Układ z 1970 roku o podstawach normalizacji stosunków z RFN – przypadek ponadpolitycznej zgody?

Abstract

Signed on 7 December 1970 between the Polish People’s Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany, the agreement on the grounds for normalizing relations is often judged through the prism of the late Władysław Gomułka era and its accompanying political upheavals in the country. The text outlines the genesis of this breakthrough event in Polish-German relations, recounts its assessment formulated by the government and party leadership in Poland as well as by the independent and the immigration circles. Convergence in assessing the significance of the agreement allows it to be regarded as a rare example of a consensus above political divisions. Differences, however, lay in the visions of prospects that the agreement made available. Criteria for the long-term implementation of the national interest and reasons of state orders made it treated not only as a point of closing the post-war state of understatements, but also as the chance to open the construction of Polish-German relations in line with the principle of self-determination of peoples.