‘Poland is Back’: German Narrative Adjustment in the German-Polish Special Relationship, 2007–2024

Abstract

Poland is one of Germany’s most significant international partners and is characterised in German discourses as a neighbour, friend and ally. Nevertheless, recent changes in government in Poland have significantly impacted the relationship. Situating the German-Polish case within the literature on ‘special relationships’, this paper argues that these can be better understood through analysis of official narratives, and proposes a theoretical distinction between ‘essential narratives’ and ‘non-essential narratives’. Corpus analysis techniques are used to code the narratives and structure the in-depth analysis. The study finds that each official German narrative was adjusted to varying degrees in response to changing Polish governments. While ‘essential’ narratives were more stable and ultimately upheld the ‘special relationship’, ‘non-essential’ narratives underwent more significant change. As well as expanding the empirical literature on German-Polish relations, these findings demonstrate the potential of corpus-assisted discourse analysis and contribute to the theoretical discussion of what constitutes and sustains ‘special relationships’.