The article analyses the impact of the events of 1968 on West German public opinion and politics. Following the first comments in the press, published on 11th March, the events of that month in Poland were watched attentively in the FRG. West German observers connected with the power struggles in the PUWP, while West German politicians were of the opinion that the best solution in such a situation would be to wait and see, and sustain contacts with Warsaw cautiously.
In view of the growing wave of anti-Semitic pronouncements, the PUWP leader, Mr Władysław Gomułka was judged relatively mildly, assuming that he wanted to restrain them but had to yield under pressure. These pronouncements, however, a racted the a ention of the opinion-forming media in the FRG, which reacted with exaggerated comparisons to anti-Semitism in the Third Reich. Polish diplomacy, on the other hand, was effective in using the argument that an ‘anti-Polish campaign’ in the media was harmful to the detente in Europe. This effective tool of diplomacy was unable, however, to prevent the negative consequences of references to the stereotype of Polish anti-Semitism.
