Oder-Neisse line

Oder-Neisse line frontier established in 1945 between Germany and Poland; it followed the Oder and W Neisse rivers from the Baltic Sea to the Czechoslovak border. The boundary, desired by most Poles at the expense of Germany, came about as a result of agreements between the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the United States at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences in 1945. The Soviet leader Joseph Stalin endorsed the Oder-Neisse line partly as a compensation for the Polish eastern territories that the USSR had annexed and partly under pressure from the USSR-sponsored Polish government. Although the boundary was originally opposed by the United States and Great Britain because it would make Poland excessively dependent upon the Soviet Union, they sanctioned it informally at Yalta in Feb., 1945. After disputed territories, including the former free city of Danzig (now Gdansk), had been in effect incorporated into Poland and their German population largely expelled, the Potsdam Conference of Aug., 1945, recognized the line as Poland's western frontier pending a peace treaty with Germany. In the absence of such a treaty, an agreement between the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and Poland recognized the line as the permanent frontier in 1950. The West German government recognized it in 1971. In 1990, during negotiations for German reunification, the East and West German legislatures agreed to recognize the inviolability of the Polish-German border, much to the relief of neighboring states.

Oder-Neisse Line The frontier, formed by these two rivers, established between Poland and Soviet-occupied Germany in 1945: it had once marked the frontier of medieval Poland. As a result of an agreement at the POTSDAM CONFERENCE, nearly one-fifth of Germany's territory in 1938 was reallocated, mainly to Poland. Germans were expelled from these eastern territories, which were resettled by Poles. The frontier, which became the eastern boundary of the German Democratic Republic, was later accepted by the Federal Republic (West Germany) as part of the policy of détente known as OSTPOLITIK, and confirmed in 1990 when reunification took place.

Oder–Neisse Line, the de facto German–Polish frontier at the end of the Second World War. Running south from the Baltic Sea, it followed the course of the River Oder to the western River Neisse and then along the Neisse to the Czechoslovak border (see Map 78).

At the Teheran and Yalta conferences (see Eureka and ARGONAUT), the Allied powers agreed in principle to the idea of moving Poland westwards at Germany's expense. The USSR, the UK, and the USA supported this proposal as a means of compensating Poland for its territorial losses to the USSR (see Polish–Soviet frontier).

At the Potsdam conference in July– August 1945 (see TERMINAL), the Oder–Neisse Line took its final shape. Although the American and British delegations accepted the line of the Oder, they objected to the western Neisse as the southern part of the boundary. The USSR staunchly supported the westernmost extension of Polish frontiers. Uniquely, the Allied powers invited Polish representatives to present their case for the Oder–Western Neisse Line to the conference.

With the final joint communiqué at Potsdam, the Oder–Western Neisse line became the post-war German–Polish frontier. The onset of the Cold War and muddled understanding of the political and physical geography of Central Europe by the western powers had produced a frontier with every attribute except legal international recognition. The Allied powers placed German territories east of the Oder–Neisse Line ‘under the administration of the Polish state’ pending the ‘peace settlement’. The communiqué also sanctioned the removal of the German population ‘remaining in Poland’. This latter measure, more than any other ambiguous wording in the communiqué, made the Oder–Neisse Line into a permanent frontier. De jure recognition eventually came with the German reunification treaty signed in Moscow on 12 September 1990. See also diplomacy.

Paul Latawski

Bibliography

Kulski, W. W. , Germany and Poland: From War to Peaceful Relations (Syracuse, NY, 1976).
Szaz, Z. M. , Germany's Eastern Frontiers: The Problem of the Oder–Neisse Line (Chicago, 1960).