According to the current German-Polish barometer, Germans and Poles are both close and strangers to one another. It also shows that Poland is a country more divided than Germany. And Germany is much more often an issue in Poland than vice versa.
Germany and Poland are neighbors whose relationship is shaped by a checkered common history that reached its sad climax with the German invasion of Poland and the associated Nazi terror during World War II, which cost the lives of six million Polish citizens.
Only after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 did the neighbors become partners. First through the German-Polish neighborhood agreement in 1991, since the Polish accession in 1999 and 2004 also in NATO and the European Union.
But what do people in the countries know and think about their neighbours? Since the year 2000, the German-Polish Barometer, which has been compiled by the Institute for Public Affairs in Warsaw in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation, has been following this question. The German Poland Institute based in Darmstadt has also been a partner in the study since 2020. The results of this year’s survey, in which 1,000 Poles and Germans aged between 18 and 75 were interviewed, will be officially presented in Berlin tomorrow, Thursday. ntv.de was able to familiarize itself with the results of this year’s study in advance.
The title of this year’s barometer already reveals how the German-Polish neighborhood is doing: “Germans and Poles – between proximity and foreignness”. There is definitely a basis for mutual interest. A clear majority of both the Poles (75 percent) and the Germans (82 percent) surveyed stated that they were interested in international and European politics.
However, the first differences between the two populations appear in the sources of knowledge about international events. While the Germans get their information mainly from public television (69 percent), private television stations (66 percent), public radio stations (59 percent), freely accessible internet portals (56 percent), Facebook (54 percent) and classic print media as well as their online branches (48 percent), Facebook is the second most important source for Poles with 69 percent. “This is where we reached our limits in our survey, because we couldn’t ask whether the articles were about politics, for example about Germany, from family members or acquaintances, or whether they were questionable accounts that misrepresented facts, for example.” , says Agnieszka ?ada-Konefa? ntv.de. ?ada-Konefa? is the author of the study together with Jacek Kucharczyk.
When it comes to sources of information, there is another difference between Germans and Poles. While party political preferences in Germany outside of the group of AfD voters hardly influence which media someone uses, this connection is clear in politically deeply divided Poland. 72 percent of Poles use private television channels regularly, which makes them the most important source of information. However, supporters of the PiS ruling in Poland prefer the state television TVP or the state radio stations, which the national conservatives have converted into their language organs in recent years. For all Poles, they are only the fifth and seventh most important source, at 38 and 26 percent respectively. Interestingly, 38 percent of the Polish respondents also stated that they gained their knowledge from video blogs on YouTube.
However, the result of this year’s study also offers a few surprises for those responsible for the German-Polish barometer. “What is particularly exciting about this year’s barometer are the answers to the sources of knowledge about the respective country,” says ?ada-Konefa?. While television programs are the most frequently mentioned source of the Germans surveyed with 37 percent, for the Poles it is school with 46 percent. In contrast, only 28 percent of the German participants in the barometer indicated this as their source of knowledge about Poland – Poland is apparently not a big topic in German schools. TV shows are the second most important for Poland with 42 percent. However, the following places are amazing. At 40 percent, statements by politicians are the fourth most important source of information for Poles about Germany. “Personally, I was surprised that so many Poles mentioned this answer option,” admits ?ada-Konefa?.
This shows how much Germany has become an issue in Polish politics. The national conservatives in power in Poland and the media close to them bring Germany into play almost every day, if only to discredit the opposition as Berlin’s lackeys. It is not without reason that Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven, the outgoing German ambassador to Poland, complained in an interview with the daily newspaper “Rzeczpospolita” this week that the PiS tends to attack Germany at the expense of bilateral relations in order to win the votes of right-wing voters . Another result of this question shows how present Germany is in the everyday life of Poles. At 41 percent, conversations with family members are the third most important source of information about Germany. “Germany is a topic for the family table in Poland,” says political scientist ?ada-Konefa?, summing up the surprising result. Conversely, this is not the case, in Germany only 26 percent of those surveyed say that they talk about the neighboring country in their family.
There is a large discrepancy between Germans and Poles when asked whether they have visited the other country since 1989/90. While 50 percent of the Poles surveyed affirmed the answer, only 33 percent of the Germans did. “For many Germans, Poland was and remains a not-so-cool vacation destination,” summarizes ?ada-Konefa?. She and her co-author point out that this difference cannot only be explained by the Poles’ interest in tourism. With 28 and 22 percent, they also give professional and family reasons for their trips. This is not surprising considering the numerous Polish commuters and the approximately 2.5 million people living in Germany who have their family roots in Poland.
However, one should not underestimate the importance of these trips. Because, as the German-Polish barometer shows, travel plays an important role in assessing politics or the economy in the respective neighboring country: respondents who have already visited the other country tend to agree with positive statements about it. However, slight changes can be observed on the Polish side. The majority of the Poles surveyed continue to rate the political system and the German economy positively. “But thanks to the skills and knowledge that you now have, but above all because of the changes in Poland itself, which bring the living conditions in Germany and Poland closer together, the admiration is no longer as uncritical as it was a few years ago,” explains ?ada- Konefal.
The exciting question is how German-Polish relations will develop in the shadow of the war in Ukraine. Since the current survey was conducted from February 14th to 22nd, i.e. before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, only the next German-Polish barometer will be able to provide an answer to this question. However, there was a snapshot in time with a special edition of the barometer published a few weeks ago, the results of which show that Poles and Germans have come closer to one another in their sense of a threat from Russia, in their views on higher defense spending and greater energy independence from Russia.
However, it is questionable whether they will also speak “with one voice” in the long term. The current barometer shows how different the ideas of a common European policy are. 43 percent of the Polish respondents want stronger cooperation with Germany for Europe’s energy independence, 29 percent say this about strengthening the European pillar in NATO. Among the German participants, these are only 26 and 20 percent. 27 percent of Germans would like to see cooperation on a common asylum policy – third place out of ten topics. On the Polish side it is only 13 percent – last place.
“The partly anti-German rhetoric of the PiS has found more resonance in recent years. The German energy policy, which was oriented towards Russia for years, or now Berlin’s position in supporting Ukraine, is also viewed critically in Poland by supporters of the opposition,” says ?ada-Konefa?. For the German-Polish Barometer 2023, she therefore predicts: “The approval ratings for German politics will fall even more.”
