Last updated in March 2010
Political relations
Poland is an important partner for Germany. Since 1989, German-Polish relations have gathered impressive momentum. The fact that the two countries share interests in many areas and are both members of the EU and NATO provides a sound basis for relations.
Mutual high-level visits are very frequent. Federal President Köhler last visited Poland in July 2009 – his first trip abroad following his re-election. Federal Chancellor Merkel’s most recent visits were to Cracow on 4 June and to Gdansk on 1 September. The two countries’ foreign ministers are in regular close contact.
The Polish President Kaczyński visited Germany in March 2006, one of several such visits. Prime Minister Tusk has paid several visits to Germany, most recently to Berlin on 3 October, where he delivered the eulogy for the Quadriga Prize winner, EU Commission President Barroso. The intergovernmental consultations held in December 2008 formed the high point of an intensive and successful year for German-Polish relations.
Regional and cross-border cooperation and town-twinning arrangements also contribute to the breadth and closeness of relations. Germany and Poland cooperate with France as part of the Weimar Triangle.
An important factor in the special quality of relations between Germany and Poland is the former’s unconditional admission of guilt for the Second World War. The numerous events held in the 1939-1989-2009 commemorative year are evidence of the intensive dialogue being conducted on the two countries’ shared past – an important prerequisite for a forward-looking policy of cooperation and partnership. The Federal Government supports neither private restitution claims by expellees nor any related complaints. A complaint filed by the private Prussian Trust was dismissed by the European Court of Human Rights in October 2008.
Economic relations
Poland has weathered the global financial and economic crisis relatively well, being the only EU member state to record gross domestic product growth (of 1.7 per cent) in 2009.
The two countries’ economies are closely intertwined. German-Polish trade gained substantial momentum in the years following Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004. Even in 2008, a year increasingly dominated by the global financial and economic crisis, bilateral trade grew by 10 per cent, to EUR 66.3 billion, according to Federal Statistical Office figures.
For many years, Germany has been Poland’s most important trading partner by far, and Poland is becoming increasingly important for German foreign trade, ranking an impressive eleventh in 2008. In 2009, however, the global crisis also put a heavy strain on bilateral trade, causing it to decline by 18.4 per cent, to EUR 54.4 billion. Poland continues to rank first among Germany’s trading partners throughout Central and Eastern Europe. In 2010, bilateral trade will regain substantial momentum. The principal German exports are machinery and electrical goods, plant, motor vehicles, chemical and plastic products. Poland’s main exports to Germany are machinery, vehicles, household appliances, (white goods and television sets), chemical products, food and furniture.
In terms of both the number of investors and the total amount invested, Germany ranks first among foreign direct investors in Poland, German direct investments currently amounting to at least EUR 1 billion, and totalling more than EUR 20 billion since Poland’s change of political system in 1989/1990 (2007: EUR 3 billion; 2008: EUR 1.6 billion).
On top of this are the investments (of less than EUR 1 million) by small and medium-sized companies, especially in the border region, which do not appear in statistics. Most German investments are greenfield investments, only a small portion being made through takeovers or in connection with the privatization of state-owned enterprises. German companies are also investing increasingly in technologically advanced manufacturing and services and are expanding their research and development activities in Poland.
Major German investments in Poland focus on the automotive and mechanical engineering industries, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, banking and insurance, the wholesale and retail trade as well as the energy sector. Also of increasing importance is business process outsourcing, e.g. in the IT sector.
Cultural and educational relations
The work of the cultural mediators and political and private foundations together with the more than 600 German-Polish town twinning arrangements, the activities of the federal states, districts and municipalities as well as schools, universities and scientific societies are evidence of the intensity of exchange between the two countries in the cultural and education sectors.
The work of the cultural mediators in Poland is based on the German-Polish cultural agreement of 14 July 1997, which came into force on 4 January 1999.
There are currently some 2.4 million people learning German as a foreign language in Poland. To maintain this level of interest, five “Germanobiles” having been travelling across Poland promoting the learning of German since April 2009. Each year, there are around 50 German teachers working at various schools throughout Poland. On 1 September 2005, the Agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland on the Founding of a German-Polish Binational School in Warsaw, the Willy Brandt School, was signed. It entered into force in July 2008. The school leads to the German university entrance qualification (Abitur), with the option of obtaining the equivalent Polish qualification (Matura). The Goethe Institutes in Warsaw and Cracow, with reading rooms in Wrocław, Katowice, Poznan and Szczecin, and a number of partner libraries as well as German-Polish cultural societies are active in providing information and organizing programmes and language courses. Since 1993, German and Polish historians have been working together at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw mainly on topics relating to Germany and Poland’s shared history.
Today, cultural exchange takes place increasingly through direct contacts between cultural workers. The Federal Foreign Office primarily supports jointly developed, forward-looking projects, the main focus being on encounters between young people from the two countries.
The German-Polish Youth Office (DPJW), set up in 1991 by an intergovernmental agreement, promotes encounters between German and Polish youth and school groups. Since 1993, more than two million young Germans and Poles have taken part in DPJW encounters.
In the academic year 2009/2010, there are 20 academic teachers, three foreign language assistants and two long-term lecturers seconded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) working at Polish universities. In 2008, the DAAD provided funding enabling a total of 1,919 Poles to study in Germany and 821 Germans to study in Poland.
Various German-language study programmes at Polish universities, the Viadrina European University, which was refounded in Frankfurt/Oder in 1991, and the programmes offered by the Neisse University and the International Graduate School Zittau – all of these serve to intensify mutual academic and cultural exchange. The Max Planck Society has a group of junior scientists working at a biological research institute in Warsaw. A German-Polish agreement on the establishment of a joint science foundation was signed in 2008.
German minority
The German minority in Poland numbers about 300,000, most with German and Polish nationality. Ninety per cent of them live in Silesia. The minority organizations have approximately 70,000 members, most of them belonging to an umbrella organization based inOpole. The rights of the minorities are guaranteed in the Polish constitution and the German-Polish friendship and good neighbourliness agreement signed on 17 June 1991. In January 2005, a new minorities law entered into force, also permitting the use of the minority language as a second language at local level. In some areas with a high minority population (more than 20 percent), bilingual place name signs have now been put up.
The German minority is represented by a deputy in the Polish parliament. At regional level, in Opole Province, it has seven seats in the provincial parliament making it the third-largest force. It forms the regional government with the Civic Platform (PO) and Polish People’s Party (PSL). At local level, its candidates have won the mayoral elections in 22 municipalities.
