Teaching Resource - Ostpolitik and the Question of Poland's Borders

On 7 December 1970 West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and Polish Prime Minister Jozef Cyrankiewicz signed the Treaty of Warsaw, whereby the two states accepted the western border of Poland that had been drawn by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. Since this border had transferred a wide strip of eastern Germany to Poland – a massive loss of territory that previous West German governments had refused to accept – there was widespread fear throughout Europe that West German demands to regain this land could ignite a new European war. After Brandt came to power in 1969 his Ostpolitik sought to unify Germany and end the Cold War in Europe by building trust among the governments of East and West. He understood that for Ostpolitik to succeed, the FRG would have to accept the hated border with Poland. Fortunately, changes underway in the Soviet Union and Poland made it possible for West Germany to reach agreement on this emotionally fraught issue with both Moscow and Warsaw. This achievement paved the way for the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which played a key role in the peaceful end of the Cold War in Europe.