The crisis of European identity

pp. 100-114

in: Gérard Delanty, Inventing Europe, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1995

Abstract

This chapter is principally addressed to the question of Mitteleuropa. This slippery concept has generally been considered to apply not only to a region but also to a cultural-political idea. The term suggests something much more ideological than the idea of Europe. Today there is a strong tendency to revive the idea of Central Europe, which is seen as the true historical heritage of the area which, since the Second World War, has become known as "Eastern Europe". According to this view, Mitteleuropa is an emancipatory ideal and suggests an alternative to communism and its redundant construct, Eastern Europe.