Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Poland's special representative for relations with Germany, met in Berlin with Merkel on Monday, Feb. 16. There was no news conference, but he told Polish reporters later he was "fully calmed and satisfied."

Tension had earlier flared after Polish diplomats reportedly heard that Association of Expellees President Erika Steinbach, 65, would be appointed to the board of the planned Berlin center, which is to depict how ethnic Germans had to flee many nations after World War II.

Many Poles perceive the center as having an anti-Polish agenda. Steinbach herself is viewed with revulsion by many Poles because of her advocacy for ethnic Germans expelled from Polish soil between 1945 and 1947. Steinbach is also a member of the German parliament for Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU).