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  • What if German and Poland would like to reshape border?

    From Rodion@rodion@mutinybbs.com.remove-gc8-this to All on Sat Mar 9 06:16:21 2024
    From Newsgroup: alt.history.what-if

    What if these two countries - Germany and Poland - decide to retake whatever they think belongs to other wrongly? This is not yet "impossible past" though
    I don't think they will try ever so it may be considered past.

    I heard now and then that Polish politicians sometimes want some financial compensation for what Germany wrecked in their country in the course of WW2. However I recently heard amusing opposite claim from one elderly German - he explains some of historically German lands were occupied by Poles both after WW1 and WW2 and it was one of the motivation to start the latter at all! I tried to read about the history, but was quickly confused because Polish didn't exist in some simple shape long - there was Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth at some point, then it was split among Prussia, Russia and Austro-Hungary IIRC
    and so on - so in 5 minutes my head went dizzy.

    So if anyone can put to balance what these sides currently expect of each other - what they may potentially gain (money, lands?) - and whether they can simply have barter - I would be much thankful!
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  • From Louis Epstein@le@main.lekno.ws to alt.history.what-if on Sun Mar 10 21:36:16 2024
    From Newsgroup: alt.history.what-if

    Rodion <rodion@mutinybbs.com.remove-gc8-this> wrote:
    What if these two countries - Germany and Poland - decide to retake whatever they think belongs to other wrongly? This is not yet "impossible past" though I don't think they will try ever so it may be considered past.

    I heard now and then that Polish politicians sometimes want some financial compensation for what Germany wrecked in their country in the course of WW2. However I recently heard amusing opposite claim from one elderly German - he explains some of historically German lands were occupied by Poles both after WW1 and WW2 and it was one of the motivation to start the latter at all! I tried to read about the history, but was quickly confused because Polish didn't
    exist in some simple shape long - there was Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth at some point, then it was split among Prussia, Russia and Austro-Hungary IIRC and so on - so in 5 minutes my head went dizzy.

    So if anyone can put to balance what these sides currently expect of each other
    - what they may potentially gain (money, lands?) - and whether they can simply
    have barter - I would be much thankful!

    Is this a matter of alternative history?

    I remember that in 1989-90 the ex-Allied powers were in a conniption about
    any changes whatsoever being made to the Oder-Neisse line even to reunite divided towns like Gubin and Goerlitz...Germany had to renounce any claim at all
    to anything they ever had east of the line to get permission to reunify.

    Are you asking how things could have gone differently then?

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  • From Rodion@rodion@mutinybbs.com.remove-ll6-this to All on Wed Mar 13 01:45:56 2024
    From Newsgroup: alt.history.what-if

    Hi Louis and thanks for the answer/info!

    Is this a matter of alternative history?

    Eh, sorry if off-topic. Just a situation when the past affects future and
    to me it seems a "matter of future history which is anyway predetermined by past and current circumstances" (well, I may be wrong about predetermination though).

    in 1989-90 the ex-Allied powers were in a conniption

    Wow, thanks for I wasn't aware about this consideration was a part of re-uniting Germany.

    Are you asking how things could

    Yep. Imagine Germany succeeds in returning some strip of land, supposedly peacefully. May Poland in turn retake some other parts of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth... though it looks even more difficult.
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