Pfadabhängigkeiten in der Stromnetzinfrastruktur

Poland’s shift westward as a result of World War II influenced the further development of both Polish and Eastern European electricity networks. During the appropriation of the new western territories, the center of the national power grid shifted from the Central Industrial District to Upper Silesia. Lower Silesia’s power grid, in turn, which had not been integrated into the national power grid until the mid-1950s, became a hub for electricity transmissions between East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. High-voltage lines constructed before the war, as well as cross-border cooperation between the lignite mine in Turow and the coal power plant in Hirschfelde, were decisive factors in this development. They formed the starting point for an international, interconnected network which encompassed the entire Eastern Bloc from the mid-1960s.