Treaty of Zgorzelec
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The Treaty of Zgorzelec (Full title The Agreement Concerning the Demarcation of the Established and the Existing Polish-German State Frontier, also known as the Treaty of Görlitz and Treaty of Zgorzelic) was signed on 6 July 1950 in the east of the Oder- Neisse line part of the divided city of Görlitz, since 1945 called in Polish Zgorzelec. It was signed by Otto Grotewohl Prime Minister of the provisional government of the GDR (East Germany) and Józef Cyrankiewicz Prime Minister of Poland. It recognized the Oder-Neisse Line, of the Potsdam Agreement as the border between the two states. [1]
The treaty was worded as a declaration and was not recognised as a legitimate international treaty by the members states of NATO and four years later when the Soviet Union granted East Germany independence,[2] the Soviet Union reserved rights over East Germany (in a similar to the rights reserved by the Western Allies over the FRG (West Germany) under the Bonn-Paris conventions) pending a final peace treaty with Germany (the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany). So although the treaty was binding on the two states it was not seen by many western members of the international community as a definitive.[1]
The building in which the treaty was signed is one of Zgorzelec's main sights and is found in a park beside the road bridge border crossing.
