly to ensure that both countries’ textbooks acknowledge each other’s perspective on their common history.

The over 360 twinned cities and counties as well as several German–Polish societies do most valuable work in encouraging contacts and encounters in a host of different fields. The Frankfurt Book Fair featuring Poland two years ago gave a further boost to our cultural and intellectual exchange. The key here is to fire imaginations, intrigue us as individuals. After all, we do not read a particular Polish or German author simply because his books are in the bookshop, nor do we listen to music by German or Polish composers merely because we can order their CDs through the Internet.We do it because our curiosity has been aroused by some personal encounter or discussion which made us realize that what had seemed strange and unfamiliar was also for us relevant and meaningful.

Ladies and gentlemen, to succeed, reconciliation requires from both sides a willingness to explore and discuss the full facts in a candid and constructive manner as well as the courage to recognize historical truths for what they are. What we also need – to quote the historian Fritz Stern – is a sense of reverence for the past; it is crucial, however, that our efforts to understand the past also point forward to the future. That is the approach adopted by the Task Force for International Co-operation on Holocaust Education established in 1998 and also by the new Future Fund set up under the auspices of the Federal Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future”.

For the reconciliation with our Polish neighbours we Germans are deeply grateful. To reach out to us across the Oder was far harder for them than for us. The work of reconciliation has by and large been completed. The ongoing task now is to make these neighbourly relations even more vibrant and inclusive, with business and cultural players but also the wider community participating at all levels. In a Europe fast growing together, I am confident that Poles and Germans working in unison can build such a partnership.