Knut Abraham said teaching Polish was not merely a cultural matter but also served Germany’s economic interests. A German MP has called for Polish to be taught as a compulsory subject in schools near the Polish border, arguing that closer language ties would benefit local communities and businesses. Knut Abraham, a lawmaker from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s governing center-right Christian Democratic Union, said a “geographical corridor” should be established on both sides of the border in which schools would be required to teach the neighboring country’s language. Abraham, who also serves as the German government’s coordinator for civic and cross-border cooperation with Poland, made the remarks at a German-Polish citizens’ forum in Löcknitz earlier this month, according to Nordkurier, a regional German newspaper. Löcknitz, a town in northeastern Germany, lies about 25 kilometers west of the Polish city of Szczecin. Löcknitz is already home to a German-Polish secondary school where pupil from both countries attend integrated classes and German students can take Polish as an optional subject. ‘In our immediate economic interest’ Abraham said English could not replace knowledge of a neighboring country’s language, particularly in a region where Polish was spoken only a few miles away. He said he had long advocated expanding Polish-language education in German border regions but had encountered reluctance from some parents, who feared their children might receive poor grades and preferred them to study Spanish instead. “When was the last time a Spaniard came through here?” Abraham asked, highlighting that Polish was spoken just across the border. Abraham said teaching Polish was not merely a cultural matter but also served Germany’s economic interests. “It is in our immediate German economic interest that Polish is taught and learned here as a foreign language,” he said. ‘Parents are asking for it’ A local school principal told the forum that about half of the more than 200 pupils at her school had Polish roots. The school offers Polish classes for native speakers and Polish as a foreign language for German children, but shortages of teachers and classroom hours have limited what it can provide. “There is demand. Parents are asking for it,” she said, as quoted by Nordkurier, adding that supplementary Polish classes were often among the first to be affected when lessons had to be canceled.
The European School German-Polish Gymnasium in Löcknitz offers Polish as an optional subject. (Wikimedia Commons/Mr. Pommeroy)
