Oder-Neisse line facts for kids
The Oder-Neisse line (named after the Oder and Neisse rivers) is the border between Germany and Poland since the end of the Second World War. As a result of the defeat Germany lost another huge part of its territory to Poland after it already had to cede the former Prussian provinces of Posen and Westpreußen as well as parts of upper Silesia to the newly founded Polish state after the First World War in 1919.
The population of the eastern German provinces as well as the German minority population in what was Poland before the Second World War (12 million) either fled before the Russian army to central and western Germany or were later driven out of their homeland by force of the Polish militia who entered immediately after the Russian army.
As Poland annexed the German provinces and deported the native population, Polish people occupied those provinces and took over land and property of the expatriated Germans. About 1.5 million of the new inhabitants had been driven out of their own homeland in eastern Poland/Western Ukraine, Belarus, as the U.S.S.R. was not willing to give back that part of 1922-1939 Poland which it had annexed in 1939.
Images for kids
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The Oder–Neisse line at Usedom (2008)
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Dominant ethnicities in and around Poland, 1931, according to Polish historian Henryk Zieliński.
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Marking the new Polish-German Border in 1945
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Polish authorities issued an order to the population of Bad Salzbrunn (Szczawno-Zdrój) to force them to immediately leave Poland on 14 July 1945, issued at 6 a.m. to be executed until 10 am
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Edward Henry Lewinski Corwin's map of Polish-German borders in the 12th century (published in 1917, US)
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Oder Lagoon area with border on western bank of the Oder, city of Szczecin to the south.
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US Department of State Demographics map from 10 January 1945 Germany – Poland Proposed Territorial Changes, based in part on German prewar population census. Was used for border discussions at the Potsdam conference later in 1945.
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1951 East German stamp commemorative of the Treaty of Zgorzelec establishing the Oder–Neisse line as a "border of peace", featuring the presidents Wilhelm Pieck (GDR) and Bolesław Bierut (Poland)
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CDU's election poster (1947): "Never Oder-Neisse line – vote CDU"
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SPD's election poster (1949): "Silesians – We German Socialdemocrats will fight with all means of peaceful politics and in constant appeal on the sanity of the world for every single square kilometer east of Oder and Neisse"
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The Lusatian Neisse dividing German Görlitz (right) from Polish Zgorzelec (left); formerly both constituted the city of Görlitz.
See also
In Spanish: Línea Óder-Neisse para niños
