Should Germany pay reparations to Poland for WWII?
How the Polish President's first visit in Berlin went down
I was in that twilight state just on the edge of sleep early on Tuesday morning when I sank into my aeroplane seat as we took off from Berlin to fly to London. I’d stuck my earphones in and pressed play on a pre-downloaded podcast, really to drown out the heavy breathing of the businessman in the seat next to me.
Soon, the firm voice of the new Polish President, Karol Nawrocki, floated into my tired ears. He was being interviewed on the podcast ahead of his inaugural visit to Germany, where he would meet Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. This was never going to be a smooth encounter.
Narrowly elected early in the summer, Nawrocki has been described by some German observers as a Polish Trump. In turn, the new Polish President had successfully campaigned on anti-German sentiment. While Merz ensured his first foreign visit as German chancellor was to Paris and Warsaw on the same day, Nawrocki had already seen a host of people before travelling to Berlin, including Baltic and Scandinavian leaders as well as Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and the Pope.
Even before the translator’s voice in my ear spoke over his calmly delivered Polish, Nawrocki’s tone made it clear that he was a man on a mission. He arrived in Berlin as I left, not so much with warm platitudes in tow but rather with stark demands, readying himself to deliver a performance aimed more at his domestic audience than German politicians.
Nonetheless, his words didn’t fail to have an effect in Germany, nor on the German writing these lines. I was suddenly wide awake on the plane home, sipping bad coffee while listening to Nawrocki demanding eyewatering sums of money from Germany for the Second World War.
Poland, Nawrocki insisted, had not forgotten that it wants €1.3 trillion from Germany. Let that figure sink in for a moment. €1.3 trillion.
That figure has been around for some time, but it would have come as a shock to hear it repeated. Germany has long treated those demands as a matter of domestic Polish politics, an electioneering tool in a country where anti-German sentiment can garner a significant number of votes. Prime Minister Donald Tusk had quietly dropped the demands, but Nawrocki was clearly going to use his first visit to Germany as Polish President to say they are very much back on.
Later that day in Berlin, he declared that “we must finally resolve the issue of reparations from the German state,” insisting that good relations between the two countries depended on justice, rather than just words of friendship. His comments quickly reignited a debate that Germany (and many others in Europe) consider legally and politically closed.
The response from Berlin was swift and firm. German President Steinmeier reiterated that, from Germany’s point of view, the matter is settled. Government officials have pointed to the network of treaties signed over the past decades – most notably the Two Plus Four Treaty of 1990 and the German–Polish Border Treaty of the same year. Late as they came, they were considered agreements that closed the book on wartime claims. Legally, they argue, Germany’s position is straightforward: reparations were addressed long ago, and no further payments are owed.
But for Poland’s current leadership, particularly those aligned with nationalist or conservative politics, that answer is not enough. To Nawrocki, this is less of a legal issue than a moral one. He argues that Poland suffered uniquely under Nazi occupation – millions of lives lost, entire cities like Warsaw razed and cultural treasures looted or destroyed.
The Nazi war against his nation was genocidal in intent. Working on that basis, the Polish Foreign Ministry has sent a formal note to Berlin itemising its demands: compensation for both material losses and long-term social damage. A commission estimated the total bill to be over six trillion złoty - around €1.3 trillion.
At an emotional level, the case for reparations resonates with many Poles. It’s a powerful political issue, particularly in conservative parts of the country. Yet there is a deep risk in pursuing it internationally – both in practical terms and in what it could unintentionally unleash.
The most immediate danger is that it reopens questions about Europe’s postwar settlement, especially the borders that Germany finally and fully accepted only after reunification. For decades after the war, West Germany refused to recognise the Oder–Neisse line, that is the current German–Polish border, as final. It was only in 1990, as a condition for reunification, that Germany signed the Final Settlement Treaty and the bilateral German–Polish Border Treaty, fully accepting the existing frontier and renouncing any territorial claims.
These treaties did more than draw a line on a map. They symbolised a willingness to move on from conflict, from war guilt, and from grievances. To now challenge the postwar legal framework by demanding new forms of compensation may be seen, rightly or wrongly, as opening the door to other claims.
If reparations can be renegotiated, what about border adjustments? Property claims from expelled populations? Compensation for postwar expulsions of Germans from former eastern territories? Even if such outcomes are not the intent, the political effect of suggesting unfinished business is enough to stir deep anxiety in Germany – and across Central Europe.
German politicians have made this point in the clearest terms. Knut Abraham, the government’s coordinator for German–Polish relations, warned this week that “what we certainly don’t need right now is a weakening of German–Polish relations through a reparations debate.” He and others see the issue as not just settled, but dangerous to revisit.
Even within Poland, opinions are divided. Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski recently suggested that Germany could offer symbolic reparations such as helping to rebuild destroyed cultural monuments, supporting survivors’ welfare or paying more for defence rather than paying the enormous sums formally demanded. This more measured approach suggests that even among Poland’s leadership, there is an awareness of the diplomatic and legal roadblocks ahead.
Some Polish legal scholars, quoted in national media, acknowledge that the chances of success in international courts are slim. Treaties signed since the Cold War are strong, and courts are reluctant to revisit settled agreements. The legal route would be long, expensive, and likely to fail.
And then there’s the question of timing. With war once again on Europe’s eastern edge, Germany and Poland are both key members of NATO and the EU. They share concerns about Russian aggression, energy security, and economic resilience. In that context, reviving old grievances over the Second World War risks undermining the trust and coordination needed for Europe to act effectively as a bloc. It may win applause at home – but it complicates cooperation abroad.
None of this is to deny the trauma Poland endured. Having just spent some time in Warsaw, where every street reminds you of the blood that was shed there, I came away with the impression that this isn’t something many Germans (myself included) know as much about as they should if the relationship between the two neighbouring countries is ever supposed to heal.
Perhaps Nawrocki just needed to say his piece, looking back over his shoulder at a divided Polish nation that he seeks to unite. But he would do well to remember that Germany is a friend of Poland’s today with no intention of breaching its borders, unlike its other big neighbour to the East, which just sent drones into Polish airspace. Warsaw and Berlin must stand united in the face of bigger challenges.
Nobody bridges this gap between history and politics more than the new Polish President. Nawrocki is also a professional historian and has served as director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk. I hope he has the future of Europe on his mind as much as its past.
The suffering of the Polish people during the Second World War remains one of the darkest chapters in European history. But the Europe we live in today is built on shared prosperity and on reconciliation. The pursuit of justice for past grievances must be balanced with the need for stability, diplomacy and peace in the present.
I must admit I didn't know anything about this, I can see the Polish position but also previous agreements holding firm.Do the Polish leadership have similar or any compensation claims against the Russians?
As you say Katja it’s more important that Germany and Poland focus upon the very real Russian threat rather than revisiting settled historical agreements. And as Adie asks; I wonder if similar demands are being made of Putin’s regime? The Polish president must know that that German government will never submit to such an egregious demand; so why make the demand? As a historian he must be aware that Germany has expressed full and unreserved sorrow and guilt for the crimes of the Wehrmacht. I wonder how much money Poland has received from the EU? And I believe that Germany has often been one of the largest contributors. Was Nawrocki involved in drafting that Polish law that restricts what historians can write/say about SWW Poland? Good read with my morning coffee.