Mniejszość niemiecka w Polsce a proces transformacji systemowej – założenia i wstępne wyniki badań

The article presents the assumptions and partial results of the research undertaken within the project “German minority in Poland in the face of transition and political transformation after 1989”, carried out by a research team from the Institute of Political Science and Administration (University of Opole) and commissioned by the German Minority Research Center. The project is an attempt of adopting a new perspective on the processes related to the political transformation which Poland underwent 30 years ago, with an aim of investigating the role that the German minority played in this transition. Authors of the paper focused on discussing the current state of research and outlining the sociopolitical context of the emergence of the German minority movement, the reactions of the sociopolitical actors on these processes, as well as their influence on the civil society formation, mainly in the Opole voivodeship (province).