Germany, Poland open the border

AHLBECK, Germany – When grinning German soldiers broke open a border gate to Poland at the start of World War Two, Nazi propaganda cameras captured one of the most infamous images of the invasion.

Nearly 70 years later, the mayors of a German village and neighbouring Polish town that have straddled either side a physical and cultural barrier since 1945, will fling open a border gate again. In a midnight celebration today, Germans and Poles will mark the removal of the barrier between two of the European Union’s biggest countries.”And this time we’re going to lift the gate straight up into the air and not push it into Poland, and we’ll do it together,” Ahlbeck mayor Klaus Kottwittenborg said ahead of the ceremonial dismantling of the border.”The pictures from 1939 went around the world,” he told Reuters, sat in the town hall, 3 km from Germany’s most northeastern border crossing.”We want the world to see different pictures this time.”When Poland and eight other mostly eastern European nations join the EU’s border free “Schengen zone” on Friday, the tight controls on Germany’s eastern frontier will disappear, allowing passport-free travel.An ominous chain-link fence and no-go zone that cut across one of Europe’s most beautiful beaches into the Baltic Sea will also be removed – 2 500 Polish and German school children will symbolically cut it down on Friday.”We’ll finally be able to go across to Germany without passports,” the Polish mayor of Swinoujscie, Janusz Zmurkiewicz, told the Usedom Kurier daily that serves the split Baltic island of Usedom.”In the summer we’ll even be able swim over.”FEARS LINGER Not everyone is happy about the abrupt elimination of passport checks and border patrols, even though Poland and the others joined the European Union over 3-1/2 years ago.Before Poland joined the bloc there were German fears of increased crime and an influx of cheap labour.These worries may have abated, but they have not gone entirely.This week local German newspapers were full of reports and pictures of some residents putting up new iron fences on their property.”Some people worry their cars will be stolen or their underwear will be nicked off the clothes line,” said Wolf Lehmann, as he walked over a tightly controlled pedestrian crossing one km south of the Baltic beach fence.”But there are criminals everywhere,” said Lehmann, a 60-year-old Berlin truck driver on holiday.He walks across to Poland almost every day to buy supplies of cigarettes for less than half the cost in Germany.This cost disparity has created tensions.Last October, Poland’s coastguard fired warning shots at a German ship as it fled Polish waters near Swinoujscie (a German city known as Swinemuende until 1945) after undercover Polish customs inspectors tried to question its captain.No one was hurt in the incident and the German boat selling duty-free items returned safely to its home port.PREVAILING MOOD OF OPTIMISM “It’s too soon to open this border,” said one German border guard patrolling the beach fencing, where infra-red cameras are lined up along the frontier and a swath of sand is carefully groomed each day to mark footprints of any potential trespasser.Some German border police – facing transfers away from the border or worried about becoming irrelevant – staged an unusual demonstration in Frankfurt on Oder last month, marching in uniform near another border crossing to vent their frustration.But the prevailing mood in Ahlbeck, a restored 19th century resort 300 km north of Berlin, is one of optimism.”Barriers like that are just stupid in this day and age,” said Katrin Bartzik, 30, strolling on the beach.”We had enough barbed wire and walls in communist East Germany.I don’t like walls and I don’t like barriers.I’m glad it’s going down.”Taxi driver Bernd Stenzl, 55, said most of the earlier fears about Poland and the opening of the border had dissipated.It had actually boosted the local economy rather than hurt it.”I’ve got a lot of Polish friends now,” he said.”We’ll have to see how it unfolds.But so far it’s been good for everyone.”While many Germans head to Swinoujscie to buy cigarettes or get their hair cut for a fraction of the costs in Ahlbeck, there are some Poles streaming the other way in search of bargains in Germany.”I’m obviously happy all these border controls will soon be gone,” said Jerzy Szczerba, a fisherman who spoke excellent German.He said he regularly heads to Ahlbeck to shop, where electronic equipment, soap, detergent and oil are much cheaper.”It’s a myth to think everything is cheaper in Poland,” he said.”It’s not.”Nampa-ReutersIn a midnight celebration today, Germans and Poles will mark the removal of the barrier between two of the European Union’s biggest countries.”And this time we’re going to lift the gate straight up into the air and not push it into Poland, and we’ll do it together,” Ahlbeck mayor Klaus Kottwittenborg said ahead of the ceremonial dismantling of the border.”The pictures from 1939 went around the world,” he told Reuters, sat in the town hall, 3 km from Germany’s most northeastern border crossing.”We want the world to see different pictures this time.”When Poland and eight other mostly eastern European nations join the EU’s border free “Schengen zone” on Friday, the tight controls on Germany’s eastern frontier will disappear, allowing passport-free travel.An ominous chain-link fence and no-go zone that cut across one of Europe’s most beautiful beaches into the Baltic Sea will also be removed – 2 500 Polish and German school children will symbolically cut it down on Friday.”We’ll finally be able to go across to Germany without passports,” the Polish mayor of Swinoujscie, Janusz Zmurkiewicz, told the Usedom Kurier daily that serves the split Baltic island of Usedom.”In the summer we’ll even be able swim over.”FEARS LINGER Not everyone is happy about the abrupt elimination of passport checks and border patrols, even though Poland and the others joined the European Union over 3-1/2 years ago.Before Poland joined the bloc there were German fears of increased crime and an influx of cheap labour.These worries may have abated, but they have not gone entirely.This week local German newspapers were full of reports and pictures of some residents putting up new iron fences on their property.”Some people worry their cars will be stolen or their underwear will be nicked off the clothes line,” said Wolf Lehmann, as he walked over a tightly controlled pedestrian crossing one km south of the Baltic beach fence.”But there are criminals everywhere,” said Lehmann, a 60-year-old Berlin truck driver on holiday.He walks across to Poland almost every day to buy supplies of cigarettes for less than half the cost in Germany.This cost disparity has created tensions.Last October, Poland’s coastguard fired warning shots at a German ship as it fled Polish waters near Swinoujscie (a German city known as Swinemuende until 1945) after undercover Polish customs inspectors tried to question its captain.No one was hurt in the incident and the German boat selling duty-free items returned safely to its home port.PREVAILING MOOD OF OPTIMISM “It’s too soon to open this border,” said one German border guard patrolling the beach fencing, where infra-red cameras are lined up along the frontier and a swath of sand is carefully groomed each day to mark footprints of any potential trespasser.Some German border police – facing transfers away from the border or worried about becoming irrelevant – staged an unusual demonstration in Frankfurt on Oder last month, marching in uniform near another border crossing to vent their frustration.But the prevailing mood in Ahlbeck, a restored 19th century resort 300 km north of Berlin, is one of optimism.”Barriers like that are just stupid in this day and age,” said Katrin Bartzik, 30, strolling on the beach.”We had enough barbed wire and walls in communist East Germany.I don’t like walls and I don’t like barriers.I’m glad it’s going down.”Taxi driver Bernd Stenzl, 55, said most of the earlier fears about Poland and the opening of the border had dissipated.It had actually boosted the
local economy rather than hurt it.”I’ve got a lot of Polish friends now,” he said.”We’ll have to see how it unfolds.But so far it’s been good for everyone.”While many Germans head to Swinoujscie to buy cigarettes or get their hair cut for a fraction of the costs in Ahlbeck, there are some Poles streaming the other way in search of bargains in Germany.”I’m obviously happy all these border controls will soon be gone,” said Jerzy Szczerba, a fisherman who spoke excellent German.He said he regularly heads to Ahlbeck to shop, where electronic equipment, soap, detergent and oil are much cheaper.”It’s a myth to think everything is cheaper in Poland,” he said.”It’s not.”Nampa-Reuters