Treaty of Zgorzelec
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Type | Boundary treaty |
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Signed | 6 July 1950 |
Location | Zgorzelec, Poland |
Original signatories | |
Parties |
|
Languages | Polish, German |
Territorial evolution of Poland in the 20th century |
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The Treaty of Zgorzelec (Full title The Agreement Concerning the Demarcation of the Established and the Existing Polish-German State Frontier, also known as the Treaty of Görlitz and Treaty of Zgorzelic) between the
Republic of Poland and East Germany (GDR) was signed on 6 July 1950 in Zgorzelec
, Poland.
Signing
The agreement was signed by
Oder-Neisse line implemented by the 1945 Potsdam Agreement as the border between the two states.[1] The terms referred to the "defined and existing border" from the Baltic Sea west of Świnoujście - however without mentioning Szczecin - along the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers to the Czechoslovak border. Thereby the East German government also accepted the division of Kostrzyn nad Odrą/Küstrin-Kietz, Słubice/Frankfurt (Oder), Gubin/Guben and Zgorzelec/Görlitz. This border drawing gave Poland a quarter of the pre-war territory of Germany according to the borders of 1937,[2]
whose German-speaking population either fled in the final stages of the war or
had been expelled in the wake of the German defeat in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement.
International reaction and impact
The treaty was worded as a declaration and was, initially, not recognised as a legitimate international treaty by
German–Polish Border Treaty (1990)
.
Location of signing
The community centre in which the treaty was signed is one of
Wilhelmine style, it was originally opened as the Upper Lusatian Memorial Hall (Oberlausitzer Gedenkhalle ), and has been known as the Municipal House of Culture in Zgorzelec (Miejski Dom Kultury w Zgorzelcu
]) since 1975 .
Commemoration
-
1951 East German stamp commemorative of the Treaty of Zgorzelec featuring the presidents Wilhelm Pieck (GDR) and Bolesław Bierut (Poland)
References and notes
- ^ a b Johnson, Edward Elwyn. International law aspects of the German reunification alternative answers to the German question Archived 2007-10-09 at the Wayback Machine Page 13
- ^ Marcin Zaborowski. Germany, Poland, and Europe: Conflict, Co-operation, and Europeanization. Manchester University Press. p. 2.
- ^ Declaration of the Government of the U.S.S.R. Concerning the Granting of Sovereignty to the German Democratic Republic, 25 March, 1954
External links
Polish Wikisource has original text related to this article: