Review article
German Democratic Republic – Neighbour of Poland: Faces of Friendship and Faces of Transformation
Patrycja Wisniewska
; University of Poznan, Poznan, Poland
Abstract
The government, with chancellor Konrad Adenauer as it’s head, announced on 21st of September 1949 the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany. In response, the Soviet Union transformed its sphere of influence into a separate state proclaimed by the German Folk Council on 17th of October 1949, and named it the German Democratic Republic. This country, including in its territory a small part of Germany, could not become the national state of the German people, but it did become the front country of the ‘Soviet Bloc’, with a high level of concentration of Russian military forces. The division of Germany by such means as the Berlin Wall was indeed unique. The Polish people and the Eastern Germans lived next to each other, in the same ‘bloc’. The rhythm of their lives in the postwar reality/history was not very different. The article points to similar problems, protests and conflicts. The literature in GDR, like the literature in Poland, was the basic force of spiritual and political changes. The year 1976 was crucial in the creation of political opposition. The communist power came to an end in 1989. The peaceful revolution in GDR and the structural/constitutional changes in Poland brought a new quality of cooperation and neighborly relations between the two countries.
Keywords
SED – Socialist Unity Party of Germany; German Protestant Church; German-Polish conflict of 1985-1989; Soviet bloc (Soviet Union); political opposition; socialist social reforms
Hrčak ID:
29119
URI
Publication date:
1.2.2008.
Visits: 3.010 *