Mitteleuropa
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Mitteleuropa (Central/Middle Europe) is a German term equal to Central Europe.[1]
The word has political, geographic and cultural meaning[2]. While it describes a geographical location, it also is the word describing a German political program that was put into motion during First World War.
The historian Jörg Brechtefeld describes 'Mitteleuropa' as the following:
The term 'Mitteleuropa' never has been merely a geographical term; it is also a political one, much as Europe, East and West, are terms that political scientists employ as synonyms for political ideas or concepts. Traditionally, Mitteleuropa has been that part of Europa between East and West. As profane as this may sound, this is probably the most precise definition of Mitteleuropa available.[3]
The Ständiger Ausschuss für geographische Namen refers to the territory covered by the modern states of:
Austria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Germany
Hungary
Liechtenstein
Poland
Slovakia
Slovenia
Switzerland
Lithuania
Latvia
Estonia
[edit] Mitteleuropa Plan
The Mitteleuropa plan was to achieve a hegemony over Central Europe by the German Empire and subsequent economical exploitation of this region combined with territorial annexations, settlement of German colonists, expulsion of non-Germans from annexed areas and eventual Germanization of puppet states created as buffer between Germany and Russia.
The issue of Central Europe was taken by German thinker Fredrich Neumann in 1915 in his work “Mitteleuropa”. According to his thought, this part of Europe was to become a politically and economically integrated block subjected to German rule. In his program, Neumann also supported programs of Germanization and Hungarization as well[4]. Some parts of the planning included designs on creating a German colony in Crimea and colonization of Baltic States[5].
The ruling political elites of Germany accepted the Mitteleuropa plan during First World War while drawing out German war aims and plans for the new order of Europe[4]. Mitteleuropa was to be created by establishing a series of puppet states whose political, economic and military aspects would be under the control of German Reich[6].
The whole region was to serve as economical backyard of Germany whose economical exploitation would enable it to compete with the British Empire and any other competitors for the position of the world's dominant power[6]. Economical organization was to be based on German domination, with unfair economical treaties imposed on countries like Poland and Ukraine. It was believed that the German working classes could be appeased by German politicians through economical benefits of territorial annexations, settlement of Germans in Central and Eastern Europe and economical exploitation of conquered countries for the material benefit of Germany[7].
The local population was to be subject to expulsions to make room for German settlers, in other places it would be reduced to second class citizens as Germans would become the ruling elite of German run-puppet states[7].
Additionally, the German Mitteleuropa plan had foreseen expulsion of over 2 million Poles and Jews from 30,000 square kilometers annexed from Congress Poland replaced by German colonists[6]. The puppet state of the Kingdom of Poland was to have its population gradually reduced by the use of artificially created famine[8][9].
Partial realization of these plans was reflected in the Brest-Litovsk treaty, where guarantees of economical and military domination over Ukraine by Germany were laid out[10]
The Mitteleuropa plan served as blueprint for the much more expanded, racially-motivated and harsher plans of Nazi Germany during the Second World War such as Generalplan Ost[6].
[edit] See also
- Central Europe
- Geographical centre of Europe
- Międzymorze
- League of East European States
- People's Republic
[edit] References
- ^ LEO Ergebnisse für "Mitteleuropa"
- ^ Jan Wendt "Współpraca regionalna Polski w Europie Środkowej" Centrum Europejskie University of Warsaw, Studia Europejskie, nr 4/1998
- ^ J. Brechtefeld, Mitteleuropa and German politics. 1848 to the present (London 1996)
- ^ a b "A History of the Habsburg Empire, 1526-1918." Robert Adolf Kann University of California Press 1980
- ^ Czesław Madajczyk "Generalna Gubernia w planach hitlerowskich. Studia", Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa, 1961, str. 88 i 89
- ^ a b c d Imanuel Geiss "Tzw. polski pas graniczny 1914-1918". Warszawa 1964
- ^ a b "War and Punishment: The Causes of War Termination and the First World War" Hein Erich Goemans, Princeton University Press 2000
- ^ Source Records of the Great War, Vol. IV, ed. Charles F. Horne, National Alumni 1923[1]
- ^ DEVASTATED POLAND Frederick Walcott National Geographic, May 1917[2]
- ^ "Coalition Warfare: An Uneasy Accord".Roy Arnold Prete, Keith Neilson 1983 Wilfrid Laurier University Press
