Relacje polsko-niemieckie we wspomnieniach pamiętnikarzy
Polish-German relations in the recollections of memoirists

Summary/Abstract: The article is about the Polish-German relations as experienced by the authors who sent their memoirs for two competitions held by the Institute of Sociology, University of Wrocław in the 1990s and at the beginning of the 21st century. Since the competitions were organized in different historical, political and social contexts, the main research question concerned the characteristics of the descriptions of the Polish-German relations in the memoirs sent for both of them. In the article we deal with selected problems of the memoir research, we refer to the foundations of the conception of borderland by Z. Kurcz and we thoroughly set together different elements of the memories which took part in the competitions. It can be inferred from these juxtapositions that the relations present in the first competition are saturated with negative experiences, whereas in the other – with positive ones. On the basis of the memories from the beginning of the 21st century one can infer that nowadays the relations under question are more and more a result of the need for normality, curiosity and closeness. Consequently, in everyday life of the next generations of Poles and Germans these values may create the processes of cooperation rather than rivalry.

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