Central Europe

Central Europe is the central region of Europe. Central Europe includes contiguous territories that are sometimes also considered parts of Western Europe, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe.[3][4][5] The concept of Central Europe is based on a common historical, social and cultural identity[lower-alpha 1] and is a patchwork of territories that are traditionally Catholic and Protestant. The Thirty Years' War between Catholicism and Protestantism was a significant shaping process in the history of Central Europe, and neither side was able to prevail in the region as a whole.

Different views of Central Europe
Central Europe according to The World Factbook (2009),[1] Encyclopædia Britannica, and Brockhaus Enzyklopädie (1998). There are numerous other definitions and viewpoints.
Tradtional Cultural borders of Central Europe or Mitteleuropa: usage recommendation by the Standing Committee on Geographical Names, Germany.[2]

Historically, Central Europe comprised most of the territories of the Holy Roman Empire and the territories belonging to the two adjacent kingdoms to the east (Poland and Hungary). Hungary and parts of Poland were later parts of the Habsburg Monarchy, which was also a significant shaping force in its history. Unlike their Western European counterparts, few Central European states had any overseas colonies, owing to both their central location and other factors. This has often been cited as one of the causes of World War I. After World War II, Central Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain to the parts belonging to the West and those of the Eastern bloc. The Berlin Wall was the most visible symbol of that division.

Central Europe was characterized for centuries by the fact that the most diverse ethnic, linguistic and religious groups lived next to each other in a largely peaceful mosaic. It was only nationalism and communism that oppressed the respective minorities, with many people being expelled and murdered. This unique Central European multiculturalism has only existed since then in a few "forgotten" areas such as the former Habsburg port of Trieste.[16]

Central Europe began a "strategic awakening" in the early 21st century,[17] with initiatives such as the Central European Initiative (CEI), Centrope, and the Visegrád Four Group. While the region's economies show considerable disparities of income,[18] all Central European countries are listed by the Human Development Index as very highly developed.[19]

Historical perspective

Middle Ages and early modern era

Elements of cultural unity for Northwestern, Southwestern and Central Europe were Catholicism and Latin. However Eastern Europe, which remained Eastern Orthodox, was the area of Graeco-Byzantine cultural influence; after the East-West Schism (1054), Eastern Europe developed cultural unity and resistance to the Catholic (and later also Protestant) Western world within the framework of Orthodox Church, Church Slavonic language and the Cyrillic alphabet.[20][21][22][23]

According to Hungarian historian Jenő Szűcs, foundations of Central European history at the first millennium were in close connection with Western European development. He explained that between the 11th and 15th centuries, not only Christianization and its cultural consequences were implemented, but well-defined social features emerged in Central Europe based on Western characteristics. The keyword of Western social development after millennium was the spread of liberties and autonomies in Western Europe. These phenomena appeared in the middle of the 13th century in Central European countries. There were self-governments of towns, counties and parliaments.[24]

In 1335, under the rule of the King Charles I of Hungary, the castle of Visegrád, the seat of the Hungarian monarchs was the scene of the royal summit of the Kings of Poland, Bohemia and Hungary.[25] They agreed to cooperate closely in the field of politics and commerce, inspiring their post-Cold War successors to launch a successful Central European initiative.[25]

In the Middle Ages, countries in Central Europe adopted Magdeburg rights.

Before World War I
A view of Central Europe dating from the time before the First World War (1902):[26]
  Central European countries and regions: Germany and Austria-Hungary (without Bosnia & Herzegovina and Dalmatia)
  Regions located at the transition between Central Europe and Southeastern/Eastern Europe: Romania

Before 1870, the industrialization that had started to develop in Northwestern and Central Europe and the United States did not extend in any significant way to the rest of the world. Even in Eastern Europe, industrialization lagged far behind. Russia, for example, remained largely rural and agricultural, and its autocratic rulers kept the peasants in serfdom.[27] The concept of Central Europe was already known at the beginning of the 19th century,[28] but its real life began in the 20th century and immediately became an object of intensive interest. However, the very first concept mixed science, politics and economy – it was strictly connected with the intensively growing German economy and its aspirations to dominate a part of European continent called Mitteleuropa. The German term denoting Central Europe was so fashionable that other languages started referring to it when indicating territories from Rhine to Vistula, or even Dnieper, and from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans.[29] An example of that-time vision of Central Europe may be seen in Joseph Partsch's book of 1903.[30]

On 21 January 1904, Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftsverein (Central European Economic Association) was established in Berlin with economic integration of Germany and Austria–Hungary (with eventual extension to Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands) as its main aim. Another time, the term Central Europe became connected to the German plans of political, economic and cultural domination. The "bible" of the concept was Friedrich Naumann's book Mitteleuropa[31] in which he called for an economic federation to be established after World War I. Naumann's idea was that the federation would have at its centre Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire but would also include all European nations outside the Triple Entente.[32] The concept failed after the German defeat in World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. The revival of the idea may be observed during the Hitler era.

Interwar period
Interwar Central Europe according to Emmanuel de Martonne (1927)
CE countries, Sourcebook of Central European Avant-Gardes 1910–1930 (L.A. County Museum of Art)[33]

According to Emmanuel de Martonne, in 1927 the Central European countries included: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Switzerland. The author uses both Human and Physical Geographical features to define Central Europe, but he doesn't take into account the legal development or the social, cultural, economic, infrastructural developments in these countries.[34]

The interwar period (1918–1939) brought a new geopolitical system, as well as economic and political problems, and the concept of Central Europe took on a different character. The centre of interest was moved to its eastern part – the countries that have (re)appeared on the map of Europe: Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. Central Europe ceased to be the area of German aspiration to lead or dominate and became a territory of various integration movements aiming at resolving political, economic and national problems of "new" states, being a way to face German and Soviet pressures. However, the conflict of interests was too big and neither Little Entente nor Intermarium (Międzymorze) ideas succeeded.

The interwar period brought new elements to the concept of Central Europe. Before World War I, it embraced mainly German states (Germany, Austria), non-German territories being an area of intended German penetration and domination – German leadership position was to be the natural result of economic dominance.[28] After the war, the Eastern part of Central Europe was placed at the centre of the concept. At that time the scientists took an interest in the idea: the International Historical Congress in Brussels in 1923 was committed to Central Europe, and the 1933 Congress continued the discussions.[35]

Hungarian historian Magda Ádám wrote in her study Versailles System and Central Europe (2006): "Today we know that the bane of Central Europe was the Little Entente, military alliance of Czechoslovakia, Romania and Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), created in 1921 not for Central Europe's cooperation nor to fight German expansion, but in a wrong perceived notion that a completely powerless Hungary must be kept down".[35]

The avant-garde movements of Central Europe were an essential part of modernism's evolution, reaching its peak throughout the continent during the 1920s. The Sourcebook of Central European avantgards (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) contains primary documents of the avant-gardes in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, and Poland from 1910 to 1930.[33] The manifestos and magazines of Western European radical art circles are well known to Western scholars and are being taught at primary universities of their kind in the western world.

Mitteleuropa

Mitteleuropa may refer to an historical concept, or to a contemporary German definition of Central Europe. As an historical concept, the German term Mitteleuropa (or alternatively its literal translation into English, Middle Europe[36]) is an ambiguous German concept.[36] It is sometimes used in English to refer to an area somewhat larger than most conceptions of 'Central Europe'; it refers to territories under Germanic cultural hegemony until World War I (encompassing Austria–Hungary and Germany in their pre-war formations but usually excluding the Baltic countries north of East Prussia). According to Fritz Fischer Mitteleuropa was a scheme in the era of the Reich of 1871–1918 by which the old imperial elites had allegedly sought to build a system of German economic, military and political domination from the northern seas to the Near East and from the Low Countries through the steppes of Russia to the Caucasus.[37] Later on, professor Fritz Epstein argued the threat of a Slavic "Drang nach Westen" (Western expansion) had been a major factor in the emergence of a Mitteleuropa ideology before the Reich of 1871 ever came into being.[38]

In Germany the connotation was also sometimes linked to the pre-war German provinces east of the Oder-Neisse line.

The term "Mitteleuropa" conjures up negative historical associations among some elderly people, although the Germans have not played an exclusively negative role in the region.[39] Most Central European Jews embraced the enlightened German humanistic culture of the 19th century.[40] German-speaking Jews from turn of the 20th century Vienna, Budapest and Prague became representatives of what many consider to be Central European culture at its best, though the Nazi version of "Mitteleuropa" destroyed this kind of culture instead.[41] However, the term "Mitteleuropa" is now widely used again in German education and media without negative meaning, especially since the end of communism. In fact, many people from the new states of Germany do not identify themselves as being part of Western Europe and therefore prefer the term "Mitteleuropa".

Central Europe during World War II

During World War II, Central Europe was largely occupied by Nazi Germany. Many areas were a battle area and were devastated. The mass murder of the Jews depopulated many of their centuries-old settlement areas or settled other people there and their culture was wiped out. Both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin diametrically opposed the centuries-old Habsburg principles of "live and let live" with regard to ethnic groups, peoples, minorities, religions, cultures and languages and tried to assert their own ideologies and power interests in Central Europe. There were various Allied plans for state order in Central Europe for post-war. While Stalin tried to get as many states under his control as possible, Winston Churchill preferred a Central European Danube Confederation to counter these countries against Germany and Russia. There were also plans to add Bavaria and Württemberg to an enlarged Austria.[42] There were also various resistance movements around Otto von Habsburg that pursued this goal. The group around the Austrian priest Heinrich Maier also planned in this direction, which also successfully helped the Allies to wage war by, among other things, forwarding production sites and plans for V-2 rockets, Tiger tanks and aircraft to the USA.[43][44] So Otto von Habsburg also tried to detach Hungary from its grasp by Nazi Germany and the USSR.[45][46] There were various considerations to prevent German power in Europe after the war. Churchill's idea of reaching the area around Vienna and Budapest before the Russians via an operation from the Adriatic had not been approved by the Western Allied chiefs of staff.[47] As a result of the military situation at the end of the war, Stalin's plans prevailed and much of Central Europe came under Russian control.[48][49]

Central Europe behind the Iron Curtain
  Politically independent states during Cold War: Finland, Austria, Yugoslavia[50]

Following World War II, large parts of Europe that were culturally and historically Western became part of the Eastern bloc. Czech author Milan Kundera (emigrant to France) thus wrote in 1984 about the "Tragedy of Central Europe" in the New York Review of Books.[51] The boundary between the two blocks was called the Iron Curtain. Consequently, the English term Central Europe was increasingly applied only to the westernmost former Warsaw Pact countries (East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary) to specify them as communist states that were culturally tied to Western Europe.[52] This usage continued after the end of the Warsaw Pact when these countries started to undergo transition.

The post-World War II period brought blocking of research on Central Europe in the Eastern Bloc countries, as its every result proved the dissimilarity of Central Europe, which was inconsistent with the Stalinist doctrine. On the other hand, the topic became popular in Western Europe and the United States, much of the research being carried out by immigrants from Central Europe.[53] At the end of communism, publicists and historians in Central Europe, especially the anti-communist opposition, returned to their research.[54]

According to Karl A. Sinnhuber (Central Europe: Mitteleuropa: Europe Centrale: An Analysis of a Geographical Term)[50] most Central European states were unable to preserve their political independence and became Soviet Satellite Europe. Besides Austria, only the marginal European states of Finland and Yugoslavia preserved their political sovereignty to a certain degree, being left out of any military alliances in Europe.

The opening of the Iron Curtain between Austria and Hungary at the Pan-European Picnic on 19 August 1989 then set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, at the end of which there was no longer an East Germany and the Eastern Bloc had disintegrated.[55][56] It was the largest escape movement from East Germany since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. After the picnic, which was based on an idea by Otto von Habsburg to test the reaction of the USSR and Mikhail Gorbachev to an opening of the border, tens of thousands of media-informed East Germans set off for Hungary.[57] The leadership of the GDR in East Berlin did not dare to completely block the borders of their own country and the USSR did not respond at all. This broke the bracket of the Eastern Bloc and Central Europe subsequently became free from communism.[58][59][60]

Roles

According to American professor 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.[61]

The European floristic regions
The Pannonian Plain, between the Alps (west), the Carpathians (north and east), and the Sava/Danube (south)
Carpathian countries (north-west to south-east): CZ, AT, PL, SK, HU, UA, RO, RS

American professor 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.[62] According to him, in Germany's contemporary public discourse "Central European identity" refers to the civilizational divide between Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.[62] 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.[63]

Definitions
Geopolitical Challenges - Panel on the Future of Europe

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

Academic

The main proposed regional definitions, gathered by Polish historian Jerzy Kłoczowski, include:[64]

Habsburg-ruled lands

Former University of Vienna professor Lonnie R. Johnson points out criteria to distinguish Central Europe from Western, Eastern and Southeast Europe:[66]

  • One criterion for defining Central Europe is the frontiers of medieval empires and kingdoms that largely correspond to the religious frontiers between the Catholic West and the Orthodox East.[67] The pagans of Central Europe were converted to Catholicism while in Southeastern and Eastern Europe they were brought into the fold of the Eastern Orthodox Church.[67]
  • Multinational empires were a characteristic of Central Europe.[67] Hungary and Poland, small and medium-size states today, were empires during their early histories.[67] The historical Kingdom of Hungary was until 1918 three times larger than Hungary is today,[67] while Poland was the largest state in Europe in the 16th century.[67] Both these kingdoms housed a wide variety of different peoples.[67]

He also thinks that Central Europe is a dynamic historical concept, not a static spatial one. For example, Lithuania, a fair share of Belarus and western Ukraine are in Eastern Europe today, but 230 years ago they were in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.[67]
Johnson's study on Central Europe received acclaim and positive reviews[68][69] 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).[70]

Encyclopedias, gazetteers, dictionaries

The Columbia Encyclopedia defines Central Europe as: Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.[71] The World Factbook[1] uses a similar definition and adds also Slovenia. Encarta Encyclopedia and Encyclopædia Britannica do not clearly define the region, but Encarta places the same countries into Central Europe in its individual articles on countries, adding Slovenia in "south central Europe".[72]

The German Encyclopaedia Meyers Grosses Taschenlexikon (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 Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland; in the broader sense Romania and Serbia too, occasionally also Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

According to Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon,[73] Central Europe is a part of Europe composed of Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Switzerland, and northern marginal regions of Italy and Yugoslavia (northern states – Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia), as well as northeastern France.

The German Ständige Ausschuss für geographische Namen (Standing Committee on Geographical Names), which develops and recommends rules for the uniform use of geographical names, proposes two sets of boundaries. The first follows international borders of current countries. The second subdivides and includes some countries based on cultural criteria. In comparison to some other definitions, it is broader, including Luxembourg, Croatia, the Baltic states, and in the second sense, parts of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Italy, and France.[2]

Geographical

There is no general agreement either on what geographic area constitutes Central Europe, nor on how to further subdivide it geographically.[74]

At times, the term "Central Europe" denotes a geographic definition as the Danube region in the heart of the continent, including the language and culture areas which are today included in the states of Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and usually also Austria and Germany, but never Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union towards the Ural mountains.[75]

Governmental and standards organisations

The terminology EU11 countries refer the Central, Eastern and Baltic European member states which accessed in 2004 and after: in 2004 the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and the Slovak Republic; in 2007 Bulgaria, Romania; and in 2013 Croatia.[76]

  • Central Europe according to Peter J. Katzenstein (1997)
      The Visegrád Group countries are referred to as Central Europe in the book[62]
      countries for which there's no precise, uncontestable way to decide whether they are parts of Central Europe or not[63]
  • According to The Economist and Ronald Tiersky a strict definition of Central Europe means the Visegrád Group[61][77]
  • Map of Central Europe, according to Lonnie R. Johnson (2011)[78]
      Countries usually considered Central European (citing the World Bank and the OECD)
      Countries considered to be Central European only in the broader sense of the term.
  • Central European countries in Encarta Encyclopedia (2009)[72]
      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
  • Middle Europe (Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, 1998)
  • Central Europe according to Swansea University professors Robert Bideleux and Ian Jeffries (1998)[79]
  • Central Europe, as defined by E. Schenk (1950)[80]
  • Central Europe, according to Alice F. A. Mutton in Central Europe. A Regional and Human Geography (1961)
  • Central Europe according to Meyers Enzyklopaedisches Lexikon (1980)

States

The comprehension of the concept of Central Europe is an ongoing source of controversy,[81] though the Visegrád Group constituents are almost always included as de facto Central European countries.[77] Although views on which countries belong to Central Europe are vastly varied, according to many sources (see section Definitions) the region includes the states listed in the sections below.

Depending on context, Central European countries are sometimes grouped as Eastern or Western European countries, collectively or individually[82][83][84][85] but some place them in Eastern Europe instead:[82][83][84] for instance Austria can be referred to as Central European, as well as Eastern European[86] or Western European.[87]

Other countries and regions

Some sources also add neighbouring countries for historical reasons (the former Austro-Hungarian and German Empires, and modern Baltic states), or based on geographical and/or cultural reasons:

The Baltic states, geographically in Northern Europe, have been considered part of Central Europe in the German tradition of the term, Mitteleuropa. Benelux countries are generally considered a part of Western Europe, rather than Central Europe. Nevertheless, they are occasionally mentioned in the Central European context due to cultural, historical and linguistic ties.

The following states or some of their regions may sometimes be included in Central Europe:

Geography
The Danube watercourse system throughout Central and Southeastern Europe

Geography defines Central Europe's natural borders with the neighbouring regions to the north across the Baltic Sea, namely Northern Europe (or Scandinavia), and to the south across the Alps, the Apennine peninsula (or Italy), and the Balkan peninsula[74] across the Soča-Krka-Sava-Danube line. The borders to Western Europe and Eastern Europe are geographically less defined, and for this reason the cultural and historical boundaries migrate more easily west–east than south–north. The river Rhine, which runs south–north through Western Germany, is an exception.

Southwards, the Pannonian Plain is bounded by the rivers Sava and Danube – and their respective floodplains.[108] The Pannonian Plain stretches over the following countries: Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia, and touches borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine ("peri- Pannonian states").

As southeastern division of the Eastern Alps,[109] the Dinaric Alps extend for 650 kilometres along the coast of the Adriatic Sea (northwest-southeast), from the Julian Alps in the northwest down to the Šar-Korab massif, north–south. According to the Freie Universität Berlin, this mountain chain is classified as South Central European.[110] The city of Trieste in this area, for example, expressly sees itself as a città mitteleuropea. This is particularly because it lies at the interface between the Latin, Slavic, Germanic, Greek and Jewish culture on the one hand and the geographical area of the Mediterranean and the Alps on the other. A geographical and cultural assignment is made.

The Central European flora region stretches from Central France (the Massif Central) to Central Romania (Carpathians) and Southern Scandinavia.[111]

Demography
Population density in Central European countries
Population density (people per km2) by country, 2018

Central Europe is one of the continent's most populous regions. It includes countries of varied sizes, ranging from tiny Liechtenstein to Germany, the largest European country by population (that is entirely placed in Europe). Demographic figures for countries entirely located within notion of Central Europe ("the core countries") number around 165 million people, out of which around 82 million are residents of Germany.[112] Other populations include: Poland with around 38.5 million residents,[113] Czech Republic at 10.5 million,[114] Hungary at 10 million,[115] Austria with 8.8 million, Switzerland with 8.5 million,[116] Slovakia at 5.4 million,[117] and Liechtenstein at a bit less than 40,000.[118]

If the countries which are occasionally included in Central Europe were counted in, partially or in whole – Croatia (4.3 million),[119] Slovenia (2 million, 2014 estimate),[120] Romania (20 million), Lithuania (2.9 million), Latvia (2 million), Estonia (1.3 million), Serbia (7.1 million) [121] – it would contribute to the rise of between 25 and 35 million, depending on whether regional or integral approach was used.[122] If smaller, western and eastern historical parts of Central Europe would be included in the demographic corpus, further 20 million people of different nationalities would also be added in the overall count, it would surpass the 200 million people figure.

Economy
Further information: List of central European countries by development indexes § Economy

Currencies

Currently, the members of the Eurozone include Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland use their currencies (Croatian kuna, Czech koruna, Hungarian forint, Polish złoty), but are obliged to adopt the Euro. Switzerland uses its own currency – Swiss franc, Serbia too (Serbian dinar), as well as Romania (Romanian leu).

Human Development Index
Further information: List of central European countries by development indexes § Human Development Index
World map by quartiles of Human Development Index in 2013.
  Very High
  Low
  High
  Data unavailable
  Medium

In 2018, Switzerland topped the HDI list among Central European countries, also ranking #2 in the world. Serbia rounded out the list at #11 (67 world).

Globalisation
Further information: List of central European countries by development indexes § Globalisation
Map showing the score for the KOF Globalization Index.

The index of globalization in Central European countries (2016 data):[123] Switzerland topped this list as well (#1 world).

Prosperity Index
Further information: List of central European countries by development indexes § Prosperity

Legatum Prosperity Index demonstrates an average and high level of prosperity in Central Europe (2018 data).[124] Switzerland topped the index (#4 world).

Corruption
Further information: List of central European countries by development indexes § Corruption
Overview of the index of perception of corruption, 2015.
     90–100      60–69      30–39      0–9
     80–89      50–59      20–29      No information
     70–79      40–49      10–19

Most countries in Central Europe tend to score above the average in the Corruption Perceptions Index (2018 data),[125] led by Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.

Infrastructure

Industrialisation occurred early in Central Europe. That caused construction of rail and other types of infrastructure.

Rail
Rail network density.

Central Europe contains the continent's earliest railway systems, whose greatest expansion was recorded in Austro-Hungarian and German territories between 1860-1870s.[126] By the mid-19th century Berlin, Vienna, and Buda/Pest were focal points for network lines connecting industrial areas of Saxony, Silesia, Bohemia, Moravia and Lower Austria with the Baltic (Kiel, Szczecin) and Adriatic (Rijeka, Trieste).[127] Rail infrastructure in Central Europe remains the densest in the world. Railway density, with total length of lines operated (km) per 1,000 km2, is the highest in the Czech Republic (198.6), Poland (121.0), Slovenia (108.0), Germany (105.5), Hungary (98.7), Serbia (87.3), Slovakia (73.9) and Croatia (72.5).[128][129] when compared with most of Europe and the rest of the world.[130][131]

River transport and canals

Before the first railroads appeared in the 1840s, river transport constituted the main means of communication and trade.[127] Earliest canals included Plauen Canal (1745), Finow Canal, and also Bega Canal (1710) which connected Timișoara to Novi Sad and Belgrade via Danube.[127] The most significant achievement in this regard was the facilitation of navigability on Danube from the Black sea to Ulm in the 19th century.

Branches

Compared to most of Europe, the economies of Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland tend to demonstrate high complexity. Industrialisation has reached Central Europe relatively early: Luxembourg and Germany by 1860, Czechia, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland by 1870, Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia by 1880.[132]

Agriculture

Central European countries are some of the most significant food producers in the world. Germany is the world's largest hops producer with 34.27% share in 2010,[133] third producer of rye and barley, 5th rapeseed producer, sixth largest milk producer, and fifth largest potato producer. Poland is the world's largest triticale producer, second largest producer of raspberries, currants, third largest of rye, the fifth apple and buckwheat producer, and seventh largest producer of potatoes. The Czech Republic is world's fourth largest hops producer and 8th producer of triticale. Hungary is world's fifth hops and seventh largest triticale producer. Serbia is world's second largest producer of plums and second largest of raspberries.[134][135] Slovenia is world's sixth hops producer.

Business

Central European business has a regional organisation, Central European Business Association (CEBA), founded in 1996 in New York as a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting business opportunities within Central Europe and supporting the advancement of professionals in America with a Central European background.[136]

Tourism

Central European countries, especially Austria, Croatia, Germany and Switzerland are some of the most competitive tourism destinations.[137] Poland is presently a major destination for outsourcing.[138]

Outsourcing destination

Kraków, Warsaw, and Wrocław (Poland), Prague and Brno (Czech Republic), Budapest (Hungary), Bucharest (Romania), Bratislava (Slovakia), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Belgrade (Serbia) and Zagreb (Croatia) are among the world's top 100 outsourcing destinations.[139]

Education
Further information: List of central European countries by development indexes § Education

Languages
Further information: List of central European countries by development indexes § Languages

Various languages are taught in Central Europe, with certain languages being more popular in different countries.

Education performance
Further information: List of central European countries by development indexes § Education performance

Student performance has varied across Central Europe, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment. In the 2012 study, countries scored medium, below or over the average scores in three fields studied.[140]

Higher education
Karolinum of the Charles University in Prague
Further information: List of central European countries by development indexes § Higher education

Universities

The first university east of France and north of the Alps was the Charles University in Prague established in 1347 or 1348 by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and modeled on the University of Paris, with the full number of faculties (law, medicine, philosophy and theology).[141]

Central European University
The entrance of the Central European University in Budapest

The Central European University (CEU) is a graduate-level, English-language university promoting a distinctively Central European perspective. It was established in 1991 by the Hungarian philanthropist George Soros, who has provided an endowment of US$880 million, making the university one of the wealthiest in Europe.[142] In the academic year 2013/2014, the CEU had 1,381 students from 93 countries and 388 faculty members from 58 countries.[143]

Culture and society
See also: Magdeburg rights

Research centres of Central European literature include Harvard (Cambridge, MA),[144] and Purdue University.[145]

Architecture
Further information: List of central European countries by development indexes § Architecture

Religion
Adherence to Catholicism in Europe
Adherence to Protestantism in Europe
Central European major Christian denomination is Catholicism as well as large Protestant populations. Click map to see legend.

Central European countries are mostly Catholic (Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia) or mixed Catholic and Protestant, (Germany and Switzerland). Large Protestant groups include Lutheran and Calvinist. Significant populations of Eastern Catholicism and Old Catholicism are also prevalent throughout Central Europe. Central Europe has been a centre of Protestantism in the past; however, it has been mostly eradicated by the Counterreformation.[146][147] Czechia (Bohemia) was historically the first Protestant country, then forcibly recatholised, and now overwhelmingly non-religious, nevertheless the largest number of religious people are Catholic (10.3%). Romania and Serbia are mostly Eastern Orthodox with significant Protestant and Catholic minorities.

Before the Holocaust (1941–45), there was also a sizeable Ashkenazi Jewish community in the region, numbering approximately 16.7 million people.[148]

In some of these countries, there is a number of atheists, undeclared and non-religious people: the Czech Republic (non-religious 34.2% and undeclared 45.2%), Germany (non-religious 38%), Slovenia (atheist 14.7%[149]), Luxembourg (23.4 non-religious[149]), Switzerland (20.1%), Hungary (27.2% undeclared, 16.7% "non-religious" and 1.5% atheists), Slovakia (atheists and non-religious 13.4%, "not specified" 10.6%) Austria (19.7% of "other or none"), Liechtenstein (10.6% with no religion), Croatia (4%) and Poland (3% of non-believers/agnostics and 1% of undeclared).

Cuisine

Central European cuisine has evolved through centuries due to social and political change. Most countries share many dishes. The most popular dishes typical to Central Europe are sausages and cheeses, where the earliest evidence of cheesemaking in the archaeological record dates back to 5,500 BCE (Kujawy, Poland).[150] Other foods widely associated with Central Europe are goulash and beer. List of countries by beer consumption per capita is led by the Czech Republic, followed by Germany and Austria. Poland comes 5th, Croatia 7th and Slovenia 13th.

Human rights

Generally, the countries in the region are progressive on the issue of human rights: death penalty is illegal in all of them, corporal punishment is outlawed in most of them and people of both genders can vote in elections. Nevertheless, Central European countries struggle to adopt new generations of human rights, such as same-sex marriage. Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland also have a history of participation in the CIA's extraordinary rendition and detention program, according to the Open Society Foundation.[151][152]

Literature

Regional writing tradition revolves around the turbulent history of the region, as well as its cultural diversity.[153][154] Its existence is sometimes challenged.[155] Specific courses on Central European literature are taught at Stanford University,[156] Harvard University[157] and Jagiellonian University[158] The as well as cultural magazines dedicated to regional literature.[159] Angelus Central European Literature Award is an award worth 150,000.00 PLN (about $50,000 or £30,000) for writers originating from the region.[160] Likewise, the Vilenica International Literary Prize is awarded to a Central European author for "outstanding achievements in the field of literature and essay writing."[161]

Media
Further information: List of central European countries by development indexes § Media

Sport

There is a number of Central European Sport events and leagues. They include:

Football is one of the most popular sports. Countries of Central Europe had many great national teams throughout history and hosted several major competitions. Yugoslavia hosted UEFA Euro 1976 before the competition expanded to 8 teams and Germany (at that times as West Germany) hosted UEFA Euro 1988. Recently, 2008 and 2012 UEFA European Championships were held in Austria & Switzerland and Poland & Ukraine respectively. Germany hosted 2 FIFA World Cups (1974 and 2006) and are the current champions (as of 2014).[163][164][165]

Politics
Further information: List of central European countries by development indexes § Politics

Organisations

Central Europe is a birthplace of regional political organisations:

Democracy Index
Further information: List of central European countries by development indexes § Democracy
The Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy index map for 2016, with greener colours representing more democratic countries

Central Europe is a home to some of world's oldest democracies. However, most of them have been impacted by totalitarianism, particularly Fascism and Nazism. Germany and Italy occupied all Central European countries, except Switzerland. In all occupied countries, the Axis powers suspended democracy and installed puppet regimes loyal to the occupation forces. Also, they forced conquered countries to apply racial laws and formed military forces for helping German and Italian struggle against Communists. After World War II, almost the whole of Central Europe (the Eastern and Middle part) was occupied by Communists. Communism also banned democracy and free elections, and human rights did not exist in Communist countries. Most of Central Europe had been occupied and later allied with the Soviet Union, often against their will through forged referendum (e.g., Polish people's referendum in 1946) or force (northeast Germany, Poland, Hungary et alia). Nevertheless, these experiences have been dealt in most of them. Most of Central European countries score very highly in the Democracy Index.[166]

Global Peace Index
Further information: List of central European countries by development indexes § Global Peace Index
Global Peace Index Scores.

In spite of its turbulent history, Central Europe is currently one of world's safest regions. Most Central European countries are in top 20%.[167]

Central European Time
Central European Time Zone (dark red)

The time zone used in most parts of the European Union is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is commonly called Central European Time because it has been first adopted in central Europe (by year):

  • Hungary
  • Slovakia
  • Czech Republic
  • Germany
  • Austria
  • Poland (1893)[168]
  • Serbia (1884)[169]
  • Slovenia
  • Switzerland
  • Liechtenstein

Central Europe is mentioned in the 35th episode of Lovejoy, entitled "The Prague Sun", filmed in 1992. While walking over the famous Charles Bridge, the main character, Lovejoy says: " I've never been to Prague before. Well, it is one of the great unspoiled cities in Central Europe. Notice: I said: "Central", not "Eastern"! The Czechs are a bit funny about that, they think of Eastern Europeans as turnip heads."[170]

Wes Anderson's Oscar-winning film The Grand Budapest Hotel is regarded as a fictionalised celebration of the 1930s in Central Europe, and the region's musical tastes.[171][172]

See also

 Geography portal  Europe portal

References
  1. See:[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]
  1. "The World Factbook: Field listing – Location". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. 2009. Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
  2. Jordan, Peter (2005). "Großgliederung Europas nach kulturräumlichen Kriterien" [The large-scale division of Europe according to cultural-spatial criteria]. Europa Regional. Leipzig: Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde (IfL). 13 (4): 162–173. Retrieved 21 January 2019 – via Ständiger Ausschuss für geographische Namen (StAGN).
  3. "Regions, Regionalism, Eastern Europe by Steven Cassedy". New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, Charles Scribner's Sons. 2005. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  4. Lecture 14: The Origins of the Cold War. Historyguide.org. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
  5. "Central Europe –The future of the Visegrad group". The Economist. 14 April 2005. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  6. Ágh 1998, p. 2–8.
  7. "Central European Identity in Politics – Jiří Pehe" (in Czech). Conference on Central European Identity, Central European Foundation, Bratislava. 2002. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  8. "Europe of Cultures: Cultural Identity of Central Europe". Europe House Zagreb, Culturelink Network/IRMO. 24 November 1996. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  9. Comparative Central European culture. Purdue University Press. 2002. ISBN 978-1-55753-240-4. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  10. "An Introduction to Central Europe: History, Culture, and Politics – Preparatory Course for Study Abroad Undergraduate Students at CEU" (PDF). Budapest: Central European University. Fall 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 June 2010.
  11. Ben Koschalka – content, Monika Lasota – design and coding. "To Be (or Not To Be) Central European: 20th Century Central and Eastern European Literature". Centre for European Studies of the Jagiellonian University. Archived from the original on 3 March 2001. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  12. "Ten Untaught Lessons about Central Europe-Charles Ingrao". Habs burg Occasional Papers, No. 1. 1996. Archived from the original on 14 December 2003. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  13. "Introduction to the electronic version of Cross Currents". Scholarly Publishing Office of the University of Michigan Library. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  14. Cornis-Pope, Marcel; Neubauer, John (2004). History of the literary cultures of East–Central Europe: junctures and disjunctures in the 19th and 20th centuries, Volume 2. ISBN 9027234531.
  15. "When identity becomes an alibi (Institut Ramon Llull)" (PDF).
  16. Doris Griesser "Denkanstöße aus der Multikulti-Monarchie" in: Standard, 3 July 2012; Pieter M. Judson "The Habsburg Empire. A New History" (Harvard 2016); Christopher Clark "The Sleepwalkers" (New York 2012); Patricia Engelhorn "Wie Wien mit Meersicht: Ein Tag in der Hafenstadt Triest" In: NZZ 15.2.2020.
  17. "The Mice that Roared: Central Europe Is Reshaping Global Politics". Der Spiegel. 26 February 2006. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  18. "Which regions are covered?". European Regional Development Fund. Archived from the original on 3 April 2010. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  19. 2010 Human Development Index. (PDF). Retrieved 29 October 2011.
  20. Magocsi 2002, chapter 11.
  21. Kasper von Greyerz (2007). Religion and Culture in Early Modern Europe. Oxford University Press. pp. 38–. ISBN 978-0-19-804384-3.
  22. Jean W Sedlar (1994). East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000–1500. University of Washington Press. pp. 161–. ISBN 0-295-97291-2.
  23. Dumitran, Adriana (2010). "Uspořádání Evropy – duch kulturní jednoty na prahu vzniku novověké Evropy" [The shape of Europe. The spirit of unity through culture in the eve of Modern Europe] (in Czech). Czech Republic: Bibliography of the History of the Czech Lands, The Institute of History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
  24. László Zsinka. "Similarities and Differences in Polish and Hungarian History" (PDF). Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  25. Halman, Loek; Wilhelmus Antonius Arts (2004). European values at the turn of the millennium. Brill Publishers. p. 120. ISBN 978-90-04-13981-7.
  26. Source: Geographisches Handbuch zu Andrees Handatlas, vierte Auflage, Bielefeld und Leipzig, Velhagen und Klasing, 1902.
  27. Jackson J. Spielvogel: Western Civilization: Alternate Volume: Since 1300. p. 618.
  28. ""Mitteleuropa" is a multi-facetted concept and difficult to handle" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 December 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  29. A. Podraza, Europa Środkowa jako region historyczny, 17th Congress of Polish Historians, Jagiellonian University 2004
  30. Joseph Franz Maria Partsch, Clementina Black, Halford John Mackinder, Central Europe, New York 1903
  31. F. Naumann, Mitteleuropa, Berlin: Reimer, 1915
  32. "Regions and Eastern Europe Regionalism – Central Versus Eastern Europe". Science.jrank.org. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  33. "Between Worlds". The MIT Press. Archived from the original on 22 September 2006. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  34. , and ; Géographie universelle (1927), edited by Paul Vidal de la Blache and Lucien Gallois
  35. Deak, I. (2006). "The Versailles System and Central Europe". The English Historical Review. CXXI (490): 338. doi:10.1093/ehr/cej100.
  36. Johnson 1996, p. 165.
  37. Hayes 1994, p. 16.
  38. Hayes 1994, p. 17.
  39. Johnson 1996, p. 6.
  40. Johnson 1996, p. 7.
  41. Johnson 1996, pp. 7, 165, 170.
  42. SPIEGEL, Klaus Wiegrefe, DER. "Churchill und die Deutschen - DER SPIEGEL - Geschichte". Der Spiegel.
  43. Peter Broucek "Die österreichische Identität im Widerstand 1938–1945" (2008), p 163.
  44. Pirker, Peter (2012). Suberversion deutscher Herrschaft. Der britische Geheimdienst SOE und Österreich. Zeitgeschichte im Kontext. 6. Göttingen: V & R Unipress. p. 252. ISBN 9783862349906.
  45. Olga S. Opfell "Royalty Who Wait: The 21 Heads of Formerly Regnant Houses of Europe" (2001), p 133.
  46. Kellerhoff, Sven Felix (19 March 2019). ""Unternehmen Margarethe": Wehrmacht besetzt 1944 Ungarn". Die Welt.
  47. Heidegger, Gerald; ORF.at (26 April 2020). "1945/2020: Die Sowjets und die Österreich-Idee". news.ORF.at (in German). Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  48. Gerald Stourzh "Geschichte des Staatsvertrages 1945-1955" (1980), p 4.
  49. Wolfgang Mueller "Die sowjetische Besatzung in Österreich 1945-1955 und ihre politische Mission" (German - "The Soviet occupation in Austria 1945-1955 and its political mission"), 2005, p 24.
  50. Sinnhuber, Karl A. (1 January 1954). "Central Europe: Mitteleuropa: Europe Centrale: An Analysis of a Geographical Term". Transactions and Papers (Institute of British Geographers) (20): 15–39. doi:10.2307/621131. JSTOR 621131.
  51. "ISES" (PDF). ises.hu.
  52. "Regions and Eastern Europe Regionalism - Central Versus Eastern Europe". science.jrank.org.
  53. One of the main representatives was Oscar Halecki and his book The limits and divisions of European history, London and New York 1950
  54. A. Podraza, Europa Środkowa jako region historyczny, 17th Congress of Polish Historians, Jagiellonian University 2004
  55. Hilde Szabo: Die Berliner Mauer begann im Burgenland zu bröckeln (The Berlin Wall began to crumble in Burgenland - German), in Wiener Zeitung 16 August 1999; Otmar Lahodynsky: Paneuropäisches Picknick: Die Generalprobe für den Mauerfall (Pan-European picnic: the dress rehearsal for the fall of the Berlin Wall - German), in: Profil 9 August 2014.
  56. Ludwig Greven "Und dann ging das Tor auf", in Die Zeit, 19 August 2014.
  57. Miklós Németh in Interview, Austrian TV - ORF "Report", 25 June 2019.
  58. Otmar Lahodynsky "Eiserner Vorhang: Picknick an der Grenze" (Iron curtain: picnic at the border - German), in Profil 13 June 2019.
  59. Thomas Roser: DDR-Massenflucht: Ein Picknick hebt die Welt aus den Angeln (German - Mass exodus of the GDR: A picnic clears the world) in: Die Presse 16 August 2018.
  60. Andreas Rödder, Deutschland einig Vaterland – Die Geschichte der Wiedervereinigung (2009).
  61. Tiersky 2004, p. 472.
  62. Katzenstein 1997, p. 6.
  63. Katzenstein 1997, p. 4.
  64. Jerzy Kłoczowski, Actualité des grandes traditions de la cohabitation et du dialogue des cultures en Europe du Centre-Est, in: L'héritage historique de la Res Publica de Plusieurs Nations, Lublin 2004, pp. 29–30 ISBN 83-85854-82-7
  65. Oskar Halecki, The Limits and Divisions of European History, Sheed & Ward: London and New York 1950, chapter VII
  66. Johnson 1996, p. ?.
  67. Johnson 1996, p. 4.
  68. Legvold, Robert (May–June 1997). "Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends". Foreign Affairs. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
  69. "Selected as "Editor's Choice" of the History Book Club". Oxford University Press. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
  70. Bucur, Maria (June 1997). "The Myths and Memories We Teach By". Indiana University. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  71. "Europe". Columbia Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press. 2009.
  72. "Slovenia". Encarta. Archived from the original on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 1 May 2009.
  73. Band 16, Bibliographisches Institut Mannheim/Wien/Zürich, Lexikon Verlag 1980
  74. Magocsi 2002, p. 20.
  75. Zepetnek 2011, p. 24.
  76. Vértesy, László (2018). "Macroeconomic Legal Trends in the EU11 Countries" (PDF). Public Governance, Administration and Finances Law Review. 3. No. 1. 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 August 2019. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  77. "From Visegrad to Mitteleuropa". The Economist. 14 April 2005.
  78. Johnson 1996, p. 16.
  79. Robert Bideleux; Ian Jeffries (10 April 2006). A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change. Routledge. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-134-71984-6. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  80. Erich Schenk, Mitteleuropa. Düsseldorf, 1950
  81. "For the Record". The Washington Post. 3 May 1990. Archived from the original on 24 June 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2010 – via Highbeam.com.
  82. "United Nations Statistics Division – Standard Country and Area Codes Classifications (M49)". United Nations. 31 October 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  83. "World Population Ageing: 1950–2050" (PDF). United Nations. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  84. "Browse MT 7206". Europa (web portal). Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  85. Webra International Kft. (18 March 1999). "The Puzzle of Central Europe". Visegradgroup.eu. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  86. "Highlights of Eastern Europe (Vienna through Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic)". a-ztours.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  87. "Mastication Monologues: Western Europe". masticationmonologues.com. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  88. "In the Heavy Shadow of the Ukraine/Russia Crisis, page 10" (PDF). European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. September 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  89. "UNHCR in Central Europe". UNCHR. Archived from the original on 26 August 2013.
  90. "Central European Green Corridors – Fast charging cross-border infrastructure for electric vehicles, connecting Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Germany and Croatia" (PDF). Central European Green Corridors. October 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2015.
  91. "Interreg Central Europe Homepage". central2020.eu.
  92. Andrew Geddes, Charles Lees, Andrew Taylor : "The European Union and South East Europe: The Dynamics of Europeanization and multilevel governance", 2013, Routledge
  93. Klaus Liebscher, Josef Christl, Peter Mooslechner, Doris Ritzberger-Grünwald : "European Economic Integration and South-East Europe: Challenges and Prospects", 2005, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
  94. Sven Tägil, Regions in Central Europe: The Legacy of History, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1999, p. 191
  95. Klaus Peter Berger, The Creeping Codification of the New Lex Mercatoria, Kluwer Law International, 2010, p. 132
  96. Alan Rogers Central Europe 2007 – Quality Camping & Caravanning Sites. Alan Rogers Guides, Ltd. 2007. p. 78. ISBN 9780955048685.
  97. United States. Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily report: East Europe
  98. Council of Europe. Parliamentary Assembly. Official Report of Debates. Council of Europe. 1994. p. 1579. ISBN 978-92-871-2516-3. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  99. "About Serbia". UNDP in Serbia. United Nations Development Programme. 2018.
  100. Irena Kogan: Delayed Transition: Education and Labor Market in Serbia , Making the Transition: Education and Labor Market Entry in Central and Eastern Europe, 2011, chapter 6
  101. Shadbolt, Peter (11 December 2014). "Serbia: the country at the crossroads of Europe". CNN.
  102. WMO, UNCCD, FAO, UNW-DPC , Country Report: Drought conditions and management strategies in Serbia, 2013, p. 1
  103. Zepetnek 2011, p. ?.
  104. Government of Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech at the Energy Forum following a joint meeting of the Serbian and Hungarian cabinets , Government of Hungary on Serbia, 2018
  105. "Map of Europe". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  106. Transcarpathia: Perephiral Region at the "Centre of Europe" (Google eBook). Region State and Identity in Central and Eastern Europe. Routledge. 2013. p. 155. ISBN 978-1-136-34323-0.
  107. Bokros, Lajos (15 January 2013). Accidental Occidental: Economics and Culture of Transition in Mitteleuropa, the Baltic and the Balkan Area. Central European University Press. ISBN 9786155225246 – via Google Books.
  108. Danube Facts and Figures. Bosnia and Herzegovina (April 2007) (PDF file)
  109. "Dinaric Alps (mountains, Europe)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  110. Juliane Dittrich. "Die Alpen – Höhenstufen und Vegetation – Hauptseminararbeit". GRIN. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  111. Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch; Lehrbuch der Geobotanik. Pflanze und Vegetation in Raum und Zeit. Elsevier, Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, München 2004 ISBN 3-8274-1193-9
  112. "Demography report 2010" (PDF). Eurostat. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 February 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  113. "Główny Urząd Statystyczny / Spisy Powszechne / NSP 2011 / Wyniki spisu NSP 2011". 14 July 2014. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014.
  114. "Czech Republic: The Final Census Results to be Released in the Third Quarter of 2012" (PDF). Czech Statistical Office. 7 May 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  115. "Sajtótájékoztató 2013" [Press Conference 2013] (PDF) (Press release) (in Hungarian). Hungarian Central Statistical Office. 28 March 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  116. "Swiss Statistics – Overview". Bfs.admin.ch. 27 August 2015. Archived from the original on 28 June 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  117. "Development in the number of inhabitants – 2011, 2001, 1991, 1980, 1970" (PDF). Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic. 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 November 2012.
  118. "Landesverwaltung Liechtenstein". Llv.li. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  119. "Central Bureau of Statistics". Dzs.hr. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  120. "Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia - Population, Slovenia, 1 January 2014 – final data". 2 May 2014. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  121. "ПОЧЕТНА | Републички завод за статистику Србије". www.stat.gov.rs. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  122. "Total population, Candidate countries and potential candidates". Eurostat.
  123. "2018 KOF Globalization Index" (PDF). KOF Index of Globalization. 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  124. "Rankings". Legatum Prosperity Index 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  125. e.V, Transparency International. "Corruption Perceptions Index 2018". transparency.org. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  126. Magocsi 2002, p. 1758.
  127. Magocsi 2002, p. ?.
  128. "Launch of railway projects puts Serbia among EU member states". Railway Pro. 27 February 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  129. "Response to questionnaire for: Assessment of strategic plans and policy measures on Investment and Maintenance in Transport Infrastructure Country: Serbia" (PDF). internationaltransportforum.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  130. "Inland transport infrastructure at regional level – Statistics Explained". European Commission. Archived from the original on 8 May 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  131. "Statistical Database – United Nations Economic Commission for Europe". W3.unece.org. 29 December 1980. Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  132. "Spread of the Industrial Revolution". Srufaculty.sru.edu. 16 August 2001. Archived from the original on 23 January 2005. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  133. Gnel Gabrielyan, Domestic and Export Price Formation of U.S. Hops Archived 26 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine School of Economic Sciences at Washington State University. PDF file, direct download 220 KB. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  134. http://pod2.stat.gov.rs/ObjavljenePublikacije/G2012/pdf/G20122007.pdf
  135. "Serbia Overview". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  136. "Welcome centraleurope.org – Hostmonster.com". centraleurope.org. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  137. "The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2011: Beyond the Downturn" (PDF). World Economic Forum. 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  138. Ewing, Jack (22 December 2013). "Midsize Cities in Poland Develop as Service Hubs for Outsourcing Industry". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  139. "2013 Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations: Rankings and Report Overview" (PDF). Tholons. January 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  140. "PISA 2012 Results in Focus: What 15-year-olds know and what they can do with what they know" (PDF). OECD. 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  141. Joachim W. Stieber: "Pope Eugenius IV, the Council of Basel and the secular and ecclesiastical authorities in the Empire: the conflict over supreme authority and power in the church", Studies in the history of Christian thought, Vol. 13, Brill, 1978, ISBN 90-04-05240-2, p.82; Gustav Stolper: "German Realities", Read Books, 2007, ISBN 1-4067-0839-9, p. 228; George Henry Danton: "Germany ten years after", Ayer Publishing, 1928, ISBN 0-8369-5693-1, p. 210; Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius: "The German Myth of the East: 1800 to the Present", Oxford Studies in Modern European History Series, Oxford University Press, 2009, ISBN 0-19-954631-2, p. 109; Levi Seeley: "History of Education", BiblioBazaar, ISBN 1-103-39196-8, p. 141
  142. Aisha Labi (2 May 2010). "For President of Central European University, All Roads Led to Budapest". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  143. "CEU Facts and Figures". Central European University. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  144. Faculty of Arts and Sciences Harvard College. "Central European Studies". Static.fas.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  145. "Project MUSE – Comparative Central European Culture". Muse.jhu.edu. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  146. "Map: The Religious Divisions of Europe ca. 1555". Pearson. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  147. "Map of Europe in 1560: Religion". Emersonkent.com. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  148. "The Jewish Population of the World (2010)". Jewish Virtual Library., based on American Jewish Year Book. American Jewish Committee.
  149. "Eurobarometer 90.4 (December 2018): Attitudes of Europeans towards Biodiversity, Awareness and Perceptions of EU customs, and Perceptions of Antisemitism", Special Eurobarometer, European Union: European Commission, 2019, retrieved 9 August 2019 – via GESIS
  150. "Art of cheese-making is 7,500 years old". Nature News & Comment.
  151. "CIA Secret Detention and Torture". Open Society Foundations. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  152. "TRANSCEND MEDIA SERVICE". Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  153. "In praise of writers' bloc: How the tedium of life under Communism gave rise to a literature alive with surrealism and comedy". The Independent. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  154. "Comparative Central European Culture". Thepress.purdue.edu. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  155. "Czech mates". New Statesman. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  156. Archived 23 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  157. "Secondary Fields". Slavic.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  158. "Literatura Środkowoeuropejska w poszukiwaniu tożsamości". Usosweb.uj.edu.pl. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  159. "literalab". Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  160. "Regulations". Angelus.com.pl. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  161. "About Vilenica". Vilenica Literary Festival. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  162. "Central Europe Throwdown 2015". Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  163. "2018 FIFA World Cup Russia - Qualifiers". FIFA. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  164. "Germany are FIFA World Cup Champions!". NDTVSports.com. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  165. James Richardson. "World Cup Football Daily: Germany crowned champions of the world". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  166. "Democracy index 2012: Democracy at a standstill: A report from The Economist Intelligence Unit". The Economist. 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 January 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  167. "Vision of Humanity".
  168. Since Poland was partitioned since 1922 (official adoption), the dates of introduction in Germany (1893) and Austria (1893) should be understood as de facto adoption
  169. "Time Zone & Clock Changes in Belgrade, Serbia". timeanddate.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  170. "Lovejoy – Season 3, Episode 13: The Prague Sun – TV.com". TV.com. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  171. Richard Brody (7 March 2014). ""The Grand Budapest Hotel": Wes Anderson's Artistic Manifesto". The New Yorker. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  172. "Oscars 2015 live updates: J.K. Simmons, 'Grand Budapest Hotel' win first awards – LA Times". Los Angeles Times. 22 February 2015. Retrieved 24 September 2015.

Bibliography

Further reading
  • Ágh, Attila. Declining Democracy in East-Central Europe: The Divide in the EU and Emerging Hard Populism (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019).
  • Baldersheim, Harald, ed. Local democracy and the processes of transformation in East-Central Europe (Routledge, 2019).
  • Brophy, James M. "Bookshops, Forbidden Print and Urban Political Culture in Central Europe, 1800–1850." German History 35.3 (2017): 403–430.
  • Case, Holly. "The strange politics of federative ideas in East-Central Europe." Journal of Modern History 85.4 (2013): 833–866.
  • Centre of Central European Studies, Agrarianism in Central and Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries (2013) online review.
  • Kenney, Padraic. "What is the history of 1989? New scholarship from East-Central Europe." East European Politics & Societies (1999), 13#2 pp 419–431.
  • Lederer, David. Early Modern Central European History (2011) online review by Linnéa Rowlatt
  • Margreiter, Klaus. "The Notion of Nobility and the Impact of Ennoblement on Early Modern Central Europe." Central European History 52.3 (2019): 382–401.
  • Tieanu, Alexandra. "Shared Culture, Peace and Bridging: Western Influences on the Dissident Idea of Central Europe in the Communist States during the 1980s." Valahian Journal of Historical Studies 20 (2013): 215–232.
  • Vachudova, Milada Anna. "From competition to polarization in central Europe: How populists change party systems and the European Union." Polity 51.4 (2019): 689–706. online
  • Vachudova, Milada Anna. "Ethnopopulism and democratic backsliding in Central Europe." East European Politics 36.3 (2020) pp: 318–340. online
  • Zimmerman, Andrew. "Race against Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe: From Hegel to Weber, from Rural Insurgency to “Polonization”." East Central Europe 43.1-2 (2016): 14–40.
  • 'Mapping Central Europe' in hidden europe, 5, pp. 14–15 (November 2005)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.