Emigration From Poland To Germany After World War II - Family Reunification Process

Family Reunification Process

See also: Eastern Bloc emigration and defection

After the Polish "Bureau for Repatriation" (PUR) had declared the forced expulsions of Germans accomplished and was thus dissolved in 1951, official estimates placed the number of remaining Germans at about 130,000. Historian Witold Sienkiewicz analyzed estimates of various historians and concluded that almost 300,000 Germans were still living in Poland at that time. Most of these people had first wanted to remain in their homeland, but later decided to leave Poland and settle in Germany. On 2 January 1950, the governments of Poland and the newly established East Germany negotiated a treaty allowing 76,000 Germans to voluntarily migrate from Poland to East Germany from early 1950 to late 1951.

Later emigrations from Poland to Germany, though formally possible, were effectively impeded by the Polish local and central authorities. Many of the former German citizens willing to settle in West Germany were not allowed to leave Poland until the Polish October of 1956. This event, which marked the fall of Stalinism in Poland, allowed many to finally leave the country in the so-called "family reunification process".

In the following years, between 231,000 and 260,000 people left Poland and settled in both parts of Germany (about 80% in West Germany). At the same time, about 250,000 people were allowed to immigrate to Poland from the Soviet Union during the so-called "repatriations" between 1955 and 1959.

The German minority in Poland and other people who immigrated to Germany were of heterogenic descent. During the post-war expulsions, it was possible for former German citizens who had held Polish citizenship before to become "rehabilitated", and for former German citizens of Polish, Kashubian, Masurian or Silesian descent to become "verified" as "autochtones", thus gaining Polish citizenship and avoiding expulsion. Some ethnic Germans able to communicate in dialects such as Silesian and Masurian were classified as autochthons by the Polish authorities as well. While 1,104,134 people were verified, the number of people who were rehabilitated is unknown. In addition, there were Germans who were allowed to stay in Poland when the expulsion decree of 1946 was partially reonunced in 1950. Their number is estimated between 160,000 and 200,000. The majority of emigrants were people who had been verified as autochthones. They decided to start a new life in Germany due to cross-border family ties, the poor economic situation and the lack of democracy in Poland. Emigrees automatically lost Polish citizenship and were granted German citizenship on crossing the border if the emigrant or deportee had not been a German citizen before.

In the early 1960s, immigration to Germany was again impeded by the authorities, leading to a considerably lower number of emigrees throughout the 1960s and 1970s. It is estimated that between 1960 and 1970 about 22,000 people per year immigrated, 12% to 28% of whom came from those parts of the western and northern ("recovered") territories that were populated by autochthons. In the early 1970s, about 67,000 people were leaving Poland annually with a rate of 10% to 26% of people from those territories.

In the late 1970s, West German chancellor Willy Brandt's policy of Ostpolitik led to a rapproachment with Poland. Relations between the two states were normalized in the Treaty of Warsaw. This led to further agreements between the Polish leader Edward Gierek and Willy Brandt, concluded in Helsinki during the third phase of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. According to these agreements, 120,000 to 125,000 people were to be allowed to leave Poland in the family reunification process in exchange for economic aid from Western Germany to Poland. Actually, more than 230,000 people left Poland, among whom were almost all remaining "autochthons" who were dissatisfied with the political and economical situation in Poland. Many of them, especially if they were born after 1945, were not able to speak German. At home, they spoke their regional dialect and at school they were taught only literary Polish and Russian. Those emigrants were usually manual laborers, farmers and craftsmen mostly without higher education. After arriving in Germany, they usually kept together and cultivated their regional traditions and language. Some of them retained Polish citizenship and played an active role in the Polish organisations in Germany. In the long run, however, most of them assimilated into German society.

In the 1980s, which marked the last decade of the Polish People's Republic's existence, almost 740,000 people decided to leave Poland. This was due to the implementation of martial law and a stagnating economy affected by the economic sanctions imposed by the USA under Ronald Reagan. These emigrants were primarily ethnic Poles, most of whom were unable to communicate in German and had to learn it at special language courses organised by the German authorities. Most of them kept close contacts with their relatives and friends in Poland and some of them retained Polish citizenship. They are usually active in Polish organizations in Germany.