ABSTRACT
The ‘Wild West’ was a commonly used term for the regions of the present-day United States during the pioneer period of the 19th century, which had not yet joined the union that was created as a result of unification of certain states. The concept of the ‘Wild West’ mirroring, to a large degree, the perspective of Anglo-American conquerors is shrouded in its own peculiar legend. It was only shortly after the beginning of the 20th century that the first border change in a thousand years was made. Thus, before the Oder region had taken on the name ‘Polish Wild West’, violence and barbarity on a terrifying scale had reigned in the so-called ‘German East’, meaning the territories conquered by the Germans, first Poland, then the Soviet Union. Long before the Nationalist Socialists had taken power, German relations with Eastern Europe, particularly Poland, were marked by a widespread belief in a difference in the levels of culture between East and West.
