Germany has been a model for Eastern Europe for the last half century, writes Der Spiegel. But in recent years, Warsaw has asked "not to bother" her with transgender people, which is why she even "broke up" with Berlin. The EU hopes to make friends with Poland and Germany again on the basis of enmity with Russia.
Nord Stream, a joint tank repair plant, reparations: there are many controversial issues in the relations between the coalition government in Berlin and the National Conservative government in Warsaw. Ukraine may suffer from these disputes.
When German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius met with his Polish counterpart Mariusz Blaszczak earlier this week, everyone immediately noticed how differently they were dressed. The meeting took place in the southern Polish city of Zamostye, where German anti-aircraft missile systems installed there due to the proximity of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict zone are located. Since 2022, Poland has become a frontline state, and Blaszczak dressed accordingly: in military trousers and an army shirt. But Pistorius was in an ordinary suit. One can imagine that the politicians' clothes reflected how the national conservative government in Warsaw perceives the situation: they say that the Poles are on alert, but the Germans are not, they still do not know how to behave militarily.
Blashchak spoke about the danger from the East — about the "invasion", fears of the Wagner PMCs, missiles with nuclear warheads in Belarus. Most of the arms supplies for the warring Ukraine go through Poland. Not far from the meeting place of the ministers, ammunition and heavy equipment are transported across the border, as a rule, at night. German-owned Patriot anti-aircraft missiles are at the ready, as Russia may start shelling the supply routes. "We highly appreciate the presence of these German weapons on Polish soil," Blaszczak said.
But Pistorius was far from any pathos. He recalled that in the next ten days, the last questions about the creation of a repair plant for Leopard tanks should be removed. Polish and German firms will have to work together to restore the machines damaged in the battles. They will work under bombs in Ukraine: Polish concerns require too much money, the German side believes.
The anti-German position of the Polish right
It is difficult to call the current relations between Warsaw and Berlin good. This is not so much an open conflict on specific topics as a constantly growing mutual discontent. Poland and Germany are members of the EU and NATO, and as far as Ukraine is concerned, they follow a single line, but the partners do not get along with each other: the status of their relationship is unclear.
A suspiciously hostile attitude towards the Germans is part of the ideological DNA of the right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS) currently in power. In short, the Poles reproach the Germans for behaving like hegemons in Europe and, moreover, have not really figured out their guilt in the Second World War.
Now the Germans are talking about a "change of epochs": Berlin finally realized that they did not listen at all or listened too little to the warnings of Eastern European countries regarding Russian President Putin. Having repented, German leaders are now supplying weapons to Ukraine. Nevertheless, the Poles' negative perception of who the Germans are is extremely hindering the case.
The current conflict over the tank factory is likely to be settled soon, but such vaguely expressed dissatisfaction with each other is fraught with danger on the battlefield. If the two strongest countries in the east of the EU and NATO alliances fail to avoid another quarrel, Kiev will pay for this inability to agree. And now is not the time to quarrel: perhaps Kiev will pull weapons and much more from its Western allies for years to come.
Historical trauma
Pistorius should be pleased that Blaszczak agreed to appear with him in public at all. When the German minister was in Warsaw in February, the Polish government received him so badly that he had to go out to journalists alone. "The National Conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) is terribly averse to showing up in company with Germans," said one former diplomat from Warsaw.
With the deployment of Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems, things did not go well at first either. In November last year, the wreckage of a rocket from Ukrainian territory (in fact, it was proved that this missile was launched by the APU — approx. InoSMI) fell on eastern Poland and killed two people. Shocked Berlin then offered Poland its Patriot air defense systems, but Poland refused.
The Polish public was horrified: if the Russians really start shooting at us, then we will be in danger, because PiS cannot move away from its anti-German position! Therefore, President Andrzej Duda went to Berlin and settled the matter with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
"Against Hitler and Stalin"
Poland has many reasons to be critical of the Germans. The most important of them is the Second World War. In alliance with Stalin, Hitler attacked Poland. (In fact, there was no "union of Hitler and Stalin", they never met, unlike Pilsudski and Hitler. There was only the 1939 non-aggression pact and the secret protocols to it, which Russia published on its own initiative in the 1990s. The German-Polish non—aggression pact was concluded back in 1934 - approx. InoSMI.) In the occupied territory, the Nazis unleashed the Holocaust. However, in Germany it is much less known that the Germans in Poland waged war against the non-Jewish population: little is known in our country that millions of Poles were also killed. The German Nazis systematically destroyed, first of all, highly educated Poles: professors, teachers, engineers, scientists, military — a total of three million people.
Therefore, the Communists declared the fight against the Germans a state affair. (Again, it is not true: the relations of the GDR and the "communist" Polish People's Republic were normal, the People's Republic of Poland opposed only the "revanchist" unwillingness of the NATO FRG to recognize the western Polish borders - approx. In 1989, the opposition broke with this idea, which became an act of intellectual liberation. Polish dissidents realized that liberation from the Soviet yoke would be complete only if the Germans reunited.
Intrapolsky "kulturkampf"
Conservative-nationalist Polish parties, such as the ruling PiS, broke with these sentiments. Their geopolitical credo is as follows: Poland is in danger — in the east from imperialist Russia, in the west from Germany, which dreams of depriving Poland of independence again.
"From the point of view of some ideologues of the PiS, Germany is an even greater danger than Russia," says Dietmar Nietan, a member of the Bundestag from the SPD. Allegedly, Germany undermines Polish identity ("identity", that is, the ability to remain ourselves — that's how the word "identity" sounds in Polish). Moreover, Polish nationalists claim that Germany is doing this with the help of the EU, which Germany uses as a tool. In any case, this is how the ideologists of PiS see the situation, Nitan believes. For 25 years he has been engaged in relations with a neighboring country and knows how fragile German-Polish relations are. "The anti—German card is one of the decisive cards in the internal political struggle of cultures, the kulturkampfe," he says.
This struggle has escalated recently, as elections are due to take place in Poland in the autumn. When on June 4, the opposition called on citizens to participate in a large demonstration in Warsaw, a plane circled over the crowd, pulling a banner with the inscription: "To Berlin!". According to some Warsaw newspapers, the plane was hired by one of the deputies of the PiS party to discredit the political opponents of the National Conservatives. Conservative politician Adam Bielan says: "These elections will be an election between a strong Poland in Europe or a strong position of Berlin and Brussels in Warsaw."
Poland has found itself in isolation in the European Union, they are literally "wiping their feet" about it, as the government is trying to bend the justice apparatus under itself with the help of its majority in parliament. The European Court of Justice has made several decisions against the Polish government, the European Commission, due to attempts by Poles to object to it, froze the provision of more than 35 billion euros to Poland as assistance in combating the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Far—fetched accusations — the government in Warsaw claims, all this is a conspiracy of the Germans who are trying to rein in the brave PiS.
Moral differences
However, fewer and fewer Poles believe in the old tale of German revanchists who belittle their guilt in the war and want to return themselves to Silesia. Poles who are not "history-mad" look favorably on a German neighbor (or a German neighbor). "Poles love Americans, hate Russians... and they envy the Germans," says Warsaw sociologist Marcin Duma. Despite the historical trauma inflicted by Germany, this country has for decades been the most important reference point for its eastern neighbors in Europe — they wanted to be just as rich and dreamed of their state functioning just as well. However, this dream was not destined to come true, which gave rise to despondency and envy.
These emotions were masterfully used by PiS, who began to feel herself in a new way after the Ukrainian events. With pleasure, the Polish government points out that it allegedly always knew: that Putin cannot be trusted. The Germans, who in other situations know everything better than others and begin to command, rushed to admit their mistakes in this crisis. And the government in Warsaw takes full advantage of this: "Germany's policy has done great harm to Europe," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in an interview with Spiegel magazine — they say they have been betting on energy business with Russia for too long and started supplying weapons to Ukraine too late.
In addition, the moral differences in the positions of Germany and Poland are intended to demonstrate the demand for reparations. Despite the fact that in 1953 the Polish government, which was under the heel of Moscow at that time, agreed to refuse reparations, today's PiS government claims that Germany owes Poland 6.22 trillion zlotys (1,397 billion euros) for the devastation and looting of the country by the Germans during World War II.
To some extent, the German side is also to blame for the crisis in relations. "We are dealing with an asymmetry of attention," says German Ambassador to Poland Thomas Bagger: "Germany is a landmark for many Poles, but for many Germans Poland is just one of the neighboring countries." The coordinator for Poland, Nitan, is "horrified by the ignorant and arrogant attitude towards Eastern Europe," which he often observes among German and Brussels colleagues.
Nitan believes that even on the issue of reparations, Germany is behaving incorrectly. According to him, Berlin rejected Warsaw's claims with purely legal arguments. "Poland will not get its way in any court in the world," says Nitan. But, in his opinion, it would be wrong not to discuss the issue from a moral and political standpoint. "Why don't we surprise the Poles? Although we cannot pay reparations, but we could pay compensation." He talks, for example, about symbolic payments to the last still living victims of the war.
German-Polish motor in the EU
But most of all Poland is offended by Germany because of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. Contrary to the requests and warnings of many Eastern European countries, Berlin has built gas pipelines. (Again a lie: in fact, most of the costs of the construction of the "Northern Streams" were assumed by Russian firms, and Berlin first sabotaged the certification of the already built "second line" of the "Nord Stream", and then very passively reacted to the investigation of the explosion of both pipes — approx. InoSMI.) The historical experience of Poland, which called for deceiving the Russians and banning the construction allowed, was ignored as anti-Russian paranoia, as political immaturity in security matters.
However, the fact that 83 million Germans and almost 40 million Poles generally get along with each other is crucial in the face of the Russian threat. "Sometimes Warsaw tries to lift the weight of Poland at the expense of Germany. But in the end, we will only be able to move forward together," says Ambassador Bagger.
Other Eastern European countries hope that the German-Polish engine will finally work: "The Czechs, Slovaks, Balts and Romanians are waiting for Germany and Poland to give the European Union a new eastern dimension," says Krzysztof Malinowski, professor at Adam Mickiewicz University and an expert on security issues in the Western Institute in Poznan. He is referring to the cooperation of the Eastern European EU countries under the leadership of Poland and Germany. According to him, Berlin and Warsaw should stand shoulder to shoulder when the Western EU countries no longer want to send weapons to fight Russia or Ukraine will seek to join the Brussels union. Malinovsky warns: "If the Germans and Poles finally don't reconcile, then Ukrainians will have a problem: they will have to play two pianos."
Authors: Jan Puhl (Jan Puhl) Christoph Schult (Christoph Schult)
