ABSTRACT
In international relations, philosophy, and peace research, a multitude of work on the dynamics of reconciliation, including truth and reconciliation processes and apology in foreign relations has appeared since the 1990s. Much of the scholarship on reconciliation processes and apologies mention Polish-German relations as a positive model for peace processes. Polish-German relations reached their low point during and immediately after the Second World War. The earliest German-speaking settlers arrived in the eastern Polish territories in the Middle Ages. This chapter focuses on some common models of reconciliation to illustrate the challenges which incorporating borderland studies with conflict resolution. It explores how, despite these difficulties, mixed spaces and borderland backgrounds often functioned as assets in Polish-German relations. In the Cold War era, Polish-German relations seemed an extremely successful instance of conflict resolution. Polish-German relations were neither a fully dualistic nor a single, central development.
