The basis of the further development and strengthening of good neighborly, relations and friendship between the Polish and German peoples lies in the demarcation of the inviolable frontier of peace and friendship existing between both States along the Oder-Neisse. In this manner the German Democratic Republic confirms the statement by prime minister Grotewohl made on October 12 1949. . . . Both parties have decided within a space of a month to carry out the demarcation of the frontier along the Oder-Neisse, and likewise, to regulate the question of minor frontier traffic and of navigation in the waters of the frontier zone.
This agreement was further refined in January 1951, when the final frontier line was agreed upon. In a joint statement issued on July 6, 1955, the original agreement was reaffirmed. In 1989, the West German government, under the pressure of its Western allies, agreed to this border.
Keesing Research Report. Germany and Eastern Europe Since 1945: From the Potsdam agreement to Chancellor Brandt's Ostpolitik ( New York, 1973).
Ostpolitik (Policy toward the East). On January 14, 1970, Chancellor of West Germany, Willy Brandt, announced the following: "There must, there can, and, finally, there will be negotiations between Bonn and East Berlin." Then he went on to state that the West must take the historical perspective as the basis of its policy toward not only East Germany, but toward Eastern Europe as a whole. He did not give up the notion that, in the future, there would be a united Germany, but he also suggested that the realities of great power relations did not make that possible in the short run. Then he went on as follows:
In a future European peace arrangement, too, the national components will play their role. But the path that leads to German self-determination within such a peace arrangement will be a long and thorny one. Its length and labors must not restrain us from seeking, in the present phase of history, if that is possible, regular neighborly relations between the two states in Germany. The two states and social structures that have now been existing on German soil for more than two decades, reflect completely different and incompatible ideas of what the unity of Germany, what a common future, should look like and how it could be reached.
Brandt offered no easy solutions and promised no quick fixes. Nevertheless, he argued that West Germany could no longer ignore realities in Europe. He further proposed a European congress on security and common concerns and the recognition of East Germany as a sovereign state. This declaration was followed by a lengthy exchange of letters between Willy Stoph (see Stoph, Willy), the East German president and Brandt, and it led to the first visit of a West German head of state to East Germany. Brandt went to Erfurt on March 19, 1970. East Germans gave a tumultuous welcome to Brandt, greeting him as a hero which was not to the liking of the East German communist leaders. There was a second meeting between the two heads of state in Kassel, West Germany, on May 21, 1970. In both these meetings Brandt