Former Eastern Territories of Germany - Post World War II

Post World War II

Between 1945 and 1990, the dispute over the final disposition of these territories was the subject of international debate.

The government of West Germany preferred to use the phrase "former German territories temporarily under Polish and Soviet administration" (Note: those "former German territories" are those of Eastern Germany within the 1937 Germany Border). This was the wording used in the Potsdam Agreement, but was used only by the Federal Republic of Germany because the Polish and Soviet governments refused to use it, objecting to the obvious implication that these territories should someday revert to Germany.

The Polish government preferred to use the phrase Recovered Territories, asserting a sort of continuity because these territories had once been ruled by ethnic Poles half a millennium before World War II and had been "recovered" from Nazi Germany after 1945.

Read more about this topic:  Former Eastern Territories Of Germany

Famous quotes containing the words post, world and/or war:

    My business is stanching blood and feeding fainting men; my post the open field between the bullet and the hospital. I sometimes discuss the application of a compress or a wisp of hay under a broken limb, but not the bearing and merits of a political movement. I make gruel—not speeches; I write letters home for wounded soldiers, not political addresses.
    Clara Barton (1821–1912)

    Destroy yourselves, you who are desperate, and you who are tortured in body and soul, abandon all hope. There is no more solace for you in this world. The world lives off your rotting flesh.
    Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)

    Armies, for the most part, are made up of men drawn from simple and peaceful lives. In time of war they suddenly find themselves living under conditions of violence, requiring new rules of conduct that are in direct contrast to the conditions they lived under as civilians. They learn to accept this to perform their duties as fighting men.
    Gil Doud, U.S. screenwriter, and Jesse Hibbs. Walter Bedell Smith (Himself)