The open border was meant as a milestone on the way to the “New Europe.” For Poles, who wryly note that their prosperous neighbors “lost the war but won the peace,” the border is a psychological and economic breakthrough. Relations between the two neighbors are still burdened by Germany’s invasion of Poland, and the subsequent loss of huge German territories as a result. “At last we are Europeans with equal rights,” said Stanislaus Kunert after crossing the border. “From now on Poland belongs to Europe.”
First they have to convince their neighbors. Many Germans are worried that Poles will abuse their easy access to the European Community to smuggle in cheap merchandise. They fear shoplifting and Polish willingness to work illegally for substandard wages. “Some awfully negative images of Poles still persist here,” says Barbara John, Berlin’s commissioner for foreigners’ affairs. The hostility is especially strong in eastern Germany, where unemployed may soon hit 50 percent. Before German unification last year, when West Berlin was an open city under Allied control, Poles freely peddled low-cost Polish goods, then used their earnings to buy German products for resale in Poland. Apparently dreading a repeat, Berlin newspapers warned of Polish tour buses from parking in front of discount stores favored by Polish shoppers.
If the lukewarm Wilkommen was intended to keep Polish consumers away, it worked. German border officials, braced for a half-million Poles on the first day of free travel, counted only 90,000. Berlin’s Kantstrasse, nicknamed “Warsaw Alley” because of its shops catering to Poles, was deserted. “Our Polish customers have gotten much more discriminating,” says merchant Karim Dadfar. “They used to just haul away anything as long as it was cheap.” Now that the Polish zloty is fully convertible to hard currencies and Polish inflation is under control, black-marketeering makes little sense.
Opening the border was the easy part. Later this month Germany and Polans will sign a treaty of friendship intended to put World War II behind them. Germany has already accepted its loss of territories to Poland. Poland will promise to respect the rights of the German minority left behind. “Germans and Poles have the chance to have a normal relationship,” says John. “Now we’ve got to clear the fences and barriers from our hearts.”
