Wyjazdy na pobyt stały do RFN i Berlina Zachodniego w latach 70. i 80. XX w. a narodziny zorganizowanych struktur mniejszości niemieckiej w województwie opolskim
Departures for permanent residence to the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin in the 70s and 80s and the birth of the organized structures of the German minority in the Opole voivodeship

Summary/Abstract: As a result of the Second World War within the new state borders of Poland were hundreds of thousands of indigenous inhabitants of the Opole Silesia (pre-war Opole district). Among that population throughout the post-war period various pro-German attitudes occurred routinely. Attempts to travel to West Germany were also a common phenomenon. Such trips acquired a mass character in 1971-1981. A subsequent attempt to re-inhibit emigration through the use of restricted passport policy brought new difficulties. Their resolution was beyond the capabilities of the government apparatus. The applied restrictions became a stimulus for organizing the local structures of the German minority, which initially fought to provide the Silesians the opportunities to go abroad. In 1987, the Polish People’s Republic was obliged to acknowledge the bankruptcy of its previous passport policy and make a considerable liberalization out of it. Furthermore, they tried to solve the problem of the German minority in the Opole Silesia, allowing for the emigration of its leading activists. These treatments did not restrain the rapidly ongoing process of self-organization of minorities. With the collapse of the communist system in Poland, a well-organized German minority in the Opole voivodeship accomplished a formal recognition, permanently entering the socio-political landscape of the region.

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