OderNeißelijn

The Oder-Neißelijn, or Oder-Neiße Line, is the approximate border between Germany and Poland that runs from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Czech border in the south, following the Oder and the Lusatian Neisse rivers. It marks the western boundary of Poland as established after World War II.

Historically, the line was decided at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, building on wartime frontiers and agreements among the Allies. It resulted in Poland receiving territories east of the line, including parts of Silesia, Pomerania, and East Prussia, while Germany’s eastern territories were ceded to Poland. The redistribution was accompanied by large-scale population transfers, with most Germans east of the line expelled and Poles from the east and other regions resettled in those areas.

In the early postwar years the border was not universally recognized by all German authorities, but it was later formalized in bilateral treaties. The 1990 Polish–German border treaty (with subsequent ratifications) cemented the Oder-Neiße Line as the boundary between the two countries. Since Poland and Germany are both within the Schengen Area, border crossings along the line are generally open for travel, though the line remains a defined legal boundary.

Today the Oder-Neiße Line is a central reference in discussions of postwar European borders, memory, and reconciliation between Germany and Poland. It also exemplifies how wartime decisions reshaped population distributions and national frontiers in Central Europe.