Europe - Polish border controls reinstated during Euro 2012 football competition

Credit to JOUY31 who posted this in the AF forum:

In accordance with the Schengen treaties, Poland has reinstated border controls from June 4th to July 1st, due to the hosting of the Euro 2012 football (soccer) competition.

It's pretty much the standard thing to do when hosting such a large sporting event. Austria did this 4 years ago when they had Euro 2008 over there...

Not much of a problem, just that you need to show your passport when travelling by road/rail. Not sure this affects air travel as I flew into Warsaw yesterday from within Schengen and there were no checks whatsoever.

hey, as far as I understand government's announcements those checks are performed on pre-selected individuals only. No worries if you're a peaceful supporter :) mfk

When I travel by train between Berlin and Breslau, it's more often than not that Polish border guards come on board to do random ID checks. Same thing on the train between Prague and Dresden with German authorities. It's been that way for a while it seems.

When I travel by train between Berlin and Breslau, it's more often than not that Polish border guards come on board to do random ID checks. Same thing on the train between Prague and Dresden with German authorities. It's been that way for a while it seems.

Breslau? What year is it, 1937?

I liked Breslau when I visited, almost as much as the free city of Danzig, up on the Baltic Sea.

I kid, I kid.

Seriously though, both Wroclaw and Gdansk are going to be happening during the soccer tournament.

Breslau? What year is it, 1937?

I liked Breslau when I visited, almost as much as the free city of Danzig, up on the Baltic Sea.

I kid, I kid.

Seriously though, both Wroclaw and Gdansk are going to be happening during the soccer tournament.

please be consistent - "Ostsee" !!!

in that case, to all: please call it München, not Munich. ;) City names change by country - we just have to live with it. I see nothing wrong and nothing political for Breslau and Wroclav - both are names for the same city. As much as Cologne/Köln or Copenhagen/København ...

and now back to the thread. :)

in that case, to all: please call it München, not Munich. ;) City names change by country - we just have to live with it. I see nothing wrong and nothing political for Breslau and Wroclav - both are names for the same city. As much as Cologne/Köln or Copenhagen/København ...

and now back to the thread. :)

agreed - as long as you don't mix Kattowitz with Stalinogrod :)
sorry
couldn't resist :)
have a wonderful evening
mfk

Breslau? What year is it, 1937?

I liked Breslau when I visited, almost as much as the free city of Danzig, up on the Baltic Sea.

I kid, I kid.

Seriously though, both Wroclaw and Gdansk are going to be happening during the soccer tournament.

Believe it or not, there are more German-language speakers than Polish. And they've been calling it Breslau for hundreds of years more than it's been called Wroclaw. And even the English-usage word for the city is Breslau. Just as they call it Prague and not Praha. Rome not Roma. Warsaw not Warszawa, and so on and so on... :cool:

And as for the ramping up of the border controls, this is being re-inforced on the Polish eastern border correct? Which really should be the case every day of the year.

And even the English-usage word for the city is Breslau.
:confused: are you sure about it? Definitely agree that that city was called Breslau much longer since 11th century than Wroclaw or Vratislav, but I would lightly disagree with that very statement. Oh, wait, strongly disagree.

Warsaw not Warszawa, and so on and so on... :cool:
Agreed! Was flying DUS-WAW earlier today w/ LH. First announcement in German ("Wilkommen in Warschau...") then in English ("Welcome to Warszawa ..."). Nice touch :). But yes, proper one should be Warsaw.

And as for the ramping up of the border controls, this is being re-inforced on the Polish eastern border correct? Which really should be the case every day of the year.
see post #1 - that comment relating to Schengen treaty was just about internal borders. No change to external ones (but who knows what they do after Poland:Russia game)

safe travels
mfk

The English word for Wroclaw is Wroclaw. Just like Krakow is Krakow. We just drop off the diacritics (and their meaning) since English doesn't use them.

Moreover, you all forgot the best example of name changes in Eastern Europe: Tallinn not Tallin.

We've gone well off-topic now... but I thought I'd throw some light on the issue of those German/Polish place names, from a historical perspective (as I guess it's probably the sort of history that's not taught in much detail in the English-speaking world).

A sizeable chunk of what is now Poland used to be German - not just for a short period in the Third Reich, but for many centuries.

After WWII those chunks of land were given to Poland, in exchange for some chunks of Poland that had been annexed by the Soviet Union. Most of the German population left.

It took until the 1970s before West Germany formally accepted that those former German territories were part of Poland, and before that formal acceptance (and for some time after) the use of place names was a hot political issue. At one stage Poland would even refuse admission to Germans whose passports stated that they were born in Danzig or Breslau - only the Polish names were acceptable.

These days it is quite normal and acceptable again to use the German names for these Polish towns, and I've even heard Polish people use them when speaking German... but it wasn't always this way, and I suspect some older people are probably still somewhat sensitive to the issue.

The English word for Wroclaw is Wroclaw. Just like Krakow is Krakow. We just drop off the diacritics (and their meaning) since English doesn't use them.

Moreover, you all forgot the best example of name changes in Eastern Europe: Tallinn not Tallin.

Actually, I think the English-usage word for Krakow is Cracow. Not that much different as Hannover and Hanover (eng.). But I have a couple of English printed maps of Europe (less than a decade old) and they list most cities in their native language (Praha, Mockba, Lisboa, Roma, Milano, etc) and in parenthesis underneath, the English name, if different. And underneath Wroclaw is Breslau, and underneath Warszawa is Warsaw. But underneath Gdansk is not Danzig, nor is Posen underneath Poznan, and Kattowitz is not underneath Katowice. However, Stettin is underneath Szczyczin.

A sizeable chunk of what is now Poland used to be German - not just for a short period in the Third Reich, but for many centuries.

After WWII those chunks of land were given to Poland, in exchange for some chunks of Poland that had been annexed by the Soviet Union. Most of the German population left.

...
These days it is quite normal and acceptable again to use the German names for these Polish towns, and I've even heard Polish people use them when speaking German... but it wasn't always this way, and I suspect some older people are probably still somewhat sensitive to the issue.

Very true, basing on the example of my city: it was Polish for more than 5 centuries, then it was German for few centuries (but also part of Sweden for a short time), then it was Free City (Frei Stadt Danzig) and after II WW it was back a part of Poland. So the history was complicated which also means different names. Now officialy it's called Gdansk and in all printed materials (which also means Wikipedia etc) this is the official name but... all printed materials (prepared by the city) in German include the name Danzig. And it's fine because that's how the city is known in Germany and Austria and e.g. when I'm in Germany I always say that "I'm from Gdansk known also as Danzig". To make it clear: all international companies when they print materials in English use the name Gdansk which is official name of the city in English (also Lufthansa, AirBerlin etc.) If you use German language most of people use: Danzig - and really there is no problem with names :)

All of this sort of thing is not unusual. The English have Rome, the locals Roma, for example; and then there's Munich – München; Lisbon – Lisboa; Vienna – Wien; and so on. The French talk about Londres and Edimbourg and Douvres and Vienne instead of London and Edinburgh and Dover and Vienna. And there are countless other examples. I suppose the problems arise when there is a political connotation in one name or the other (Londonderry – Derry; Falklands – Malvinas) or a bad history: but I like the approach descibed by olekorlo and his/her attitude. :)

Actually, I think the English-usage word for Krakow is Cracow....

Not in my experience. The English-language guidebooks I have looked at (and purchased) use "Krakow." However, there is at least one guide (Eyewitness) that uses "Cracow" in its title.

Here's an interesting experiment: Google (using the US site, for example) "Krakow" and you get more than 59 million results. Then Google "Cracow" and you get fewer than 7 million results.

You can refine the Google search by using advanced search and narrowing the results to English. The results are still similar: 56 million-plus for "Krakow" and 6 million-plus for "Cracow."

You can try the search on Amazon.com, and (on the US site) you will get nearly double the number of results for "Krakow" as for "Cracow."

Of course, many of the results, on either website, contain BOTH spellings.

But these results do tend to suggest that "Krakow" is more common than "Cracow," at least in the US. (Haven't tried any British searches. ;))

Not in my experience. The English-language guidebooks I have looked at (and purchased) use "Krakow." However, there is at least one guide (Eyewitness) that uses "Cracow" in its title.

Here's an interesting experiment: Google (using the US site, for example) "Krakow" and you get more than 59 million results. Then Google "Cracow" and you get fewer than 7 million results.

You can refine the Google search by using advanced search and narrowing the results to English. The results are still similar: 56 million-plus for "Krakow" and 6 million-plus for "Cracow."

You can try the search on Amazon.com, and (on the US site) you will get nearly double the number of results for "Krakow" as for "Cracow."

Of course, many of the results, on either website, contain BOTH spellings.

But these results do tend to suggest that "Krakow" is more common than "Cracow," at least in the US. (Haven't tried any British searches. ;))

I believe Cracow originates from the Latin-usage practice in the Holy Roman Empire. Cracovia is what they called it IIRC. And Wroclaw was Vratislavia. And was called that through the Hapsburg rule I believe. It was the Prussians who officially changed the name to Breslau. And I think the Italians (and maybe the Spanish) still refer to it as Vratislavia. As for the use of Cracow... the Hilton website has a difficult time with the word Krakow. For a whille, if you typed in Krakow in the city search field, it would come up as "no results found" but offer Cracow, Poland instead. It was really quite annoying. So now I just type in Cracow from the start. But I think that Krakow has just become the norm. It's the same word in German as well.

Sometimes fashions change too. I have seen "Kieff" in novels from the early twentieth century. But everybody writing in English now uses "Kiev" and to use the other spelling (presumably derived from some sort of faux-Anglicisation) would be perverse.