Recovered Territories

Recovered Territories

Recovered or Regained Territories (Polish: Ziemie Odzyskane, literally "Regained Lands") was an official term used by the People's Republic of Poland to describe those parts of pre-war Germany (and the Free City of Danzig) that became part of Poland after World War II. The rationale for the term "Recovered" was that these territories had been part of (or fiefs of) the Polish state at various times in history, mostly during the rule of the medieval Piast dynasty. Over the centuries they had become Germanized through the processes of German eastward settlement (Ostsiedlung) and political expansion (Drang nach Osten).

The great majority of the German inhabitants fled or were expelled from the territories during the later stages of the war and after the war ended, although a small German minority remains in some places. The territories were resettled by the Polish communist government, mainly with Poles who moved voluntarily from Central Poland and the wartime Polish diaspora, and also with some Ukrainians and other minorities forcibly resettled under "Operation Vistula," as well as Polish "repatriates" forced to move from areas of former eastern Poland that were now part of the Soviet Union. The communist authorities also made efforts to remove traces of German culture, such as place names and inscriptions, from the territories.

The post-war border between Germany and Poland (the Oder-Neisse line) was formally recognized by East Germany in 1950 and by West Germany in 1970, and was affirmed by the re-united Germany in the German-Polish Border Treaty of 1990.


Territorial changes of Poland
in the 20th century
Post World War I
  • Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919)
  • Treaty of Versailles (1919)
  • Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)
  • Suwałki Agreement (1920)
  • Treaty of Riga (1921)
  • Silesian uprisings
  • Polish Corridor
World War II
  • Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
  • Polish areas annexed by USSR
  • Wartime administrative division
  • Tehran Conference (1943)
  • Yalta Conference (1945)
Post World War II
  • Potsdam Conference (1945)
  • Polish-Soviet Border Agreement of 1945 (1945)
  • Treaty of Zgorzelec (1950)
  • Polish-Soviet Border Adjustment Treaty (1951)
  • Treaty of Warsaw (1970)
  • Two Plus Four Treaty (1990)
  • German-Polish Border Treaty (1990)
Areas
  • Kresy Wschodnie ("Eastern Borderlands")
  • Kresy Zachodnie ("Western Borderlands")
  • Recovered Territories
  • Former eastern territories of Germany
  • Zaolzie
Demarcation lines
  • Curzon Line (1920)
  • Oder-Neisse line (1950–1990)
Adjacent countries
  • Territorial changes of Germany
  • Territorial changes of the Baltic states

Read more about Recovered Territories:  History Before 1945, Origin and Use of The Term, Polonization of The Recovered Territories, Role of The Recovered Territories in The Communists' Rise To Power, Legal Status of The Territories

Famous quotes containing the words recovered and/or territories:

    “We have here recovered the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever was known in the commonwealth.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “For my part, I feel that with regard to Nature I live a sort of border life, on the confines of a world into which I make occasional and transient forays only, and my patriotism and allegiance to the state into whose territories I seem to retreat are those of a moss-trooper.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)