The reviewed book was written basing on Piotr Szlanta’s habilitation thesis defended in 2015 at the University of Warsaw. It deals mainly with “the Polish question”, by describing the relations between Emperor Wilhelm II and his Polish subjects. The title deals with stereotypes of the Emperor and his Polish subjects, and its evolution during subsequent decades. Piotr Szlanta managed to grasp the ambiguous relation between these two sides. On the one hand, the Emperor sought for acceptance and recognition from the side of “his Poles”, on the other hand, he underlined on almost every occasion the historical role of Germans in civilising east territories and its inhabitants. The last attempt of gaining support of Poles towards his politics and himself was an attempt of creating “The Kingdom of Poland” in autumn 1916. Piotr Szlanta’s book, basing on a broad research in various archives managed to highlight this complicated chapter of Polish-German relations.

The year 2000 was the year of the creation of ‘The Polish Library‘ also known as ‘Beauty Unknown‘. This year is the 20th anniversary of her birthday and at the same time a great opportunity to recall the creation content and promotion of this impressive 50 volume collection. The following article is dedicated to these events.

The essence of the “border problem” between Poland and the FRG reaches back to the provisions of the Potsdam Agreement of 1945. The Polish position was unambiguous from the beginning: the border on the Odra and Nysa Łużycka rivers was established under international law in the Potsdam Agreement, while the subsequent actions undertaken within the framework of the “peace settlement” could only have complementary, declaratory significance. On the other hand, in the FRG an official legal position was developed according to which the former eastern German territories were only given to Poland (and the USSR) “under their administration”, and the final decision on the border was left to be taken by the future unified Germany in a “peace treaty” or a “peace settlement”. This position was not changed by the Normalization Treaty between Poland and the FRG of 1970, because it was interpreted in the FRG as only a “treaty about the renunciation of force”, an element of a modus vivendi which was to last until the unification of Germany. On the other hand, the Zgorzelec Treaty of 1950 between Poland and the GDR was interpreted as not binding for the future unified Germany. Such a position deeply destabilized political relations between the FRG and Poland in the post-war period and had a conflict-generating significance in a number of areas. At the beginning of 1990 the political changes in Poland coincided with the process of German unification. The democratic opposition in Poland, and thereafter the government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, unequivocally supported the right of the German people to self-determination, at the same time expecting an unequivocal position on the Polish-German border. This fundamental problem was closed in 1990 under two international agreements: the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (2+4 Treaty) and the Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany (united Germany) and the Republic of Poland on the confirmation of the border between them. Thus for thirty-plus years now the “border problem” has been removed from the agenda of political discussions in Polish-German relations, which proves the effectiveness and durability of the agreement reached, which was reflected in both treaties.

This article presents a media-studies profile of the bilingual periodical Dialog. Magazyn Polsko-Niemiecki / Dialog. Deutsch-Polnisches Magazin, which is the biggest project of this kind in Europe. In spite of occasional problems with funding, it has been around without a break since 1987. Committed to the goal of building a better understanding between two nations torn apart by war and strife, the editors have opened their magazine to all aspects — political, cultural and economic — of Polish-German relations.

The issue of war reparations was a subject of controversy in Polish-German relations for a long time. This was due to the position of the Federal Republic of Germany that this issue had been deferred to the moment of German unification. The German concept of reparations also included the individual claims of Polish victims of National Socialism (Nazism). The case for interstate reparations from Germany to Poland was closed as a result of the Polish waiver of 1953, while the issue of individual compensation for Polish victims was symbolically resolved as a result of agreements between Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany only in 1990 and 2000. The scope and amount of any new payments depends on the agreements of particular countries or organizations with the Federal Republic of Germany. As long as the victims are still alive, new pragmatic solutions should not be ruled out.

This article examines the coverage of German themes in Polish local press by focusing on a number of newspapers and periodicals published at Siedlce in the 1930s, i.e. Gazeta Podlaska, Nowa Gazeta Podlaska, Głos Podlaski, Ziemia Siedlecka, Wiadomości Diecezjalne Podlaskie and Życie Podlasia.

This article surveys the relations between the Polish Radio and the German Broadcasting Corporation (Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft) in the interwar period. In its early phase the relationship was overshadowed by disputes over programmes on Upper Silesia and the takeover by a German company of the radio station in the Free City of Gdańsk (Danzig). After Hitler became chancellor in 1933 there was a marked improve- ment in relations: the two parties even made an agreement to relay each other's programmes. However, in September 1939 the German radio network (RRG) actively aided the German army in its invasion of Poland.