Samenvatting

This thesis attempts to answer the main question, which is: "Do the Polish, and in particular those in Silesia, currently feel prejudice towards Germany and, if so, what is being done to address and change this negativity?" This question has to be divided into two parts: whether the Polish, and in particular those in Silesia, currently feel prejudice towards Germany or not and what is being done to address and change this negativity. The overall conclusion is that currently the Polish feel prejudice towards Germany, mainly on political level. The people of Silesia do not feel this prejudice towards Germany, since these people live in the border area with Germany and are used to being connected with the Germans. The initiatives made to change the negativity towards Germany were the establishment of Polish-German organisations and the signing of many treaties and agreements, such as: the Potsdam Agreement, the Treaty of Zgorzelec, the Normalisation Treaty and the Border Treaty. This paper gives answers to the sub-questions, which discuss the main happenings of the 18th, 19th and 20th century in Poland, the major events, the main countries which affected Poland's past, decisions and treaties that have been made, the people who were involved in making decisions which affected Poland, how Poland got independent, what is done to achieve a good relationship between Poland and Germany, which projects have been successful and finally, how the relationship between Poland and Germany changed over the years. These
questions are answered by examing the history, starting from the 18th century and ending with the post-World War Two period. The 18th century is important, since during this time, Poland faced the problem of its total takeover. The history allows us to understand the origins of Polish and German resentment. The paper gives an in depth outline of the history of the Republic of Poland and
explains into detail the take-over of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by the three great powers, which were the Habsburg Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Russian Empire. The 19th century explains when Napoleon was conducting wars and managed to take over some former Polish areas which the Russian Empire conquered before. The period of the 20th century contained the creation of the Second Polish Republic. Chapter one concludes with World War Two, when
Poland again was conquered by the Germans and by the Soviets. Chapter two starts with the communist regime, strikes and protests by anti-communist groups, the 1989 Round Table negotiations are explained and the ending of the communist control by the Soviet Union. Chapter
three gives an overview of 20 Polish-German organisations and explores three of these in a case study. The case study was done by conducting research. The basic information came from the online information from their websites, but the in depth information was gained by interviewing employees of the organisations. Problems faced while conducting the research were the language barrier and the lack of willingness to help by the organisations.