The Bundestag today passed a resolution calling on the federal government to immediately begin the planning phase and the construction of a monument in Berlin dedicated to the Polish victims of National Socialism and the German occupation of Poland from 1939 to 1945. Despite an extensive discussion, the subject of war reparations for Poland did not appear.
According to the resolution, the federal government is obliged to announce a design competition with the participation of Polish experts. The winning design is to be presented to the Bundestag.
Parliament determined that the most appropriate place for the monument will be the site of the former Kroll Opera, where a temporary memorial currently stands — the “memory stone” unveiled in June.
The vote in the Bundestag was preceded by more than half an hour of debate.
Members of the CDU/CSU, SPD, Greens, and the Left Party who were present in the plenary hall voted in favor of the resolution. Two MPs from Alternative for Germany (AfD) voted against it, while the rest of the faction abstained.
Knut Abraham, the German government’s commissioner for cooperation with Poland, told Polish media that the competition is to be announced at the beginning of 2026, and that a sum between 750,000 and 1 million euros may be allocated for it. The total cost of the monument, however, will be determined in the federal budget for 2027 or 2028.
In the previous Polish government (PiS), a special team on reparations operated under the leadership of MEP Arkadiusz Mularczyk. It estimated that the total amount of war reparations owed by Germany to Poland should be 6.2 trillion (!) zloty — specifically, 6,220,609,000,000 zl. Even if the cost of the Berlin monument were deducted from that sum, Germany’s western neighbor would still owe 6,220,604,500,000 zl.