Sociální studia (Dec 2017)
German Neighbours from Across the River – Insiders? Strangers? Others?
Abstract
The form of transborder interactions depends inter alia on trust and the convergence of values among neighbouring societies. In addition, cooperation is fostered by the similarity of language and a long history of cross-border contacts and collaboration. The Polish-German borderland emerged as a consequence of border treaties after World War II, and so is an example of a new neighbourhood, because both sides of the border are inhabited by people who settled there after 1945. There is a significant cultural distance between Poles and Germans. In this article we deal with the question of the perception of Germans by Poles – the attributes that are ascribed to them by the inhabitants of Zgorzelec, Gubin and Słubice. Are the (spatially) closest neighbours still divided by mental barriers? Are Germans judged by stereotypes? Or maybe, as a consequence of the widely undertaken transborder practices, these barriers have been done away with or their importance is diminishing, and with them the distance between Poles and Germans in twin towns?
