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Reconciliation, friendship and security: Foreign Minister Wadephul travels to Poland
The International Youth Meeting Centre in Krzyżowa © Caro / Eckelt
Foreign Minister Wadephul is departing for Krzyżowa at midday on Monday. He will be meeting his Polish counterpart Radosław Sikorski there. Read on to find out more.
The village of Krzyżowa, known in German as Kreisau, has a special place in German-Polish history. It is where the members of the Kreisau Circle met from 1940 onwards, becoming the heart of civilian resistance to the Nazi dictatorship. The Second World War unleashed by Nazi Germany, and the German occupation of Poland, inflicted immeasurable suffering on the Polish people. In Krzyżowa, Foreign Minister Wadephul and his Polish counterpart Minister Sikorski will remember the crimes for which Germans were responsible.
Nothing can ever undo the immeasurable suffering that we Germans inflicted on Poland through war and occupation. At the same time, we have taken on responsibility for ensuring that this most heinous chapter never becomes the last one in our exceptionally closely intertwined history.
Commitment to a Europe united in peace and security is our answer to the cataclysms of the past. It is our enduring responsibility as Germans never to flag in this commitment. We must always seek what unites us despite differences between us.
– Foreign Minister Wadephul prior to his departure for Krzyżowa
Krzyżowa as a site of German-Polish reconciliation
Krzyżowa also stands for German-Polish reconciliation and friendship, and joint efforts for a united and free Europe. With the memories of the Reconciliation Mass of 1989 attended by Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, and with the International Youth Meeting Centre established in the village in 1998, Krzyżowa is a place where people from different regions and a wide variety of cultural backgrounds meet to discuss, listen to one another and engage in action together.
Together for Europe
Thirty-five years ago, the German-Polish Friendship Treaty was signed. Together with the Border Treaty of 1990, it formed the foundation for reconciliation, good neighbourliness, partnership and friendship between Germany and Poland following the end of the division of Europe. Today the two countries are close partners in the EU and in NATO. As members of the Weimar Triangle, we coordinate closely with one another in order to strengthen our shared Europe.
We want to further expand this close cooperation. The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine makes it urgent to strengthen German-Polish cooperation on security and defence. But we will also continue to forge deeper relations in the fields of business, culture and youth exchange.
I firmly believe that this German-Polish cohesion and crucial commitment to peace and freedom are more important today than they have been since the end of the Second World War. It will be decided in Ukraine whether the European peaceful order can prevail or if we will return to our continent’s darkest days. The fact that Germany and Poland are among Ukraine’s most resolute supporters in its defence against Russia and that we stand unwaveringly alongside the people of Ukraine in their fight for freedom is thus vital for security, but also the essential lesson from our past.
– Foreign Minister Wadephul prior to his departure for Krzyżowa