As we all know, Germany paid huge war reparations to the invaded countries after the end of the two world wars. After the end of in World War II, the German economy took off again, solving the problem of war reparations well. However, during this period, Polish , which had been invaded by Germany during World War II, has re-mentioned the old story again and demanded that Germany compensate them for their losses in World War II.
According to the "Russia Today" TV station, Poland recently listed a list of claims against Germany. According to this list, the current German government must provide material and spiritual compensation to Poland, including 1.32 trillion euros of economic compensation. At the same time, Poland also requires Germany to return the cultural relics plundered during World War II and restore the reputation of Polish national activists.
1.32 trillion euros are not a small amount, Poland is now a lion. The German Foreign Ministry responded on October 28 that all World War II compensation matters had ended, so it rejected Poland's claim. Germany's statement has historical and legal basis. After World War II, Germany split into two countries: East Germany and West Germany and .
1953 during border negotiations, the Polish government obtained part of Germany's territory before World War II. In exchange, Poland gave up its right to continue to demand war reparations from East Germany; in 1970, the West German government also recognized the borders between Germany and Poland, and Poland once again confirmed that it had given up the claim.
In 1990, East Germany and West Germany signed the "Two Plus Four Treaty" with the four victorious countries of Britain, France, Russia and the United States, which determined the current border between Germany and Poland. It also stated that the four victorious countries would hand over their complete sovereignty to Germany, and Germany would no longer need to make war compensation.
From this perspective, what the German government said about "the completion of World War II compensation matters" is reasonable and has been widely recognized by the international community. In the more than 30 years after the end of the Cold War and the merger of the two Germanys, other neighbors of Germany rarely raised this issue again. Even Poland itself admitted twice in 2004 and 2017 to give up the claim for World War II.
So why is the Polish government causing trouble again on this issue? This means that Poland's historical traditions have to be mentioned. This country has had hundreds of years of grudges with Germany and Russia. Poland once captured the Russian Tsar and captured them. It was also divided up by Russia, Germany, Austria and other countries many times until they were destroyed.
After the battle of , Britain and France forced Poland, which had been destroyed for 123 years, to monitor Germany and prevent Germany from rising. It can be said that Poland has been an instability factor in Eastern Europe since ancient times. During the Cold War, Poland was the little brother of the Soviet Union, so it suppressed the desire to provoke trouble. However, after the end of the Cold War, Poland lost its constraints and restored its historical nature.
The east side is against Russia and the west side is against Germany. This has become the norm for Poland, so the old historical accounts are brought up. In addition to the historical tradition of making enemies everywhere, Poland is also related to the current international situation. At present, the United States has regarded China as its main strategic competitor and needs to focus a lot of resources and energy on East Asia, but it does not want Europe to take the opportunity to grow bigger.
Therefore, a group of hawks and dogs need to be kept in Europe to disrupt the internal unity of Europe. Lithuanian , Ukraine, and Poland all play such roles. With such a mess, it is difficult to complete the integration of EU , while the United States can reap the benefits. Poland has seen through the United States' strategic deployment and actively cooperated, which has become one of the biggest unstable factors within the EU at present.
In fact, the contradiction between Poland and the EU has never been truly resolved. In October 2021, the Polish Constitutional Court made a ruling that "the Polish constitution is higher than EU law", which aroused strong criticism from the EU; on October 17 this year, the EU threatened to freeze up to 75 billion euros of EU funds on the pretext that Poland was "not democratic enough".
In addition, senior officials of the Polish government have also claimed during this period that they will introduce the United States' nuclear weapon to further fan the flames. The purpose of these actions is the same as claiming from Germany, and they are all to cooperate with the US strategy and create a turbulent EU. Judging from the current situation, Germany will never be able to compensate Poland, but Germany and the EU can do nothing about Poland's role as a messenger.
