How Germany and Poland rebooted relations 35 years ago
When Germany and Poland signed the Treaty on Good‑Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation in 1991, they chose partnership over enmity and became close allies in NATO
When Germany and Poland signed the Treaty on Good‑Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation in 1991, they chose partnership over enmity and became close allies in NATO and the EU. But it has not all been plain sailing. On June 17, 1991, Polish Prime Minister Jan Krzysztof Bielecki and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl met in Bonn — then the seat of the German government — to sign the Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland on Good‑Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation. The agreement marked a new beginning in Polish-German relations after decades of enmity and mistrust. Thirty-five years later, on June 17, 2026, both states — which are now close partners in the EU and NATO — will mark the anniversary of the signing at a major event in Berlin, the German Polish Forum. The 'foundation of the new order in Europe' The parliaments of both countries have recently addressed the subject. The Polish Senate, the upper house of the Polish parliament, last Wednesday praised the treaty as a "foundation of the new order in Europe after the collapse of the Iron Curtain" and a "breakthrough" in Polish-German relations. On the same day, Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, debated the subject "Strong friendship in peace and freedom — 35 years since the relaunch of German-Polish relations." Mayor of Warsaw Pavel Piskorski (center) unveiling a plaque commemorating German Chancellor Willy Brandt's 1970 gesture of kneeling at a memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Beside him on the right is Chancellor Gerhard Schröder Image: dpa/picture alliance "Today, Germans are grateful for the fact that Poland at the time extended a hand to us in the form of the Good‑Neighborliness Treaty and took the hand we offered them," said conservative German lawmaker Knut Abraham, who has held the post of Coordinator of German-Polish Intersocietal and Cross-border Cooperation since May 2025. Enmity and mistrust After the Second World War, Polish-German relations were characterized by hostility and mistrust.
At the heart of the conflict was the dispute about the recognition of the Oder-Neisse Line — the postwar border between Germany and Poland — which was cleverly fueled by the propaganda of the Communist regime in Poland. In the 1970s, the "Ostpolitik" of German Chancellor Willy Brandt, which sought a rapprochement between Germany and communist Eastern Europe, did bring about a normalization in relations between the two countries but no more. Turning point It was only the collapse of communism and restoration of democracy in Poland in 1989 and the reunification of Germany the following year that made a new start possible. The confirmation of the Oder-Neisse line as the German-Polish border on November 14, 1990 and the friendship treaty that followed seven months later created the foundation for a partnership. "With the treaty, we drew a line under the past and laid the foundation for cooperation in the future," Marek Krzakala, a lawmaker for the ruling Civic Coalition (KO) in Poland, told DW. Krzakala, who is also chair of the cross-party Polish-German parliamentary group in Poland, went on to say that without Germany's support, Poland's accession to the EU (2004) and NATO (1999), would have been much more difficult. Shared interests When he was appointed Poland's first non-Communist foreign minister in 1989, Krzysztof Skubiszewski declared that it was his political objective to create a German-Polish Community of Interest. A metal structure symbolizes the open border between Germany and Poland on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom Image: Guenter Fischer/imagebroker/IMAGO And so began the painstaking work of creating what Knut Abraham calls a "network of relationships" in politics, business, culture and the border regions. The list of achievements is long. Today, there are hundreds of Polish-German partnerships between cities, schools, sports clubs and fire departments. Over three million German and Polish youths have taken part in exchange programs. Trade between the two countries last year exceeded €180 billion ($209 billion) for the first time ever, making Poland Germany's fifth biggest trading partner, just behind France.
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