Background The lower River Oder in
Silesia was
Piast Poland's western border from the 10th until the 13th century. From around the time of
World War I, some proposed restoring this line, in the belief that it would provide protection against Germany. One of the first proposals was made in the
Russian Empire. Later, when the
Nazis gained power, the German territory to the east of the line was militarised by Germany with a view to a future war, and the Polish population faced
Germanisation. The policies of
Nazi Germany also encouraged nationalism among the
German minority in Poland. While a process of Germanisation in lands east of the
Limes Sorabicus line had already begun to take place between the 12th and 14th centuries, there were many areas in which the German population had hardly settled at all, such that this process of Germanisation extended well into the 19th and 20th centuries. For example, on
Rugia Island, the local Slavic culture and language persisted into the 19th century; this was also the case for many areas between the Oder–Neisse and interwar Polish border. About half of what was
Farther Pomerania remained plurality Kashubian or Polish until the 18th and 19th centuries, with surviving majority Slavic pockets extending as far west as
Dievenow. The plebiscite allowed both permanent inhabitants of the area but also people born in the region to vote, regardless of their current location or time spent living in Silesia. Voters who participated in the plebiscite despite not living in Upper Silesia were called "migrants", and made up 192,408 (16%) of the total electorate of 1,186,234. As these "migrants" voted overwhelmingly for Germany, the local Polish population considered the plebiscite to be fraudulent, resulting in three
Silesian Uprisings. During the
First Partition of Poland in 1772, the inhabitants of Danzig fought fiercely for it to remain a part of Poland, but as a result of the
Germanisation process in the 19th century, 90% of the people in Danzig were
German by 1919, which made the Entente leaders at the Paris Peace Conference compromise by creating the
Free City of Danzig, a city-state in which Poland had certain special rights. The city of Danzig was 90% German and 10% Polish, yet the countryside surrounding Danzig was overwhelmingly Polish, and the ethnically Polish rural areas included in the Free City of Danzig objected, arguing that they wanted to be part of Poland. In 1918, Bolesław Jakimiak advocated for a Polish border along the rivers of Oder and
Lusatian Neisse, possibly inspired by the proposals of Russian nationalists. He described the German expansion towards the formerly Slavic lands and considered it a "matter of historical justice" to have East Prussia, the entirety of Pomerania, East Brandenburg and both Lower and Upper Silesia become "integral parts" of a future Polish state. Some Polish historians called for the "return" of territories up to the river
Elbe. The proposal to establish the border along the Oder and Neisse was not seriously considered for a long time. After
Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Poland, some Polish politicians started to see a need to alter the border with Germany. Initially the
Polish government-in-exile envisioned territorial changes after the war which would incorporate
East Prussia,
Danzig (Gdańsk) and the
Oppeln (Opole)
Silesian region into post-war Poland, along with a straightening of the Pomeranian border and minor acquisition in the
Lauenburg (Lębork) area. While these territorial claims were regarded as "megalomaniac" by the Soviet ambassador in London, in October 1941 Stalin announced the "return of East Prussia to Slavdom" after the war. On 16 December 1941 Stalin remarked in a meeting with the British Foreign Minister
Anthony Eden, though inconsistent in detail, that Poland should receive all German territory up to the river Oder.
Tehran Conference At the
Tehran Conference in late 1943, the Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin raised the subject of Poland's western frontier and its extension to the River Oder. While the Americans were not interested in discussing any border changes at that time, Roosevelt agreed that in general the Polish border should be extended west to the Oder, while Polish eastern borders should be shifted westwards; he also admitted that due to elections at home he could not express his position publicly. British Foreign Minister
Anthony Eden wrote in his diary that "A difficulty is that the Americans are terrified of the subject which [Roosevelt advisor] Harry [Hopkins] called 'political dynamite' for their elections. But, as I told him, if we cannot get a solution, Polish-Soviet relations six months from now, with Soviet armies in Poland, will be infinitely worse and elections nearer."
Winston Churchill compared the westward shift of Poland to soldiers taking two steps "left close" and declared in his memoirs: "If Poland trod on some German toes that could not be helped, but there must be a strong Poland."
Yalta Conference In February 1945, American and British officials met in
Yalta and agreed on the basics on Poland's future borders. In the east, the British agreed to the
Curzon line but recognised that the US might push for
Lwów to be included in post-war Poland. In the west, Poland should receive part of
East Prussia,
Danzig, the eastern tip of
Pomerania and
Upper Silesia. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt said that it would "make it easier for me at home" if Stalin were generous to Poland with respect to Poland's eastern frontiers.
Winston Churchill said a Soviet concession on that point would be admired as "a gesture of magnanimity" and declared that, with respect to Poland's post-war government, the British would "never be content with a solution which did not leave Poland a free and independent state." With respect to Poland's western frontiers, Stalin noted that the Polish Prime Minister in exile,
Stanisław Mikołajczyk, had been pleased when Stalin had told him Poland would be granted Stettin/Szczecin and the German territories east of the Western Neisse. Yalta was the first time that the Soviets openly declared support for a German–Polish frontier on the Western as opposed to the Eastern Neisse. Churchill objected to the Western Neisse frontier, saying that "it would be a pity to stuff the Polish goose so full of German food that it got indigestion." He added that many
Britons would be shocked if such large numbers of Germans were driven out of these areas, to which Stalin responded that "many Germans" had "already fled before the Red Army." Poland's western frontier was ultimately left to be decided at the
Potsdam Conference. . Originally, Germany was to retain Stettin, while the Poles were to annex
East Prussia with Königsberg (now
Kaliningrad). The Polish government had in fact demanded this since the start of World War II in 1939, because of East Prussia's strategic position that allegedly undermined the defense of Poland. Other territorial changes proposed by the Polish government were the transfer of the Silesian region of Oppeln and the Pomeranian regions of Danzig,
Bütow and
Lauenburg, and the straightening of the border somewhat in Western Pomerania. However, Stalin decided that he wanted Königsberg as a year-round
warm water port for the
Soviet Navy, and he argued that the Poles should receive Stettin instead. The prewar Polish government-in-exile had little to say in these decisions, but insisted on retaining the city of
Lwów (Lvov, Lemberg, now Lviv) in
Galicia. Stalin refused to concede, and instead proposed that all of
Lower Silesia including
Breslau (Polish: Wrocław) be given to Poland. Many Poles from Lwów would later be moved to populate the city. of 8 December 1919.
Pink areas: prewar German territory transferred to Poland after the war.
Grey area:
prewar Polish territory transferred to the Soviet Union after the war. The eventual border was not the most far-reaching territorial change that was proposed. There were suggestions to include areas further west so that Poland could include the small minority population of ethnic
Slavic
Sorbs who lived near
Cottbus and
Bautzen. The precise location of the western border was left open. The western Allies accepted in general that the Oder would be the future western border of Poland. Still in doubt was whether the border should follow the eastern or western Neisse, and whether Stettin, now Szczecin, which lay west of the Oder, should remain German or be placed in Poland (with an expulsion of the German population). Stettin was the traditional seaport of Berlin. It had a dominant German population and a small Polish minority that numbered 2,000 in the interwar period. The western Allies sought to place the border on the eastern Neisse at Breslau, but Stalin refused to budge. Suggestions of a border on the
Bóbr (Bober) were also rejected by the Soviets.
Nikita Khrushchev in his memoirs said: ''"I had only one desire – that Poland's borders were moved as far west as possible."'' Not satisfied with the Oder–Neisse line, the Polish communists initially wanted to own the entire
island of Usedom and push the border west to the
Randow river; however they were refused by Stalin.
Potsdam Conference from 1945 until 1949. At Potsdam, Stalin argued for the Oder–Neisse line on the grounds that the Polish Government demanded this frontier and that there were no longer any Germans left east of this line. Several Polish Communist leaders appeared at the conference to advance arguments for an Oder–Western Neisse frontier. The port of Stettin was demanded for Eastern European exports. If Stettin was Polish, then "in view of the fact that the supply of water is found between the Oder and the Lausitzer Neisse, if the Oder's tributaries were controlled by someone else the river could be blocked." Soviet forces had initially expelled Polish administrators who tried to seize control of Stettin in May and June, and the city was governed by a German communist-appointed mayor, under the surveillance of the Soviet occupiers, until 5 July 1945. (Szczawno-Zdrój) to force them to immediately leave Poland on 14 July 1945, issued at 6 a.m. to be executed until 10 am
James Byrnes – who had been appointed as
U.S. Secretary of State earlier that month – later advised the Soviets that the U.S. was prepared to concede the area east of the Oder and the Eastern Neisse to Polish administration, and for it not to consider it part of the Soviet occupation zone, in return for a moderation of Soviet demands for reparations from the Western occupation zones. An Eastern Neisse boundary would have left Germany with roughly half of
Silesia – including the majority of
Wrocław (Breslau), the former provincial capital and the largest city in the region. The Soviets insisted that the Poles would not accept this. The Polish representatives (and Stalin) were in fact willing to concede a line following the Oder–Bober–Queis (
Odra–
Bóbr–
Kwisa) rivers through
Żagań (Sagan) and
Lubań (Lauban), but even this small concession ultimately proved unnecessary, since on the next day Byrnes told the Soviet Foreign Minister
Vyacheslav Molotov that the Americans would reluctantly concede to the Western Neisse. Byrnes' concession undermined the British position, and although the British Foreign Secretary
Ernest Bevin raised objections, the British eventually agreed to the American concession. In response to American and British statements that the Poles were claiming far too much German territory,
Stanisław Mikołajczyk argued that "the western lands were needed as a reservoir to absorb the Polish population east of the
Curzon Line, Poles who returned from the West, and Polish people who lived in the overcrowded central districts of Poland." The U.S. and the U.K. were also negative towards the idea of giving Poland an occupation zone in Germany. However, on 29 July, President Truman handed Molotov a proposal for a temporary solution whereby the U.S. accepted Polish administration of land as far as the Oder and
Eastern Neisse until a final peace conference determined the boundary. In return for this large concession, the U.S. demanded that "each of the occupation powers take its share of reparations from its own [Occupation] Zone and provide for admission of Italy into the United Nations." The Soviets stated that they were not pleased "because it denied Polish administration of the area between the two Neisse rivers." On 29 July Stalin asked
Bolesław Bierut, the head of the Soviet-controlled
Polish government, to accept in consideration of the large American concessions. The Polish delegation decided to accept a boundary of the administration zone at "somewhere between the western Neisse and the
Kwisa". Later that day the Poles changed their mind: "Bierut, accompanied by
Rola-Zymierski, returned to Stalin and argued against any compromise with the Americans. Stalin told his Polish protégés that he would defend their position at the conference." ==World War II aftermath==