Treaty of Zgorzelec

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1950 treaty between Poland and East Germany

Treaty of Zgorzelec

Otto Grotewohl (l.) and Józef Cyrankiewicz walking to the Zgorzelec community centre to sign the treaty

Type| Boundary treaty
Signed| 6 July 1950
Location| Zgorzelec, Poland
Original
signatories|

* Józef Cyrankiewicz
* Otto Grotewohl

Parties|

* Polish People's Republic

* * *

* German Democratic Republic

Languages| Polish, German
Territorial evolution of Poland
in the 20th century

Pre-World War II

* Revolution in Congress Poland (1905–1907)
* Ostrowiec Republic
* Zagłębie Republic
* Separation of Kholm Governorate from Congress Poland and annexation into Russian Kiev General Governorate (1913)
* Act of 5th November by the Central Powers proclaiming Kingdom of Poland (1916)
* Central Powers-Ukrainian People's Republic/Ukrainian State Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918)
* Central Powers-Soviet Russia Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918)
* Short-lived Byelorussian, Ukrainian and Rusyn republics (1917-1920):  West Ukrainian People's (later absorbed into Poland-allied  Ukrainian People 's), Belarusian Democratic, Lemko, Komancza
* Local revolts and transient polities in postwar power vacuum (1918)
* Tarnobrzeg Republic
* Republic of Zakopane
* First Republic of Pińczów
* Witkowo Revolt
* Republic of Ostrów
* Restoration of Polish independence (1918) and ensuing wars to preserve it (1918-1922):
* Greater Poland uprising
* Silesian Uprisings
* Polish–Czechoslovak War
* Polish-West Ukrainian War
* War of Polish-Ukrainian alliance against Soviet Russia (1920-1921) and its satellites:
* Ukrainian SSR
* short-lived Galician SSR later merged into the former
* short-lived SSR of Lithuania and Belorussia
* attempted Polish SSR later dissolved and replaced with token Polish National Districts
* Polish-Lithuanian War
* Treaty of Versailles (1919)
* Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)
* Suwałki Agreement (1920)
* Treaty of Warsaw (1920) with Ukrainian People's Republic
* 1920 East Prussian plebiscite (1920)
* Polish satellite states
* Republic of Central Lithuania (1920-1922)
* Free City of Danzig under League of Nations protection (1921-1939)
* Peace of Riga (1921): eastern border of Poland accepted by Russian SFSR and its satellites (Byelorussian SSR which replaced SSR of Lithuania and Belorussia, and Ukrainian SSR which replaced Ukrainian People's Republic)
* Incorporation of Central Lithuania (1922)
* German–Polish Convention regarding Upper Silesia (1922)
* Polish National Districts of the Soviet Union (1925-1937)
* Marchlewszczyzna (1925-1931)
* Dzierżyńszczyzna (1932-1937)
* Munich Agreement and Polish annexation of Trans-Olza (1938)
* First Vienna Award and Polish annexation of parts of Spiš and Orava (1938)
* Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (1939)
* Secret German–Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty

World War II

* Wartime administrative division
* Territories of Poland and Danzig annexed by Nazi Germany
* General Government
* Polish areas annexed by USSR
* Polish government-in-exile and Polish Underground State
* German–Soviet Border and Commercial Agreement (1941)
* Bialystok District
* Sikorski–Mayski agreement (1941)
* Transient Polish-controlled areas (1944)
* Turgiele Republic
* Iwonicz Republic
* Second Pińczów Republic
* Warsaw Uprising
* Allied conferences
* Tehran Conference (1943)
* Moscow Conference (1943)
* Yalta Conference (1945)
* Potsdam Conference (1945)

Post World War II

* Potsdam Agreement (1945)
* Polish–Soviet border agreement (1945)
* Treaty of Zgorzelec (1950)
* Polish-Soviet Border Adjustment Treaty (1951)
* Polish-Czechoslovak Border Treaty (1958)
* Polish-East German Baltic Continental Shelf Delimitation Treaty (1968)
* Treaty of Warsaw (1970)
* Polish-Czechoslovak Border Adjustment (1976)
* Polish-East German Maritime Boundary in Pomeranian Bay Delimitation Treaty (1989)
* German-Polish Border Treaty (1990)
* Two Plus Four Treaty (1991)
* Treaty of Good Neighbourship (1991)
* Poland–Slovakia Border Adjustment (2005)
* Polish-Danish Maritime Boundary Delimitation Agreement (2018)

Areas

* Remnants of Polish statehood during partitions:
* Congress Poland/Vistula Land
* Galician autonomy
* Kresy Wschodnie ("Eastern Borderlands")
* Taken Lands (remainder of Russian partition of Poland)
* Wileńszczyzna
* Grodzieńszczyzna
* Lwów Land
* Areas of Galicia and Lodomeria east of river San
* Kresy Zachodnie ("Western Borderlands")
* 1815-1918 used as synonymous with entire Prussian partition of Poland
* 1918-1945 used in altered meaning
* regions unsuccessfully claimed from Germany by interwar Poland, in particular Upper Silesia, Warmia, Masuria, Powiśle, Posen-West Prussia, sometimes also Starostwo of Draheim, Lauenburg and Bütow Land and easternmost Hither Pomerania (Lands of Schlawe and Stolp)
* Zaolzie
* After 1945, the former eastern territories of Germany were called Recovered Territories, while the term Kresy Zachodnie fell into disuse, though it was sometimes invoked to denote Polish claims to some East German territories such as Wolgast Pomerania, Milsko, Miśnia or Lausitz, raised typically only until early 1970s as counterclaims to retaliate for West German calls for revision of Oder–Neisse line.

Demarcation lines

* Greater Poland military demarcation line (1919-1920)
* Cieszyn Silesia demarcation line (1918-1920)
* Polish–Lithuanian demarcation line (1919-1920)
* Curzon Line (1920)
* Upper Silesia demarcation line (1921-1922)
* Polish–Lithuanian demarcation line (1923-1938)
* Oder–Neisse line (1945–1951)

Adjacent countries

* Territorial evolution of Germany
* Territorial changes of the Baltic states
* Territorial evolution of Russia

* v
* t
* e

The Treaty of Zgorzelec (Full title The Agreement Concerning the Demarcation of the Established and the Existing Polish-German State Frontier, also known as the Treaty of Görlitz and Treaty of Zgorzelic) between the Republic of Poland and East Germany (GDR) was signed on 6 July 1950 in Zgorzelec, Poland.

## Signing

[edit]

The agreement was signed by Otto Grotewohl, prime minister of the provisional government of the GDR (East Germany) and Polish premier Józef Cyrankiewicz. It recognized the Oder-Neisse line implemented by the 1945 Potsdam Agreement as the border between the two states.[1] The terms referred to the "defined and existing border" from the Baltic Sea west of Świnoujście \- however without mentioning Szczecin \- along the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers to the Czechoslovak border. Thereby the East German government also accepted the division of Kostrzyn nad Odrą/Küstrin-Kietz, Słubice/Frankfurt (Oder), Gubin/Guben and Zgorzelec/Görlitz. This border drawing gave Poland a quarter of the pre-war territory of Germany according to the borders of 1937,[2] whose German-speaking population either fled in the final stages of the war or had been expelled in the wake of the German defeat in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement.

## International reaction and impact

[edit]

The treaty was worded as a declaration and was, initially, not recognised as a legitimate international treaty by West Germany insisting on its exclusive mandate and the members states of NATO. Four years later when the Soviet Union granted East Germany independence,[3] the Soviet Union reserved rights over East Germany (similar to the rights reserved by the Western Allies over West Germany under the Bonn–Paris conventions) pending a final peace treaty with Germany - the 1990 Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany. So although the treaty was binding on Poland and East Germany, for several decades it was not seen by many western members of the international community as such.[1] The West German government continued to maintain that the status of the territories east of the Oder–Neisse line were "under Polish and Soviet administration" until in 1970 Chancellor Willy Brandt signed the Treaty of Warsaw, giving de facto acknowledgement of the border and confirming West Germany's acceptance of the Treaty of Zgorzelec as an international agreement binding on the states that were party to it. The validity of the Treaty of Zgorzelec was explicitly confirmed in a judgement of the Federal Constitutional Court of 1973 on the Basic Treaty between East and West Germany. Reunited Germany formally accepted the Oder–Neisse boundary in the German–Polish Border Treaty.[citation needed]

## Location of signing

[edit]

The community centre in which the treaty was signed is one of Zgorzelec's main sights and is found in a park beside the road bridge border crossing. Built in typical Wilhelmine style, it was originally opened as the Upper Lusatian Memorial Hall (Oberlausitzer Gedenkhalle [de]), and has been known as the Municipal House of Culture in Zgorzelec (Miejski Dom Kultury w Zgorzelcu [pl]) since 1975.[citation needed]

## Commemoration

[edit]

* 1951 East German stamp commemorative of the Treaty of Zgorzelec featuring the presidents Wilhelm Pieck (GDR) and Bolesław Bierut (Poland)

## References and notes

[edit]

1. ^ a b Johnson, Edward Elwyn. International law aspects of the German reunification alternative answers to the German question[usurped] Page 13
2. ^ Marcin Zaborowski. Germany, Poland, and Europe: Conflict, Co-operation, and Europeanization. Manchester University Press. p. 2.
3. ^ Declaration of the Government of the U.S.S.R. Concerning the Granting of Sovereignty to the German Democratic Republic, 25 March 1954

## External links

[edit]

Polish Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Treaty of Zgorzelec

* Görlitzer Vertrag at the German-Polish Association (in German)

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