Correspondence between the Polish and German bishops

Correspondence between the Polish and German bishops

1. Brief description

On 18 November 1965, the Polish bishops addressed their German counterparts in a letter containing the now famous phrase ‘[We] grant forgiveness and ask for forgiveness’. The German bishops replied on 5 December of the same year. Although the exchange of letters was met with considerable controversy at the time, it is now regarded as a milestone in German-Polish reconciliation following the Second World War.

2. Historical overview

History and context of the correspondence

Monument to Cardinal Kominek on Sand Island in Wrocław, featuring a quotation from the letter by the Polish bishops in Polish and German: ‘... przebaczamy i prosimy o przebaczenie’ / ‘... we forgive and ask for forgiveness’. [Photo: Maria Luft].

The exchange of letters between the bishops took place during the final session of the Second Vatican Council, which sat from October 1962 to December 1965. The initiative came from the Polish episcopate and was part of the preparations for the celebrations marking the millennium of the Christianisation of Poland, scheduled for 1966. The Polish episcopate had invited the Pope and bishops from 56 countries to these celebrations – including representatives of the episcopates from both German states. On the initiative of Archbishop Bolesław Kominek (1903–1974), the view had prevailed within the Polish episcopate that this jubilee could not be celebrated in a truly Christian spirit without fulfilling Jesus’ commandment to love one’s neighbour and one’s enemies, so that the invitation to the German bishops took on the character of a message of reconciliation.

The so-called ‘Ostdenkschrift’, published by the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) on 1 October 1965, provided some encouragement for the Polish bishops to take this initiative towards reconciliation.[1] This memorandum established a causal link between the flight and expulsion of Germans and the war of annihilation waged by Germany (which was not a matter of course from the West German perspective on Nazi and post-war history at that time) and called for reconciliation between Germans and Poles.

The fact that the letter was handed over during the Council, of all times, was due to two factors: firstly, with its emphasis on ecumenical dialogue and the involvement of Catholics in political and social life (cf. the Pastoral Constitution ‘Gaudium et Spes. The Church in the Modern World”) provided a supportive framework for the reconciliation initiative; on the other hand, the German and Polish bishops, separated by the Iron Curtain, would otherwise have had no opportunity to get to know one another over an extended period and in such large numbers, and to build trust, as was possible during the Council taking place in Rome.

The Polish letter was drafted by the Apostolic Administrator in Breslau/Wrocław, Archbishop Bolesław Kominek. The German reply was drafted by two bishops from the GDR: Alfred Bengsch (1921–1979) from Berlin and Gerhard Schaffran (1912–1996) from Görlitz.

At the time of this exchange of letters, the experiences of the Second World War and its aftermath were weighing heavily on German-Polish relations. In Poland, the memory of the terror and the deaths of some 5.5 million Poles – three million of whom were Jewish – was still very much alive. As the Federal Government – and, at that time, the majority of German citizens – were unwilling to recognise the Oder–Neisse border, the Polish inhabitants of the formerly German territories regarded their permanent settlement there as precarious. Communist propaganda played its part in fuelling this uncertainty by exploiting and stoking anti-German fears. Consequently, the alliance with the Soviet Union was regarded as the most important guarantee of Poland’s western border. Last but not least, the border issue also affected the organisation of the Church on both sides of the new border, which now cut across the pre-war dioceses. A final decision on the creation of independent Polish and East German dioceses in these territories was not taken in the Vatican until 1972, that is, after the Bundestag had ratified the Warsaw Treaty, which had been negotiated two years earlier.

In the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1960s, German war crimes in Poland only gradually came to public attention, primarily through the Auschwitz trials. Critical reflection on the occupation of Poland within the Protestant and Catholic Churches of both German states was confined to small circles and was often met with a lack of understanding. Of particular note here is the pan-German, ‘Aktion Sühnezeichen’, founded in 1958, whose morally motivated work of atonement was recognised and valued at an early stage by Polish intellectuals associated with the Catholic journals *Tygodnik Powszechny* and *Więź*, as well as by Polish bishops such as Karol Wojtyła (1920–2005), the future Pope John Paul II. The East German branch of ‘Aktion Sühnezeichen’ in particular, led by Lothar Kreyssig (1898–1986) and Günter Särchen (1927–2004), was active in the neighbouring country and built trust between believers from Poland and the GDR.

In the mid-1960s, against the backdrop of the Federal Republic ’s integration into the West and the Cold War, many West Germans perceived Poland only vaguely as a country behind the Iron Curtain or through the prism of the loss of their homeland in the ‘East’. In 1965, the vast majority of West Germans felt hardly any sense of guilt towards Poland. On 6 July 1950, under pressure from the Soviet government, the Görlitz Agreement on the Oder–Neisse border was signed between the GDR and the People’s Republic of Poland. Anyone who criticised the ‘peace border’ from then on ran the risk of being criminalised as an enemy of peace and a fascist. Poles and East Germans witnessed how their respective neighbours were declared ‘brother nations’ under the socialist system, despite all their negative experiences. The ‘friendship’ proclaimed from then on remained, to a large extent, a propaganda construct. Christian reconciliation initiatives were viewed with suspicion by the GDR authorities and declared superfluous. Under these circumstances, a gesture of reconciliation between Polish and German bishops represented not only a religious challenge, but also a social and political one.

Contents of the two letters

The Polish letter began by providing a detailed account of the history of German-Polish relations. It emphasised the fruitful neighbourly ties that had existed for centuries; at the same time, however, it did not gloss over the darker aspects, such as the partitions of Poland. Poland was regarded – particularly on account of its thousand-year-old affiliation with Latin Christianity – as an essential part of Western Europe. Implicitly, this view suggested that Poland by no means had to irrevocably occupy its place within the Soviet alliance system. Furthermore, the period of German occupation during the Second World War was briefly outlined. The traumatic experiences of that period were cited as an explanation for the continuing mistrust of the Germans within Polish society. In the context of the consequences of the war, the letter addressed the Oder–Neisse border as a particular difficulty in German–Polish relations. By emphasising the importance of the stability of this border for Poland, the letter made an implicit appeal – particularly to the West German bishops – for moral recognition of its finality. The concluding section of the letter contained the key sentence: ‘[We] grant forgiveness and ask for forgiveness’[2]. The Polish bishops addressed all German bishops, without distinguishing between those from the GDR and the Federal Republic. In doing so, they implicitly indicated that they did not regard the political division of Germany as permanent and were suspicious of Poland’s propaganda-laden ‘friendship’ with the GDR. Furthermore, in their letter, the Polish episcopate broke with several taboos of Polish national historiography and perceptions of Germany: The bishops did not subscribe to the narrative of ‘inherited enmity’ between Poles and Germans, but emphasised the fruitful neighbourly relations between the two peoples; they did not portray the Germans exclusively as perpetrators during the Second World War, but also as victims, by paying tribute to German resistance fighters against the Nazi regime as well as thousands of German concentration camp prisoners; in relation to the Oder–Neisse border, the bishops recalled the suffering of the German expellees, thereby also breaking the silence imposed by communist Poland regarding the loss of Poland’s eastern territories.

Cover page of the ‘Message from the Polish Bishops to their German brothers in the pastoral ministry of Christ’ [All four photographs: Historical Archive of the Archdiocese of Cologne. AEK, CR III 352].
The prayer for reconciliation, ‘[We] … grant forgiveness and ask for forgiveness’, at the bottom of page 16.
Signatories to the message, p. 17.
Further signatories to the message, p. 17, reverse side.

In their reply, the German bishops expressed their delight at Poland’s willingness to engage in dialogue and, in particular, responded positively to the reference in the Polish letter to Poland’s place within Christian Europe. They also expressed their willingness to overcome the burden of the past through their shared Christian faith. The letter also contained an acknowledgement of the injustices perpetrated by Germans against Poles during the war. Against this background, the German bishops acknowledged that the Polish bishops, despite the millions of Polish war victims, had also commemorated the German victims, namely displaced persons and resistance fighters. Finally, they in turn asked for forgiveness. The German bishops placed the Oder-Neisse border and the border shift of 1945 within the context of the Second World War, which Germany had started and lost; at the same time, however, they mentioned the ‘right to a homeland’with regard to the displaced persons. Consequently, the German bishops failed to take the unequivocal moral stance on the Oder-Neisse border that the Polish bishops had hoped for.

3. Controversies and debates

Contemporary controversies surrounding the correspondence

When the correspondence became public knowledge, it provoked varying reactions amongst politicians and the general public in the three countries concerned – the Federal Republic of Germany, the GDR and the People’s Republic of Poland.

Federal Republic of Germany

In the Federal Republic, the press, on the one hand, praised the Polish bishops’ openness to dialogue, but, on the other hand, criticised the interpretation of German-Polish history contained in their letter as being Polonocentric. Unlike in the GDR and in Poland, the Church in the Federal Republic did not have to fear any political reprimand from the government as a result of the exchange of letters. However, the German response caused disappointment in certain circles of German Catholics – partly at the time, but above all in retrospect: The bishops were accused of not having mustered the courage to address the sensitive political issues (in particular the Oder–Neisse border) in order to help overcome German prejudices against Poland. The more politically ambitious memorandum of the Bensberg Circle from 1968, which, amongst other things, advocated recognition of the Oder–Neisse border, also stemmed from the dissatisfaction felt by some West German Catholic intellectuals with the German bishops’ politically timid reply.[3]

German Democratic Republic (GDR)

In the GDR, the exchange of letters could not spark a public debate, as its circulation was largely suppressed by the GDR government. At the same time, the bishops from the GDR who had co-authored and co-signed the German response were subjected to accusations, particularly from the State Secretariat for Church Affairs. They were accused of concealing the friendly relations between the GDR and the People’s Republic of Poland and of promoting border revisionism. They were also accused of participating in an ideological diversion orchestrated by the Vatican and of the Church’s illegitimate interference in foreign policy. The GDR’s state authorities also criticised the Polish letter as an act undertaken without the authorisation of the Polish people and described the forgiveness of crimes committed by fascists as unacceptable.

People's Republic of Poland

The ‘re-Polonisation of the recovered territories’ was regarded in Poland immediately after the Second World War as a national task in which the Catholic Church, given its special social significance, played a part. Following the devastating experiences of the German occupation from 1939 to 1945, the expulsion of the German population was regarded as a necessary consequence. This national paradigm remained the guiding principle for many Polish – as well as German – Catholics until the mid-1960s. In Poland, the bishops’ reconciliation initiative initially seemed strange and unsettling. Many Poles, as a result of the war losses and destruction they had suffered – the traces of which were still unmistakable at the time of the exchange of letters – felt psychologically unable to respond to the bishops’ gesture. The very idea of forgiving the Germans for their crimes met with incomprehension – even within church circles; this was all the more true of the plea for forgiveness addressed to the Germans. In response to the bishops’ letter, the Polish government launched the most intense anti-church campaign since the Stalinist era. Those in power interpreted the letter as a criticism of Poland’s political situation and as a challenge to the alliance with the Soviet Union. In the government’s view, the Church had unjustifiably interfered in the state’s domain of foreign policy. The bishops were vilified in the media as traitors to Polish national interests. The bishops themselves were initially uncertain about the impact of their letter. Owing to the great consternation amongst Polish Catholics and the severe threats from the Polish government, the episcopate, in a pastoral letter dated 10 February 1966, qualified its plea for forgiveness from the Germans. On 3 May 1966, however, Primate Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński (1901–1981) called on the faithful in Częstochowa to grant forgiveness to their German neighbours for their war crimes.

The way it is perceived today

The bishops’ correspondence, alongside the EKD’s ‘Ostdenkschrift’ (Memorandum on the East), ranks among the most important initiatives that paved the way for the new policy towards the East and Germany, which began to take shape gradually in the second half of the 1960s. Today, the correspondence is regarded as groundbreaking for German-Polish relations and is increasingly seen as a contribution to overcoming the division of Europe and as an inspiration for other reconciliation processes in Europe and worldwide.

4. Bibliographical references

Bibliography

  • Friedhelm Boll (ed.): ‘We Grant Forgiveness and Ask for Forgiveness’. 40 Years of German-Polish Reconciliation. Bonn 2006.
  • Friedhelm Boll, Wiesław Wysocki, Klaus Ziemer (eds.): Reconciliation and Politics. Polish-German Reconciliation Initiatives of the 1960s and the Policy of Détente. Bonn 2009 (Archive for Social History, Supplement 27).
  • Severin Gawlitta: “In the Spirit of the Council! Out of Concern for Our Neighbours!” The Correspondence between Polish and German Bishops in 1965. Marburg 2016 (Studies in East Central European Research 37).
  • Edith Heller: Power, Church, Politics. The correspondence between the Polish and German bishops in 1965. Cologne 1992.
  • Gabriele Kammerer: “Action Reconciliation Service for Peace – But one can simply do it”. Göttingen 2008.
  • Basil Kerski, Thomas Kycia, Robert Żurek (eds.): “We Forgive and Ask for Forgiveness”. The 1965 Correspondence between the Polish and German Bishops and its Impact. Osnabrück 2006 (Publications of the German-Polish Society Federal Association e.V. 9).
  • Piotr H. Kosicki: ‘Caritas across the Iron Curtain? Polish-German Reconciliation and the Bishops’ Letter of 1965’. In: East European Politics and Societies, Volume 23 (2009), Number 2, pp. 213–243.
  • Wojciech Kucharski, Grzegorz Strauchold (eds.): Wokół Ore̜dzia. Cardinal Bolesław Kominek – a pioneer of Polish-German reconciliation. Wrocław 2009.
  • Piotr Madajczyk: The Message of the Polish Bishops as Assessed by the German Foreign Ministry. In: Rocznik Polsko-Niemiecki / German-Polnisches Jahrbuch 19 (2011), pp. 73–90.
  • Urszula Pękala: Interactions between religion and politics in the correspondence between Polish and German bishops in 1965. In: Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte 26 (2013), Issue 2, pp. 468–485.
  • Gregor Ploch: Clemens Riedel (1914–2003) and the Catholic German expellee organisations. Driving force or stumbling block in the process of German–Polish reconciliation? Berlin 2011 (Contributions to Theology, Church and Society in the 20th Century 21).
  • Otto B. Roegele: Reconciliation or Hatred? The Correspondence between the Bishops of Poland and Germany and its Consequences. Osnabrück 1966.
  • Jan Rydel: New Pieces of the Mosaic. Unknown German Diplomatic Documents on the Bishops’ Letter of 1965. In: *Więź* 1 (2011), p. 101–110.
  • Robert Żurek: The German Bishops’ Response to the Polish Bishops’ Letter. In: Teologia Polityczna, 2010, pp. 121–131.
  • Robert Żurek: The Catholic Church in Poland and the ‘Recovered Territories’ 1945–1948. Frankfurt am Main 2014.

Web links

Notes

[1] The Situation of the Displaced Persons and the German People’s Relationship with their Eastern Neighbours. A Protestant Memorandum, published by the Church Chancellery of the EKD, Hanover 1965; bilingual new edition: The Situation of the Displaced Persons and the German People’s Relationship with their Eastern Neighbours. A Protestant Memorandum / Położenie wypędzonych i stosunek narodu niemieckiego do wschodnich sąsiadów. Ewangelickie memorandum, Bielsko-Biała 2015.

[2] Message from the Polish bishops to the German bishops dated 18 November 1965, in: Office of the German Bishops’ Conference (ed.): Documentation of the sermons and addresses delivered during the meeting between the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, and a delegation from the Polish Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Joseph Höffner and the German Bishops’ Conference in Germany in September 1978, Bonn 1978 (Voices of the World 4), pp. 76–87, here p. 87.

[3] A Memorandum by German Catholics on Polish–German Issues, edited by the Bensberg Circle, Mainz 1968, p. 25.

Citation

Urszula Pękala: Correspondence between Polish and German bishops. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2018. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p43232 (accessed 23 November 2020).

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