Trudny początek. Nowe sąsiedztwo i osadnictwo polskie nad Nysą Łużycką w dokumentach i materiałach z lokalnego archiwum niemieckiego
Difficult beginnings. New neighbours and Polish settlement along the Lusatian Neisse in the documents and materials of a local German archive

Summary/Abstract: The Polish-German border established in 1945 along the Oder and Lusatian Neisse was the beginning of a new borderland and new neighbours. In Upper Lusatia, it led to a division of the city of Görlitz into Polish and German halves. Documents, correspondence and summaries of Polish press articles (accompanied by commentaries) from the first months of the post-war period contained in the Görlitz city archive provide a good illustration of the mutual distrust, significant uncertainty, detailed search for information about the new neighbours, and the necessity of cooperation in the border region in such areas as the use of municipal infrastructure, employment of specialists, and exchange of food and raw materials. They are a valuable source of knowledge about not only contacts and local cooperation of border-region administrative bodies in the difficult post-war period, but also – indirectly – the beginnings of Polish settlement along the Lusatian Neisse and the position of the population on both sides of the border. The German materials include evidence of the fears of the German population over further shifting of the Polish-German border and attempts by the Görlitz authorities to recover valuable collections transferred after the war’s end to the eastern shore of the Lusatian Neisse.

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