POLISH STUDIES IN GERMAN INSTITUTIONS: TWO RECENT PUBLICATIONS

The title under review is a serial publication appearing annually under the auspices of the Deutsches Polen-Institut Darmstadt, an institution founded by the translator and promoter of Polish literature and culture in postwar Germany, Karl Dedecius. It would be difficult to name anyone else like Dedecius, who has given so much of himself in terms of time and energy to the cause of creating a better and broader knowledge of Poland's past and present cultural legacy among Germans. German foundations and official institutions, in the present case the cultural affairs section of the German Foreign Office in Bonn, have supported his efforts vigorously and on a regular basis. Much remains to be done, however, and one has to wonder whether or not stereotypes and prejudices towards Poles among the average, unsophistica ted German will ever really disappear. How Germans see Poles, especially their economy and social structures, is examined by Markus Krzoska, whose opening essay, "Noch unfertig sind der Geschichte Werke" [Still Unfinished are the Works of History] ? a wonderful and profoundly significant title ? addresses this very problem: "The German Polish relationship continues to operate on something less than a foundation of equality. This central feature of Germany's image of Poland since the middle of the eighteenth century has retained its validity. The so-called "know-it-all" attitude, a frequently criticized phenomenon of West German superciliousness with regard to the East Germans, can be observed even more prominently on the part of some Germans visiting Poland, specifically in reference to questions of the economy" (p. 18). Polish President Kwasmewski, on a recent occasion when receiving a delegation of German industrialists, was quoted as having asked for whom of his German guests this was their first visit to Poland. Upon hearing that most had never visited Poland previously, the President could not help but wonder why they had likely chosen to visit the Comoros Islands before ever thinking of paying a visit to their neighboring country. Kwasniewski might have exaggerated slightly when speaking of the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean, but he would have been right on the mark had he mentioned the Canaries close to