Why Poland is East/West Divided?

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[abhishekkapur]

Remember when Volkswagen Polo came with a tagline: from Berlin to Warsaw in just one tank
And the world went: hold up buddy

[serzhant]

I'm Russian, live in Krakow. Here in Poland the story of their country is told quite truthfully, and so is relative to other countries. But when I was in a Russian school, we were not told about this at all, as if this did not apply to the history of Russia.

[zainmudassir]

West Poland was Prussia. I can recognise Prussia's open jaws shape anywhere on the map

[suki]

I think Poland's history has something in common with our history! Love from South Korea 🇰🇷❤🇵🇱

[luis_gil]

*China:* divide itself several times
*Poland:* It's divide by other and cease to exist a lot of times

[TheGreatLlamaJockey]

Learning about Poland is cool because it was always swept under the rug in my history classes & apparently was swept under for most of history.

[karl-heinzgrabowski]

The family on my paternal side moved from Polish Mazovia to Prussian Masuria and stayed there, later they became German citizen and kept their Polish surname, they fled during WW2 to Western Germany. My grandpa missed the Eastern Coast and Masurian lakes.

[Dread_]

4:21 one thing, Gdańsk was called Gdańsk from the beginning (it sounded more like Gyddanyzc or Kdanzk but sounds quite similar to today's pronunciation), the name Danzig didn't appear until the 14th century, so as in this case, the Germans changed the name of the city.

[desiretheright]

Fun fact: The Polish Railways or PKP (Polskie Koleje Państwowe) has a route that goes from Berlin to Warsaw. (i was on it too lol)

[kubagozdzik]

To this day there is a popular polish meme called Widać Zabory, or "You can see the partitions". Basically, it points out the many differences between former partitioned polish lands and their level of development, the most clear example is obviously the railway network of western Poland vs eastern Poland. These things may have happened hundreds of years ago, but they very much still have an impact on present day political and economical landscape in Poland.

[Szpagin]

Here's a very, very unpopular opinion in Poland: we greatly benefited from post-WW2 border changes. Eastern borderlands were the poorest and least-developed parts of the Second Republic, instead we got heavily industrialised German territories, including the majority of Silesia and a large extention of the coastline with an important port in Szczecin/Stettin. New borders are also more straight and natural, making them easier to defend in an emergency.

[youtubernr.]

Sun Tzu: "Kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being."
Pilsudski: "Hold my piwo!"

[EpicTyphlosionTV]

I kinda knew the former German Empire part had some differences with the rest of Poland from the start

[xiviss]

I live in actual eastern Poland and I would say it is rather a sociological than historical phenonomenon that can be noticed in more places in europe, western part of country is rather liberal while huge chunk of western population are repatriants from former eastern territories, they were rooted out from their homelands they were living on for centuries and forced to move to completely new environment.
Western part of Poland is also richer because of geographical proximity of Germany and in general, western countries. Western capital invest more willingly in that part.
Today, more differences can be seen between "rural" and "urban" parts of country instead of west/east. It both contains worldview, political beliefs and wealth.

[szymonmaciejewski]

3:40 that's not true. These cities have Polish origin, they were Polish during middle ages, for centuries. Then they were taken by Germans. But they were funded on Polish lands. Gdańsk is Gdańsk's original, first name. Danzig is the one created by Germans when they took control over it. I do know that these cities were in Germany's borders for a long time, but saying that they were "made Polish" is a big misunderstanding. I am from Poznań, which was named by Germans "Posen" during XIX century. Then, when Poland was independent again, it was named Poznań again. Should I then say that Poznań, which is one of Poland's oldest cities and is a place where first kings of Poland spent a lot of time in and who are buried in Poznań's catedra, was "made" Polish, because Germans were there for over a century? Obviously not. Gdańsk, Wrocław, Szczecin, and many more were one of the most important POLISH cities back in the days. THEY WEREN'T MADE POLISH.

[Basketball]

Hey, great video. Thanks for this quick overview. I'm from Germany and while we were the oppressors to Poland many times (sorry for that, hadn't much saying in it) the east/west divide reminds me very much of ours. We have exactly the same problem in Germany; the former DDR is much less economicly developed and very conservative/nationalistic leaning.

[rainmaker]

I'm from Hungary, When I see a video about Poland, I click it. 🇭🇺❤️🇵🇱

[miklosz]

As a Pole living in West Pomerania, I find this film quite interesting. Although I would like to point out a few things. As Poland got western, as we called it then "regained" lands, my ancestors did not get the wonderful, developed lands of the Germans, as it might seem at the beginning. Because these lands were either destroyed by war or plundered by the troops of our "ally" of the USSR. Another thing is that my grandparents, when they set out to settle in the west, were often forced to do so by poverty or the politics of the USSR, which deported Poles east of the Bug to the west, i.e. from the old pre-war eastern borderlands. As I love to live in my region, I really appreciate what the Germans left behind, i.e. cities, architecture and history. I am also sad that in Poland there is no such instinct to take care of these remnants, because they do not belong to our cultural heritage.

[Judah]

Me: "Polish people, don't actually say 'Kurwa' all the time - it's just a stupid meme!
Me on a construction site (in Germany) : "Oh I take that back, it's all Kurwa."

[BroskiRaiski]

I’m Polish. When I see my country (or any history video), I click.