 In 1945, the eastern part of the city of Görlitz was split off and became known as Zgorzelec when the Polish-German border was redrawn.Because of his knowledge of Polish, Scholz was able to remain in Zgorzelec, but he chose to leave in 1946 when Germans who remained in the city were forced to adopt Polish citizenship.Scholz went to the nearby city of Cottbus, but when it became part of the German Democratic Republic in 1949, he moved to West Germany.