The Treaty of Warsaw (german: Warschauer Vertrag, Polish: Układ PRL-RFN) was a treaty between the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

(West Germany) and the

People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million ne ...

. It was signed by Chancellor

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ger ...

and Prime Minister

Józef Cyrankiewicz Józef Adam Zygmunt Cyrankiewicz (; 23 April 1911 – 20 January 1989) was a Polish Socialist (PPS) and after 1948 Communist politician. He served as premier of the Polish People's Republic between 1947 and 1952, and again for 16 years between ...

at the Presidential Palace on 7 December 1970, and it was ratified by the West German

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Comm ...

on 17 May 1972. In the treaty, both sides committed themselves to nonviolence and accepted the existing border—the Oder-Neisse line, imposed on

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

by the Allied powers at the 1945

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement (german: Potsdamer Abkommen) was the agreement between three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union on 1 August 1945. A product of the Potsdam Conference, it concerned th ...

following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. This had been a quite sensitive topic since then, as Poland was concerned that a German government might seek to reclaim some of the former eastern territories. From the Polish perspective, the transfer of these regions was considered to be a compensation for the former Polish territory east of the

Curzon Line The Curzon Line was a proposed demarcation line between the Second Polish Republic and the Soviet Union, two new states emerging after World War I. It was first proposed by The 1st Earl Curzon of Kedleston, the British Foreign Secretary, ...

Kresy Eastern Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Wschodnie) or simply Borderlands ( pl, Kresy, ) was a term coined for the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the History of Poland (1918–1939), interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural ...

"), which had been annexed by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in 1939. In West Germany, Brandt was heavily criticised by the conservative CDU/

CSU CSU may refer to: * Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card * Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code * Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation * Christian Social ...

opposition, who marked his policy as a betrayal of national interests. At the time the treaty was signed, West German commentators sought to maintain that this could not be a final settlement of the Polish border issue,Johnson, Edward Elwyn
International law aspects of the German refunification alternative answers to the German question
. Page 18 and footnote 35 that cites Ludwig Gelberg, ''The Warsaw Treaty of 1970 and the Western Boundary of Poland'', at 125–127; Jochen Abr. Frowein, ''The Reunification of Germany'', 86 Am. J. Int'l L. 152, 156 (1992), at 156. because Article IV of this treaty stated that previous treaties like the Potsdam Agreement were not superseded by this latest agreement; so it might be argued that the provisions of this treaty could be changed by a final peace treaty between Germany and the Allies of World War II—as provided for in the Potsdam Agreement. In actuality, these reservations were for domestic political consumption; as the treaty terms would undoubtedly have been regarded as binding on the Federal Republic and its successors in any tribunal of international law. The Treaty of Warsaw was an important element of the ''

Ostpolitik ''Neue Ostpolitik'' (German for "new eastern policy"), or ''Ostpolitik'' for short, was the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Republ ...

'', put forward by Chancellor Brandt and supported by his ruling

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been ...

. In the aftermath of the 1990

Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (german: Vertrag über die abschließende Regelung in Bezug auf Deutschland; rus, Договор об окончательном урегулировании в отношении Ге� ...

, the Oder-Neisse line was reaffirmed without any reservation with the German-Polish Border Treaty, signed on 14 November 1990 by re-united

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

References

External links

(

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file, ) {{DEFAULTSORT:Warsaw 1970 in Germany 1970 in Poland 1970s in Warsaw Germany–Poland border Germany–Poland relations Treaties concluded in 1970 Treaties entered into force in 1972 Boundary treaties Treaties of West Germany Treaties of the Polish People's Republic December 1970 events in Europe Willy Brandt

See also

References

External links