Central Europe - Current Views On Central Europe

Current Views On Central Europe

Rather than a physical entity, Central Europe is a concept of shared history which contrasts with that of the surrounding regions. The issue how to name and define the Central European region is subject to debates. Very often, the definition depends on nationality and historical perspective of its author.

Main propositions, gathered by Jerzy Kłoczowski, include:

• West-Central and East-Central Europe – this conception, presented in 1950, distinguished two regions in Central Europe: German West-Centre, with imperial tradition of the Reich, and the East-Centre covered by variety of nations from Finland to Greece, placed between great empires of Scandinavia, Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union
• Central Europe as the area of cultural heritage of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – Ukrainian, Belarusian and Lithuanian historians, in cooperation (since 1990) with Polish historians, insist on the importance of the notion. They firmly refuse the notion of Central Europe as a cultural heritage of Habsburg Empire stressing the importance of pre 19th century history which is considered neglected by many Central European scholars. The notion they stress is that many Central European countries and regions were parts of the German and the Austro-Hungarian empires during the 19th and beginning of 20th centuries; thus they also have historical and cultural connections with their invaders. However, Poland and Lithuania were a separate entity up until the 1795 (Poland up until 1815) commonly known as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Having strong ties with the west many Polish and Lithuanian nobility and royalty were married to royal and noble families of Western Europe. One of the most notable examples was Marie Leszczynska queen consort of France, wife of King Louis XV of France. Struggling against the growing powers of Russian Empire, Prussia and Habsburg Empire (which later became Austria-Hungary) Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was parted, and along with other smaller countries of the region (most notable Kingdom of Bohemia and Hungary) found itself in the political turmoil and disappeared of the map of Europe for most of the 19th century. Because of that supporters of this notion believe that Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic along with some other countries of the region are often forgotten and even deprived of their historical heritage.
• Central Europe as a region connected to the Western civilisation for a very long time, including countries like the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Holy Roman Empire, later German Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy, the Kingdom of Hungary and Bohemia. Central Europe understood in this way borders on Russia and the South-Eastern Europe, but the exact frontier of the region is difficult to determine.
• Central Europe as the area of cultural heritage of the Habsburg Empire – a concept which is popular in the region of Danube River
• A concept underlining the links connecting Ukraine and Belarus with Russia and treating the Russian Empire together with the whole Slavic Orthodox population as one entity – this position is taken by the Russian historiography
• A concept putting an accent on the links with the West, especially from the 19th century and the grand period of liberation and formation of Nation-states – this idea is represented by in the South-Eastern states, which prefer the enlarged concept of the “East Centre” expressing their links with the Western culture

According to Ronald Tiersky, the 1991 summit held in Visegrád, Hungary and attended by the Polish, Hungarian and Czechoslovak presidents was hailed at the time as a major breakthrough in Central European cooperation, but the Visegrád Group became a vehicle for coordinating Central Europe's road to the European Union, while development of closer ties within the region languished.

Peter J. Katzenstein described Central Europe as a way station in a Europeanization process that marks the transformation process of the Visegrád Group countries in different, though comparable ways. According to him in Germany's contemporary public discourse "Central European identity" refers to the civilizational divide between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. He says there's no precise, uncontestable way to decide whether the Baltic states, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, and Bulgaria are parts of Central Europe or not.

Lonnie R. Johnson points out criteria to distinguish Central Europe from Western, Eastern and Southeast Europe:

• one criterion for defining Central Europe is the frontiers of medieval empires and kingdoms that largely correspond to the religious frontiers between the Roman Catholic West and the Orthodox East. The pagans of Central Europe were converted to Roman Catholicism while in Southeastern and Eastern Europe they were brought in the fold of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

• Multinational empires were a characteristic of Central Europe. Hungary and Poland, small and medium-size states today, were empires during their early histories. The historical Kingdom of Hungary was until 1918 three times larger than Hungary is today, while Poland was the largest state in Europe in the 16th century. Both these kingdoms housed a wide variety of different peoples.

• as a mode of self-perception, despite the debated nature of the concept Central Europeans generally agree on which peoples are to be excluded from this club: for example Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians and Russians.

He also thinks that Central Europe is a dynamical historical concept, not a static spatial one. For example, Lithuania, a fair share of Belarus and western Ukraine are in Eastern Europe today, but 250 years ago they were in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Johnson's study on Central Europe received acclaim and positive reviews in the scientific community. However, according to Romanian researcher Maria Bucur this very ambitious project suffers from the weaknesses imposed by its scope (almost 1600 years of history).

The Columbia Encyclopedia defines Central Europe as: Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. The World Factbook Encyclopedia Britannica and Brockhaus Enzyklopädie use the same definition adding Slovenia too. Encarta Encyclopedia does not clearly define the region, but places the same countries into Central Europe in its individual articles on countries, adding Slovenia in "south central Europe".

The German Encyclopaedia Meyers Grosses Taschenlexikon (English: Meyers Big Pocket Encyclopedia), 1999, defines Central Europe as the central part of Europe with no precise borders to the East and West. The term is mostly used to denominate the territory between the Schelde to Vistula and from the Danube to the Moravian Gate. Usually the countries considered to be Central European are Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, in the broader sense Romania too, the northern, eastern and central part of Croatia, occasionally also the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

• Central Europe according to Peter J. Katzenstein (1997)
  The Visegrád Group countries are referred to as Central Europe in the book countries for which there's no precise, uncontestable way to decide whether they are parts of Central Europe or not

• According to The Economist and Ronald Tiersky a strict definition of Central Europe means the Visegrád Group

• Map of Central Europe, according to Lonnie R. Johnson (1996) Countries usually considered Central European (citing the World Bank and the OECD) Easternmost Western European countries considered to be Central European only in the broader sense of the term.
• Central European countries in Encarta Encyclopedia (2009)
  Central European countries Slovenia in "south central Europe"
• The Central European Countries according to Meyers Grosses Taschenlexikon (1999):
  Countries usually considered Central European Central European countries in the broader sense of the term Countries occasionally considered to be Central European