Powrót niemieckich jeńców wojennych z ZSRR na forum Bundestagu dwóch pierwszych kadencji (1949-1957)

The history of German prisoners of war from World War II has long been a topic of historical and political discussion in the Federal Republic of Germany. After the establishment of the FRG in 1949, members of the first term of the Bundestag discussed the extremely topical issue which was: bringing German prisoners of war from the USSR to West Germany ten years after the start of World War II. The aim of this paper is to determine how the above mentioned politicians dealt with the problem of POWs on the basis of an analysis of the plenary protocols of the Bundestag (Plenarprotokolle) and printed documents (Drucksachen) produced during the first two terms of the German parliament: 1949–1953 and 1953–1957. Historical research methods were used in the study, including the inductive-descriptive method and the method of analyzing the contents of documents according to Ole Holsti's questionnaire in order to determine which politicians in the Bundestag spoke most often, how they spoke about the issue of aiding prisoners of war, in what context, and what their statements resulted in. The analysis shows that German politicians were eager to propose new laws or amendments to the existing ones in order to identify and support prisoners of war already in the country or still detained abroad. The case of the prisoners of war was an especially high profile issue at the turn of 1955 and 1956, when the largest wave of returns took place, thanks to the actions of the German Chancellor, who went to Moscow for this purpose. The resolution of this issue in 1955 became the basis of Chancellor K. Adenauer's political success.