Treaty of Warsaw (1970)
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The Treaty of Warsaw (German: Warschauer Vertrag) was a treaty between West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) and the People's Republic of Poland. It was signed on 7 December 1970, and it was ratified by the German Bundestag on 17 May 1972.
In the treaty, both sides committed themselves to nonviolence and accepted the existing border - the Oder-Neisse line, imposed on Germany by the Allies following the end of World War Two. This was a quite sensitive topic at the time, since Poland was concerned that someday a German government would seek to reclaim some of this traditionally Germany territory given to Poland after World War II. The Poles considered the transfer of that territory to be a compensation for the annexation of Polish territory east of the Curzon Line by the Soviet Union. In Germany, the chancellor Willy Brandt was heavily criticized by his conservative CDU/CSU opposition in the Bundestag.
The Oder-Neisse line was later reaffirmed in the German-Polish Border Treaty, signed on 14 November 1990 by the FRG and Poland.
At the time this treaty was signed, it was not seen as the last word on the Polish border in West Germany[1], because Article IV of this treaty stated that previous treaties like the Potsdam Agreement were not superseded by this latest agreement, so the provisions of this treaty could be changed by a final peace treaty between Germany and the Allies of World War II - as provided for in the Potsdam Agreement.[1]
The Treaty of Warsaw was an important element of the Ostpolitik put forward by Chancellor Brandt and supported by his ruling party in the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Johnson, Edward Elwyn. International law aspects of the German refunification alternative answers to the German question. Page 18 and footnote 35 that cites Ludwig Gelberg, The Warsaw Treaty of 1970 and the Western Boundary of Poland, at 125–127; Jochen Abr. Frowein, The Reunification of Germany, 86 Am. J. Int'l L. 152, 156 (1992), at 156.
[edit] External links
- Text of the treaty (PDF file, (German))
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