Poland’s president set to demand war reparations in tense Berlin visit

Politico ^ | September 16, 2025 | Nette Nöstlinger, Wojciech Kość and James Angelos

[fluorescence]

It’s no secret that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz prefers to work with that other Polish leader, centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

But on Tuesday he’ll be receiving Polish President Karol Nawrocki, a nationalist backed by the opposition populist right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which demands that Berlin pay reparations for Nazi Germany’s World War II invasion and occupation of Poland.

Relations between Poland and Germany have seesawed between close cooperation and open friction in recent years. While the two countries have strong trade relations and increasingly cooperate on defense, Nawrocki and PiS politicians have railed against the EU’s influence over Polish affairs and have stoked lingering resentments over the historical destruction that Nazi Germany wrought on Poland.

“Reparations will not serve as an alternative to historical amnesia, but Poland as a frontline state, as the key country on NATO’s eastern flank, needs justice and truth [and] clear relations with Germany,” Nawrocki said earlier this month during a World War II commemoration.

Nawrocki will “certainly refer to the issue” during his Berlin visit, said his spokesman, Rafał Leśkiewicz. The Polish president is scheduled to meet Merz as well as German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. No press conferences are planned, limiting the opportunity for open displays of discord.

[snip]

In April, a temporary memorial involving a 30-ton boulder was erected in Berlin to commemorate the Polish victims of Nazi Germany. There are plans to erect a permanent memorial, though the German Bundestag must first pass a resolution.

But such gestures are unlikely to satisfy demands by PiS politicians for reparations, given how many Polish voters back the party’s stance. A survey by SW Research for news portal Onet found that 54 percent of respondents backed reparations while some 27 percent opposed the idea.

[packrat35]

And the Allies gave Poland 1/3 of Germany to compensate. Is Poland going to give back all the land to Germany?

[packrat35]

The Deluge.

[hanamizu]

And the Allies gave Poland 1/3 of Germany to compensate.

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Yes they did, although Poland post war was smaller than prewar. But be that as it may, Germany started the war and one punishment, just as at the end of WWI, was the loss of territory.

Poland was the double victim of the war. Not quite the same thing, but I do get your point.

[hanamizu]

As an addendum to the previous post, it is curious that there are no current refugee camps for all of the displaced Germans from Polish territory.

Wonder why that is? /s

[packrat35]

Just saying that they were already compensated for WW2.

[Menes]

With Russian drones invading Polish airspace, this sensitive topic couldn’t have been debated at a more inopportune moment…