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The former eastern territories of Germany ((ドイツ語:Ehemalige deutsche Ostgebiete)) are those provinces or regions east of the current eastern border of Germany (the Oder–Neisse line) which were lost by Germany after World War I and then World War II. The territories lost following World War I include most of the Province of Posen and West Prussia, and further territories lost after World War II include East Prussia, Farther Pomerania, East Brandenburg, Upper Silesia, and almost all of Lower Silesia. All territories lost in both World Wars account for 33% of the former German Empire, while land ceded by Germany after World War II constituted roughly 25% of its pre-war Weimar territory.〔("The Lost German East: Forced Migration and the Politics of Memory, 1945-1970" by Andrew Demshuk, page 52 )〕 In present-day Germany, the term usually refers only to the territories lost in World War II,〔see for example (msn encarta ): "diejenigen Gebiete des Deutschen Reiches innerhalb der deutschen Grenzen von 1937", (Meyers Lexikon online ): "die Teile des ehemaligen deutschen Reichsgebietes zwischen der Oder-Neiße-Linie im Westen und der Reichsgrenze von 1937 im Osten". (Archived ) 2009-10-31.〕 while in Poland the territories acquired from Germany after World War II were dubbed the "Recovered Territories" by the Soviet-installed Polish government. The post-war border between Germany and Poland along the Oder–Neisse line was formally recognized by East Germany in 1950 by the Treaty of Zgorzelec, under pressure from Stalin. In 1952, recognition of the Oder–Neisse line as a permanent boundary was one of Stalin's conditions for the Soviet Union to agree to a reunification of Germany (see Stalin Note). The offer was rejected by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. The official German government position on the status of former eastern territories of Germany vacated by settled German communities east of the Oder and Neisse rivers was that the areas were "temporarily under Polish (Soviet ) administration." In 1970, West Germany recognised the line as a ''de facto'' boundary in the Treaty of Warsaw. In 1990, as part of the reunification of Germany, West Germany recognised the "facts on the ground" and accepted clauses in the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany whereby Germany renounced all claims to territory east of the Oder-Neisse line.〔The problem with the status of these territories was that in 1945 the concluding document of the Potsdam Conference was not a legally binding treaty, but a memorandum between the USSR, the USA and the UK. It regulated the issue of the eastern German border, which was to be the Oder-Neisse line, but the final article of the memorandum said that the final decisions concerning Germany were subject to a separate peace treaty. This treaty was signed in 1990 under the name of Treaty on the Final Settlement by both the German states and ratified in 1991 by the united Germany. This ended the legal limbo state which meant that for 45 years, people on both sides of the border could not be sure whether the settlement reached in 1945 might be changed at some future date.〕 Germany's recognition of the Oder-Neisse line as the border was formalised by the re-united Germany in the German-Polish Border Treaty on November 14, 1990. ==Usage== In the Potsdam Agreement the description of the territories transferred is "The former German territories east of the Oder-Neisse line", and permutations on this description are the most commonly used to describe any former territories of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line. The name East Germany, a political term, used to be the common colloquial English name for the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and mirrored the common colloquial English term for the other German state of West Germany. When focusing on the period before World War II, "eastern Germany" is used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe (East Elbia), as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Webe In German there is only one usual term ''Ostdeutschland'', meaning East Germany or Eastern Germany, the German rather ambiguous term never gained prevailing use for the GDR as did the English term. Since the ''Ostdeutschland'' has been used to denote the post-war and the respective five states of the reunited Germany. However, because people and institutions in the states, traditionally considered as Middle Germany, like the three southern new states Saxony-Anhalt, the Free State of Saxony and the Free State of Thuringia, still use the term Middle Germany when referring to their area and its institutions the term ''Ostdeutschland'' is still ambiguous.〔The public broadcaster run by the German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia is named Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (lit. in (英語:Middle German broadcast)), a regional newspaper, issued in Halle upon Saale, is called "Mitteldeutsche Zeitung" and a Protestant regional church body in the area, just recently founded by a merger, is named Evangelische Kirche in Mitteldeutschland ((英語:Protestant Church in Middle Germany)).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Former eastern territories of Germany」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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