Transcript Introduction to Central Europe

BISLA Summer School
Bratislava
June 30 - July 13, 2014
Where is Central Europe?
Michal Vašečka
Masaryk University
[email protected]
Central Europe? How to define it?
 1. Cultural definitions - Kundera (?)
 2. Zwischeneuropa (?)
 3. Mittleuropa (?)
 4. Bloodlands (?)
 5. Small ethno-linguistic national states (?)
 6. Region of great „brains“ (?)
 7. Institutionalized Central Europe - V4 (?)
or…
Central Europe? How to define it?
Kundera´s rediscovering
of Central Europe
 „This is why the countries in Central Europe feel that the change in
their destiny that occurred after 1945 is not merely a political
catastrophe: it is also an attack on their civilization. The deep
meaning of their resistance is the struggle to preserve their identity —
or, to put it another way, to preserve their Westernness.“
 „The answer is simple: Europe hasn't noticed the disappearance of its
cultural home because Europe no longer perceives its unity as a
cultural unity.“
 „By virtue of its political system, Central Europe is the East; by virtue
of its cultural history, it is the West. But since Europe itself is in the
process of losing its own cultural identity, it perceives in Central
Europe nothing but a political regime; put another way, it sees in
Central Europe only Eastern Europe.“
Realm of Central Europe
 From Kundera´s „Return of
Central Europe“ to building of
common identity
 Region of shared history and
shared values
 Region of specific
modernization and specific
historical roots of civic and
political culture
Historical roots of civic and
political culture
 Unfinished Modernization ►
discrepancy between structural
and cultural dimension of
modernity
 Egalitarianism ► anti-intellectual
tradition
 State Paternalism ► anti-liberal
sentiments
 Lack of Trust ► weak civic and
political participation
Central Europe as a social construct
Europe is a triumph of imagination over geography
- Europe as a subcontinent (or peninsula?) of Asia
or Euroasia
Central Europe - fixation of mind within larger
imagined entity
Liquid borders of Europe and consequently even
more liquid borders of Central Europe
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ru_7jvuBdk
Central Europe as a part of former
„Soviet Block“
Central Europe (MittleEuropa)
Eastern Europe
Balkan countries
Russia
Central Asia
Caucasus countries
Hansa cities
Cities of Adriatic shore
Mitteleuropa
Mitteleuropa - Friedrich Naumann
(1915):
 Imaginative geopolitics - creation of political and
economic union, under „natural“ domination of
Germany and Austro-Hungarian empire
 Enthusiasm:
 Recreation of Holy Roman Empire
 Dominant position of „Central Powers“
 Prevention of development of land bridge
between British possessions in Africa and India
Mitteleuropa
 German Mitteleuropa
(by political and cultural
criteria) covering
Austria, Croatia, Czech
republic, Germany,
Hungary, Poland,
Slovakia, Slovenia, the
Baltic states and parts
of Ukraine, Russia,
Romania, Serbia,
France and Italy.
Mitteleuropa
Concept of
Mitteleuropa - what if?
 The very model of ethnolinguistic nation-state might
have been limited to some
oddball cases in Western
Europe, while Central Europe
might have consisted of
multilingual federal states or
federations – and be under
domination of Germany and
German culture.
Conceptualisations of Central Europe
Jesuits:
Europa Occidentalis
 (British isles, France, Malta, Greek-speaking orthodox
territories, western minor Asia, Crete, Cyprus, and
former Crusaders states)
 Europa Centralis
 (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Denmark,
Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire, and Switzerland)
 Europa Orientalis
 Poland-Lithuania, Kingdom of Hungary, Ottoman
Balkans
 Hispania and Rome
Conceptualisations of Central Europe
School atlas of European history:
Historical Geography of Europe (1882)
 Central Europe identified with Western Roman
Empire - Charlemagne´s realm, later to become
France and Holy Roman Empire
 After 1871 concept of Central Europe, centered
on France and newly-founded German Empire,
was extended to embrace all of Italy and AustriaHungary. Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, and Denmark were seen as part of
Central Europe.
Conceptualisations of Central Europe
Philips´s Historical Atlas:
Medieval and Modern
(1927)
 Divide between Central and
Eastern Europe is difficult to
grasp - but Central Europe
progressively expands
eastwards
 Eastern Europe was
identified with Russia and
Ottoman Empire
Conceptualisations of Central Europe
Austro-German conceptualization
of Central Europe
 Großer historischer Weltatlas or
AustroSchweizerscher Mittelschulatlas:
 Central Europe identifiable with Holy
Roman Empire, the Habsburg´s realms,
and Prussia - German Empire and
Austria-Hungary.
Conceptualisations of Central Europe
Third Reich
 Anschluss of Austria, incorporation
of Czech lands, and division of
Europe on the religious border
between Western and Eastern
Christianity made Third Reich onto
a political embodiment of Central
Europe.
 Germany controlled almost all
territories associated with Central
Europe in its most extensive variant.
 Population defined as ´racially
inferior´ was to be ameliorated
either by Germanization, expulsion,
or extermination.
Conceptualisations of Central Europe
After the World War II
 Central Europe was not to be
found anywhere, Western and
Eastern Europe were defined
clearly.
 No nuance or gradation of
argument – black and white
perspective.
Conceptualisations of Central Europe
Atlas of Central
Europe (Andrew
Rónai, 1945)
 Atlas's base map focuses on
the arch of the Carpathians
and the Danubian basin and
shifts Central Europe
eastwards.
 Placing historical Hungary in
the very heart of Europe.
Conceptualisations of Central Europe
History of East Central
Europe (UWP, 1974)
 East Central Europe implies West
Central Europe.
 But - West Central Europe ceased
to exit…
 Intellectuals from „wrong side“ of
the fence identified with Central
Europe in order to differentiate
themselves from the uniformity and
homogeneity of the Soviet world.
Conceptualisations of Central Europe
Historical Atlas of Central Europe (P.R.
Magocsi, 1993)
End of the intellectual Cold War division of Central
Europe - Magocsi divided Europe into three
vertical sections.
Köztes-Európa, 1763-1993 (Pándi Lájos,
1997)
 Monumental atlas of „Zwischeneuropa“.
Leaving Central Europe…
 V4 (1991)
 CEFTA (1992)
 European Union enlargement (2004)
 Recent rise of nationalism in Central Europe - real tragedy
of Central Europe
 Bibó´s „The poverty of the small states of Eastern Europe –
genuine Central European concept, going beyond German
concept of Kleinstaaterei
Nation branding
 Nation branding - applying and marketing communications
techniques to promote a nation's image (Fan, 2005)
 What kind of identity narratives does nation branding produce
and why?
 Czech republic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxvAzOlSZ4&feature=related
 Poland: ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmH8sfH0aFA&feature=related
 Hungary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WUVXREXGsA
 Slovakia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n6j7B_h3WM
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBNu8ahMowQ&NR=1
Do we need Central Europe?
 Kroutvor (1988): „A united Europe already existed in
the past, it was the Central Europe, as embodied by
the Austro-Hungarian monarchy - whatever our
opinion may be of this defunct state.“
 Political cooperation
 Economic cooperation
 Cultural cooperation
How do we see each other? Mutual
Perceptions of the Visegrad Citizens
Mutual Images
 To what extent do you trust the nations living in V4 countries (% of
responses „definitely + somewhat trust“)
Source: IVF 2003.
100
Hungar.
Slovaks
90
80
70
60
56 59
66
Poles
Czechs
75
62
43
39
40
77
71 71
48
50
87
30
20
10
0
Czechs
Hungarians
Poles
Slovaks
How do we see each other? Mutual
Perceptions of the Visegrad Citizens
Mutual Images
 When thinking about the other nations do you perceive them as similar
or different ? (% of very + somewhat similar) Source: IVF, 2003.
100
90
82
Hungar.
Slovaks
Poles
Czechs
83
85
80
65
70
50
40
59
57
60
37
41 41
52
40
30
22
20
10
0
Czechs
Hungarians
Poles
Slovaks
How do we see each other? Mutual
Perceptions of the Visegrad Citizens
 Evaluation of willingness to cooperate (% of responses „high“).
Source: IVF 2003
5
Slovakia
7
9
Czechs
Hungarians
Poles
Slovaks
6
25
8
Poland
12
9
38
20
Hungary
6
13
74
23
Czech republic
16
15
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
How do we see each other? Mutual
Perceptions of the Visegrad Citizens
Contacts across the borders
 „Have you visited any of other three V4 countries since January 2002 (in
last 1,5 years) for business or private purposes?“ Source: IVF, 2003.
23
Czechs
15
5
45
28
Hungarians
32
9
Poles
3
Czech R.
Hungary
Poland
Slovakia
14
26
Slovaks
24
34
0
10
20
30
40
50
Visegrad in the EU – Common versus
Individual Approach ?
Identification of Regional Interests ?
 “Should your country only defend its own interests in the European Union, or
should it also take into account the interests of the Visegrad members?“
Source: IVF, 2003.
60
56
53
50
40
45
39
39
40
43
36
30
20
10
0
Slovaks
Poles
Hungarians
Czechs
My country should only defend its own national interests in the EU
My country should also take into account the interests of other Visegrad
members
Central Europe without Central
Europeans?
 V4 functions, it embodies Central Europe - but just part of it,
to identify it with its „core“ of it would highly problematic…
 Culture of apple strudel is still here… But Central Europe is
disappearing from imagination of „Central Europeans“…
 … More convinced Central Europeans now live on the
shores of the Atlantic than in the region itself…
Constructing Central Europe?
 People keep imagining and re-imagining Europe
and Central Europe…
 There is not a single polity with entirely natural
borders… V4 is a great concept, but it excludes
others from „Central Europe“.
 Why Central Europe is not what we make out of it,
and we decide to imagine it?