January 26, 1934: The Polish-German declaration of non-violence

The Polish-German non-aggression treaty of January 26, 1934 came as a huge surprise to the international public. Even in the spring of the previous year, after Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, rumors circulated about a possible outbreak of an armed conflict between Poland and the Reich and a preventive war being allegedly prepared for by Piłsudski. The unexpected turn in the previously tense relations between Berlin and Warsaw, which arrived with the declaration of January 1934, opened up a new chapter in relations between the two countries, which lasted until the spring of 1939.