The conditions for the development of tourism from Germany to Poland The author's detailed analysis of tourists travelling to Poland has shown that tourism from Germany has been, is and will be most important inter-war period. As long ago as in the midwar period (in the years between 1930 and 1937) Germans accounted for 1 / 3 i.e. 29,6 - 40% of all the foreign tourists visiting Poland. Since tourism started developing after WWII, that is since the early 50s, the number of tourists from Germany, which included the people of Polish and Jewish origin who lived of around 30% of the foreigners coming to Poland. During the cold war period, and especially the years 1961 - 1963 the percentage of German tourists fell to 13,9 - 19,0%. The 1970s were also quite exceptional. Introducing travelling facilities between the former East Germany and Poland resulted in a very high level of tourists and in 1972 it rose to 82% and over the next years, i.e. 1973 - 1980 stayed at the level of 52,3 - 78,8%. After the authorities of the former East Germany suspended the travelling facilities concerning Poland (since 30.10.1980) and after the martial law - which was in force from 13.12.1981 to 22.07.1983 - was introduced in Poland, the percentage went down to 22 - 30% in the years 1981 - 1989. A rapid development of tourism to Poland, including Germans, was observed in 1990s. Within ten years the number of foreigners visiting Poland increased tenfold from 8,2m in the 1989 to 88,6m in 1998. The number of Germans crossing the Polish border rose almost thirty times and reached a peak of over 50m people (1989 - 1,8m, 1998 - 51,6m), which accounted for 60% of all the foreigners coming to Poland. Every fifth foreigner and every eighth German coming to Poland 1998 was a tourist.