Ethnic Germans in Poland and the Czech Republic: A Comparative Evaluation^*

<jats:p>This paper seeks to analyze the nature of the German minorities in the Czech Republic and Poland. In order to achieve this goal, the relationship between Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic and Poland with the <jats:italic>Bundesrepublik Deutschland</jats:italic> (Federal Republic of Germany/FRG) forms an essential intellectual backdrop to our main theme. Reference to the <jats:italic>Deutsche Demokratische Republik</jats:italic> (German Democratic Republic/GDR) will be made as and where appropriate. As we shall see, tensions simmered between the <jats:italic>Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands</jats:italic> (Socialist Unity Party of Germany/SED) and the <jats:italic>Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza Zjednoczona</jats:italic> (Polish United Workers' Party/PZPR), and in reality relations between the two sides were poor. Reference will be made to wartime German occupation policy in both Poland and the Czech lands. Due attention will also be paid to the consequent expulsion of ethnic Germans from Poland and Czechoslovakia. However, due to limitations of space these themes, that have been exhaustively dealt with elsewhere, do not form part of our main focus of study.</jats:p>