The German minority in Silesia and contemporary German-Polish relations

National minorities and their relations with majority populations represent one of many unresolved issues in the process of European integration, given a new impetus and range by the dissolution of the Soviet bloc and the extension of the European Union to include several central and eastern European (CEE) countries. One case that this encompasses is the ethnic German population in Poland, concentrated especially in the south-western region of Silesia/Schlesien/Slaskie. While ethnicity is still the principal criterion for social and political division or discord it is not exclusive. Divergence along ethnic-national lines is joined—and perhaps diluted—by intra-German and intra-Polish squabbles. Financial matters have been a focus of disagreement between the German minority and the German state. A continued reduction of funding from the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) may animate ethnic-national tensions even as the German state seeks to promote Silesia as a ‘European’ region and the German minority as a ‘bridge-building’ group. Conversely, a dependence on external assistance suggests that historical animosity between Germans and Poles may be submerged rather than exorcised.