Union of Poles in Germany celebrates centenary

Poland’s political leaders have sent their congratulations to the Union of Poles in Germany (ZPwN) – a minority organisation celebrating the centenary of its founding – but also used the occasion to refer to ongoing tensions with Berlin today.

“Old problems remain unresolved” while “new ones” have arisen, wrote Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, referring to the union’s demands for greater support for national minorities in Germany and compensation for the wartime theft of its property.

The establishment of the ZPwN in Berlin 100 years ago was “one of the most important events in the history of Polish emigration”, wrote President Andrzej Duda in a letter read by his representative, secretary of state Andrzej Dera, at the Polish embassy in the same city.

Its foundation was “not just a symbolic, but a practical expression of national pride and attachment to Polishness” in a society that was initially “unfriendly, and in the 1930s and ‘40s hostile and dangerous” towards Poles, noted Duda.

“I trust that the union’s history and main achievements will inspire and motivate not only Poles in Germany, but also all those who think, speak and feel Polish, regardless of the corner of the world they have ended up living in,” Duda added.

When it was formed in 1922, the ZPwN represented hundreds of thousands of ethnic Poles who remained in Germany after the Treaty of Versailles returned Poland to the map.

“We in Germany living as citizens of the German state must join to work together if we do not wish to lose our mother faith, our Polish language, our native culture,” its founders wrote in an appeal in 1922.

The symbol of the union since its design in 1932, as a response to the imposition of the swastika in public life, remains the Rodło – a stylised representation of the Vistula river with Kraków as the cradle of Polish culture. The word is a portmanteau of “Ród” (family) and “Godło” (coat of arms).

In 1938, the ZPwN held the First Congress of Poles in Germany, passing the “five truths” that were the pillars on which its activity was based. These are: “We are Poles”, “Our fathers’ faith is our children’s faith”, “A Pole is a brother to other Poles”, “A Pole serves his people every day”, and “Poland is our mother – you do not speak ill of your mother”.

Just a year later, however, war broke out, and the union was banned. Its property was confiscated in 1940 and it was only allowed to resume operations after the war. In 1950 the ZPwN split into two factions, one of which recognised communist rule in Poland, only reuniting in 1991.

Kaczyński’s letter quoted Dziennik Berliński, a Polish-language newspaper from the time of the ZPwN’s founding, which wrote that “the Polish element in the Weimar Republic was significantly strengthened institutionally and able to actively and effectively fight for the rights and interests of the Polish population”.

An exhortation to “Compatriots!” to join the newly formed Union of Poles in Germany in Dziennik Berliński, 9/10 December 1922 (photo: public domain)

He also quoted another passage from the same newspaper that complained about a lack of equal rights despite the assurances of the German constitution. “The government must accord us the rights of a national minority just as they are accorded to the German minority in Poland. Only then will we be able to live happily and peacefully.”

“As the above shows, the years go by, the times change, but old problems remain unresolved,” Kaczyński concluded. “And they have been joined by new ones,” he added, referring to the union’s demand for compensation for its looted property.

Kaczyński was represented at the embassy by Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a PiS MP who has spearheaded Poland’s demands for war reparations from Germany, potentially amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars.

The Nazi German occupation of Poland resulted in millions of deaths, the almost complete destruction of many cities, as well as large-scale looting of art and other cultural heritage.

Today, as well as compensation, the ZPwN demands institutional funding – including for language teaching – on the same principles on which it says the Polish government supports the German minority in Poland, along with greater protection of national minorities

Earlier this year, the Polish government decided to cut funding for German teaching and instead allocate it to teaching Polish in Germany. The Polish education ministry argued that the German federal government was failing to “ensure the organisation and financing of Polish language learning” for Poles in Germany.

Today, around two million Poles (plus more people with Polish heritage) live in Germany. They are not officially recognised as a national minority – unlike Germans in Poland, of whom there are around 300-350,000.

At the centenary celebrations in Berlin, Polish deputy foreign minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk passed on congratulations and thanks from Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, promising that his ministry would speak openly to its German counterparts on “difficult issues”.

Smaller celebrations took place elsewhere. In the city of Opole, which was transferred from Germany to Poland in 1945 and in whose vicinity many ethnic Germans continue to live, a new exhibition has been opened on the history of the union. Local councillor Łukasz Sowada quoted the five truths at a ceremony to mark the centenary.

“A Pole is a brother to other Poles. Only then will we be able to join together and work together for Poland,” he said, quoted by local newspaper Nowa Trybuna Opolska. “But today, in incomparably more peaceful times, are we still able to remain brothers to each other?”

Main image credit: Facebook/Związek Polaków w Niemczech

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.