Stoiber turns on Poland

Addressing the ,,East Prussia Congress"(Deutschlandtag der Ostpreußen) in Leipzig on 23rd June, the Bavarian Minister President and Christian Democrat Chancellor-candidate, Edmund Stoiber, has called on Poland to rescind the decrees which expelled Germans from Danzig, Pomerania, Silesia and East Prussia in 1945. ,,57 years after your flight and expulsion,"he told the 80,000 people who attended the function, ,,you still carry your homeland with you in your hearts." ,,Germany is a great, many-faceted nation of culture. And East Prussia belongs indivisibly to it with its rich tradition and culture."

Stoiber of course acknowledged the evil which Hitler-Germany had done to Poland and the Soviet Union, but he also recalled the suffering of the Germans once the Red Army moved West. Some 2 million East Prussians out of a total of 15 million Germans were expropriated and expelled. More than 2 million died. But although Stoiber spoke constantly of reconciliation - while harshly attacking the hostility of the Czechs to any suggestion that the Benes decrees be rescinded - and although he praised the more open attitude of the Poles, his speech elicited sharp reactions from Warsaw. This was because, while praising the firm stand the European Parliament had taken on the issue of the Benes decrees, Stoiber effectively told the Poles to rescind their decrees too. He said that all Germans from the East, including those from East Prussia, must be accorded the ,,right to their homeland". He said, ,,The post-war period in Europe will be ended only when the injustice of expulsion is contractually expunged, for the reconciliation and common good of both sides. What must be done to transfer the decision of the European Parliament into political reality?"he asked. ,,If the European Parliament's report says, 'Enlargement of the EU must close the wounds of historical events,' then we must address the question of the decrees by which the Germans were expelled and deprived of their rights. As long as these remain in force, the wounds remain open."He added, somewhat threateningly, ,,It is in Poland's own self-interest to distance itself irrevocably and in a spirit of reconciliation from this aspect of the past".

Stoiber went on to quote a CDU paper that said, ,,The decrees on expulsion are unjust. They contradict the spirit and values of the European Union and of international law. Expulsion and ethnic cleansing must nowhere be part of the existing legal order."He undertook to see that this would happen - i.e. that the decrees would be rescinded - if he becomes German Chancellor on 22nd September. He went on, ,,East Prussia, like Silesia and Pomerania are on the way to becoming European regions". He said that these regions should be ,,ever more opened, ever more Europeanised"and, in effect, called for the affairs of these regions to be run jointly by Poles and Germans.

,,The situation of East Prussia is certainly special,"said Stoiber. ,,East Prussia is divided. You will naturally ask what will happen to the Northern part of your homeland, the area around Königsberg". He praised the fact that BMW had opened a factory in Königsberg (the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, between Poland and Lithuania), saying that Herr von Kuenheim, the CEO of BMW, had taken the decision both for business reasons and also ,,because of his East Prussian heart."He said that Königsberg belonged to Europe and could not be excluded from the process of European integration. He praised the great traditions of tolerance which, he said, were associated with the rise of Prussia (sic!) and undertook to make 5th August a national day of remembrance for the expellees if he is elected Chancellor. He concluded his speech by committing himself to ,,the defence of German interests"and ,,on the basis of an enlightened patriotism, to a positive attitude to the German nation."

European Foundation Intelligence Digest Issue No. 145, 27.06.2002


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