Cover Model Hitler
Germany’s Image in the Polish Media
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Leading Polish newspapers and magazines talk of a return of German striving for great power status. Hitler is celebrating a comeback as a means of interpreting all contemporary events in Germany. Particularly frequent are distortions, forgeries and omissions in reporting about the project for a Berlin-based centre for documenting the expulsion of Germans from Central Europe after the war. Two phenomena are coming together here. First, a liberal press law allows journalists to construe background or telephone conversations as interviews. The hurdles for publishing an opposing point of view are set high. Civil suits often drag on for years. Second, German-Polish debates over the past are at different stages. In Poland, it is a matter of passing on the image of Poles as German victims. In the Federal Republic, debates are held over the proper way to remember National Socialism.
(Osteuropa 1/2007, pp. 57–72)