Journal Articles

Mitteleuropa, Zentraleuropa, Mittelosteuropa: A Mental Map of Central Europe

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The German term `Mitteleuropa' was coined to designate Central Europe at the time when the Habsburg monarchy exercised its domination over the Danube area and when the Eastern borders of the Reich proclaimed in 1871 were formed, thus from the end of the eighteenth century to the end of the First World War. Mitteleuropa constitutes an ambivalent `lieu de mémoire', a notion in which Central Europe has invested its memory of the past and its identity: such a notion is negative when it brings to mind the mental map of German imperialism both exploited and perverted in the Third Reich; it is positive when it is interpreted as a federative idea, opening supranational perspectives associating the countries of German culture with Slavic peoples — the Hungarians, the Romanians — and with the Jews. Since the formation of the `Habsburg myth' as a retrospective utopia of a defunct harmony of nationalities in the `third Europe' situated between Western Europe and the Russian world, the Austrian tradition has become the focus of the new notion of `Zentraleuropa', prefiguring Central European union.

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Detail Information

Series Title

European Journal of Social Theory

Call Number

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Publisher

California : Sage Publications., 2008

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

1368-4310

Classification

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Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Vol. 11, No. 2, Page 155-169

Subject(s)

Central Europe
Habsburg monarchy
Holy Germanic Empire
imperialism
Mitteleuropa

Specific Detail Info

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