Challenged Reciprocity: The German Minority in Poland and the Polish Minority in Germany.

The article examines the complex and asymmetrical minority protection issues between the German minority in Poland and the Polish minority in Germany, focusing on the 1991 Polish-German Treaty on Good Neighbourly Relations and Friendly Cooperation. While Poland recognizes the German minority and has enacted laws and educational provisions to protect its language and culture—albeit with ongoing challenges such as limited teacher training and recent political setbacks—Germany denies that the Polish community in Germany constitutes a national minority under international law, viewing it largely as a migrant population without traditional settlement areas. This legal and political divergence has resulted in inadequate reciprocal protections, with Poland providing some minority rights to Germans but Germany largely neglecting similar obligations toward Poles, leading to what the article terms a "reciprocity in neglect." The article highlights the need for renewed bilateral dialogue and cooperation to address these unresolved minority issues in accordance with the 1991 Treaty and relevant Council of Europe frameworks.