Treaty of Warsaw (1970).html |
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The Treaty of Warsaw (German: Warschauer Vertrag) was a treaty between West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany - the FRG) and the People's Republic of Poland. It was signed on 7 December 1970, and it was ratified by the German Bundestag on 17 May 1972.
In the treaty, both sides committed themselves to nonviolence and accepted the existing de facto border - the Oder-Neisse line. This was a quite sensitive topic at the time, since Poland was concerned that someday a German government would lay claim to some of the territory Germany lost to Poland after World War II. The transfer of that territory was considered by the Poles to be generous compensation by the Soviet Union for the annexation of Polish territory east of the Curzon Line that had been gained by Poland during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-21.
The German Chancellor Willy Brandt was heavily criticized by his conservative CDU/CSU opposition in the Bundestag. They were indeed in favor of such a claim for Polish territory, and accused Brandt and his party of abandoning German interests.
The Oder-Neisse line was later reaffirmed by the reunited Germany in the German-Polish Border Treaty, signed on 14 November 1990 by the FRG and Poland.
In the FRG at the time, this treaty signed it was not seen as the last word on the Polish border1, because Article IV of this treaty stated that previous treaties like the Potsdam Agreement were not superseded by this latest agreement, so the provisions of this treaty could be changed by a final peace treaty between Germany and the Allies of World War II - as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.1
The Treaty of Warsaw was a strong element of the Ostpolitik put forward by Chancellor Brandt and supported by his ruling party in the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany. Also, since Germany (the FRG) and Poland had never signed any treaty since the Second World War, this treaty functioned as a peace treaty between the two countries and it continues to do so.
See also
References
- ^ a b 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.
External links
- Text of the treaty (PDF file, (German))
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