Power In Central Europe Research Articles

Geopolitical Imaginations: Czech and Slovak Variants

Original models for the boundaries of Central Europe, reflecting Czech or Slovak national interests, are seldom encountered. Those that emerged in Czech and Slovak milieus and bear the features of geopolitical imaginations – ones that respect the dynamics of power movement within space and the logic of power balance – are threefold. Firstly, there is the vision of a broader federation, a state composed of multiple nationalities or original states that can balance external pressures from the west and/or the east. The most significant proponent of this model as a means of securing the Czech (Czech–Slavic) national interest is František Palacký. The second model is an empire rooted in Pan-Slavism and capable of resisting western pressure. This concept is most refined in the work of Ľudovít Štúr. The third model, resembling a nation-state, relies on both the potential for fostering collaboration among a bloc of Slavic states and the support of Western powers against Pan-German expansionism. The most prominent author of this model is Tomáš G. Masaryk. Other models, like proletarian internationalism or the European Union, draw from these sources but, in defining national interests, do not proceed from the principle of nations’ right to self-determination. Practical experience has shown the limited possibilities of all the aforementioned geopo- litical imaginations: that they are supplemented, for instance, by historical rights, strategic necessity, or the civic principle and, in some instances, that they fail due to the shifting balance of power in Central Europe. However, replacing them with the civic principle within European integration today entails risks. The only solution is a balanced respect for social, ethnic, and civic rights and the projection of this dynamic balance into international relations.

Populism as a political trust booster? Populist support and degrees of political power in Central Europe

ABSTRACT The present article examines how voters’ support for populist parties and the degree of political power wielded by populist parties influence political trust in Central Europe. In countries where a populist party has undivided power, populist supporters are, when compared to supporters of other parties, more likely to trust political institutions. These differences result from ideological congruence as well as favourable assessments of how democratically a country is governed. Where populists do not control the government, only populist parties' supporters who have very favourable assessments of democratic governance in their own country are more likely to trust political institutions compared with supporters of other parties.

O niebezpiecznych związkach sztuki i polityki na przykładzie „żywotów równoległych” Michaela Willmanna i Philipa Bentuma

O niebezpiecznych związkach sztuki i polityki na przykładzie „żywotów równoległych” Michaela Willmanna i Philipa Bentuma

King Rudolf I in Austrian Literature around 1820: Historical Reversion and Legitimization of Rule

AbstractRudolf von Habsburg was a recurring motif in Austrian literature after the assumption of an Austrian imperial title by Emperor Francis II/I in 1804. These depictions were nourished by an enthusiasm for the Middle Ages circulating at the beginning of the nineteenth century and focused on the House of Habsburg and the establishment of Habsburg rule in Central Europe in the thirteenth century. As the ancestor of the ruling dynasty, Rudolf von Habsburg was idealized as the symbolic figure of identification for a collective state patriotism, a depiction that emphasized the historic mission of the dynasty and the legitimacy of its rule in the recently established empire. To this end, several complementary strategies—including divine providence, feudal approaches, classical genealogies, German-Austrian patriotism, and historical as well as contemporary references—were employed in texts to construct the Habsburg dynasty's claim to power in Central Europe. The past described in the texts, however, had little in common with historical reality but was rather an artificial design to justify Habsburg hegemony in the region.

Genetic insights into the social organisation of the Avar period elite in the 7th century AD Carpathian Basin

After 568 AD the Avars settled in the Carpathian Basin and founded the Avar Qaganate that was an important power in Central Europe until the 9th century. Part of the Avar society was probably of Asian origin; however, the localisation of their homeland is hampered by the scarcity of historical and archaeological data. Here, we study mitogenome and Y chromosomal variability of twenty-six individuals, a number of them representing a well-characterised elite group buried at the centre of the Carpathian Basin more than a century after the Avar conquest. The studied group has maternal and paternal genetic affinities to several ancient and modern East-Central Asian populations. The majority of the mitochondrial DNA variability represents Asian haplogroups (C, D, F, M, R, Y and Z). The Y-STR variability of the analysed elite males belongs only to five lineages, three N-Tat with mostly Asian parallels and two Q haplotypes. The homogeneity of the Y chromosomes reveals paternal kinship as a cohesive force in the organisation of the Avar elite strata on both social and territorial level. Our results indicate that the Avar elite arrived in the Carpathian Basin as a group of families, and remained mostly endogamous for several generations after the conquest.

Mueller, Wolfgang; Gehler, Michael and Suppan, Arnold (eds) The Revolutions of 1989: A Handbook (review)

SEER, 94, 2, APRIL 2016 376 “representative” of Poland on the whole, it offers a very poignant concentration of events, processes, and experiences that have shaped the nation […] since the end of World War II’ (p. 11). As her book successfully illustrates, these are not just repression, resistance and inefficiency. Nowa Huta is also ‘emblematic of post-war rebuilding, successful urban planning, stable and guaranteed work, strong community ties and social institutions, and collective action’ (p. 189). UCL SSEES Anne White Mueller, Wolfgang; Gehler, Michael and Suppan, Arnold (eds). The Revolutions of 1989: A Handbook. Internationale Geschichte/International History, 2. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna, 2015. ix + 705 pp. Notes. Tables. Chronology. Bibliography. Index. €75.00. The purpose of this compendium is to synthesize twenty-five years of research and reflection on the end of Communist power in Central Europe in 1989. It is primarily a tour of the literature on the political history, and a geographically very broad one at that; the collection’s originality lies in the connections it allows the reader to make between developments in many different areas of the world. In fact, the least surprising part is the opening section on 1989 in the narrow sense of the revolutions in the line of states from Poland to Bulgaria, which are ably summarized by country experts and shown to have been massively over-determined. There is little scope for scholarly controversy when discussing the end of regimes that depended on Soviet force for their survival, and were a poor fit with the educated, urbanized societies they brought about. Once the Soviet balustrade was removed — as early as July 1986, according to Andrei Grachev’s chapter on Gorbachev — it was just a matter of finding a way to let political gravity work. With most of the countries of Central Europe, the only competitor to the standard account of events is a conspiracy theory, especially regarding the negotiations between the Communist authorities and representatives of the emerging opposition that ensured peaceful transitions to free elections and constitutional change. The authors of the country chapters address and largely demolish those often wildly speculative claims of secret deals and bad faith. Only in the case of Romania, where the Soviet hold was weakest and the Ceaușescu regime had pursued a sultanistic path, is there a genuine dispute over how best to explain the violent events. On the superpower level, it turns out that it is American conduct, not the Soviet, that is now the greater subject of disagreement. Norman Naimark, in the book’s liveliest chapter, presents a devastating case for seeing the administration of George H. W. Bush as passive and timid at this crucial time REVIEWS 377 in history. Even when moving fairly quickly to endorse German unification, a topic that receives very thorough attention in this book, the Bush White House was still reacting to someone else’s initiative (Helmut Kohl’s) and was not all that far ahead of the trend (Georges Saunier’s subtle chapter on France shows that by 3 November 1989, a week before the Berlin Wall opened, François Mitterrand was already anticipating the merger of the two Germanies). Philip Zelikow, at the time director for European security affairs on the White House National Security Council, offers a more positive account, crediting President Bush with foresight and boldness, although he is convincing only with regard to the Conventional Forces in Europe talks. One of the book’s strengths is that it factors in other countries under some form of Communist rule that were in crisis but did not experience a change of government in 1989. Péter Vámos’s chapter on China’s Tianamen Square protests is an excellent account of the events and of their importance not just for that country, but also for anxious Central European leaders who lacked the appetite for such a brutal crackdown. The chapters on Yugoslavia and the Baltic states wander too far from 1989 itself and how the fall of nearby Communist regimes was perceived (or, at least, how it was reported in their media) into general accounts of the resurgence of national identities, the politicization of history and crumbling of...

Re-education of German POWs as a German-Jewish Task: The Case of Adolf Sindler

AbstractTowards the end of the Second World War, as a German defeat seemed inevitable, the Allied powers began searching for a postwar policy that would prevent the resurgence of Germany as a hostile military power in Central Europe. Instead of material destruction, the British preferred to tackle the German mind. As a means of achieving the objectives of ‘Denazification,’ the British launched a large scale plan for political re-education of the German people. The plan included a pioneering program for German Prisoners of War held in dispersed British captivity camps. In charge of executing the program in one such camp, located alongside the Suez Canal, was a German-Jewish refugee named Adolf Sindler. His service as a ‘Training Adviser’ began in early 1946 and lasted for two years. Sindler’s leadership in the camp created some of the earliest, and perhaps most unusual, encounters of the immediate postwar period between German soldiers, some of whom were still ardent Nazis, and German-Jews, in this case, one who was in charge of their mental rehabilitation. Sindler was provided constant support by a group of German-speaking socialist émigrés who had found shelter in Palestine. This paper explores how this historical case study informs our understanding of the inner-Jewish dialogue concerning the involvement of émigrés in the moral reconstruction of their former society. In addition, it seeks to contribute to our knowledge of the nature of operations during the early stages of the pretentious British re-education plan.

The Making of Christian Moravia (858–882). Papal Power and Political Reality by Maddalena Betti (review)

Reviewed by: The Making of Christian Moravia (858–882). Papal Power and Political Reality by Maddalena Betti Stefan Moffat Maddalena Betti, The Making of Christian Moravia (858–882). Papal Power and Political Reality (Leiden/Boston: Brill 2014) xiii + 251 pp. This book is a re-working of the author’s 2008 PhD thesis. It consists of a forward by Thomas Noble, an introduction, and three chapters, and is supplemented by five maps, a bibliography, and an index. The author points out quickly that “the aim of my research is to clarify the role of the sources concerning the Methodian archdiocese within the wider debate over the location of Great Moravia” (10). The author, however, concentrates on the image of Moravia and its Saints in the records of the papacy. This focus allows [End Page 212] the author to contribute something new to the debate between “traditionalists” and “revisionists” about the location of Great Moravia by means of a literary analysis of the relationship between the papacy and the missionary brothers Constantine-Cyril and Methodius in the sources. Chapter 1 is devoted to an overview of the changing historiography of the Cyrillic-Methodian mission, and of Great Moravia as a place. Betti begins with the initial development of research into Saints Constantine-Cyril and Methodius in the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries, concentrating on the impact of Slav nationalism on their historical image, pointing out that the figures were canonized by the pope in the nineteenth century and became important for Czech and Slovak scholars by the early nineteenth century as cultural icons. She follows a similar process with the discussion of the image of Great Moravia, beginning with eighteenth and nineteenth century debates about its physical location in East Central Europe. She makes it clear that a slowly emancipated Slavic conscience, due to the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires in the early twentieth century, allowed for the figures of Constantine-Cyril and Methodius to be studied by Slavic scholars, and to become an important part of Slavicists’ research. The historiography of the Saints culminated in twentieth century concepts such as the depiction of Czechoslovakia as a reflection of Great Moravia and therefore as a strong, civilizing power in Central Europe. Alongside textual sources, Betti makes it clear that archaeological research has also been oriented toward answering the question of Great Moravia’s location. Betti discusses revisionist history led by Imre Boba in 1971 questioning the traditional location of Great Moravia North of the Danube, and the subject of ecclesiastical jurisdiction over East Central Europe between Rome and Constantinople pioneered by František Dvorník, which freed scholarship from a nationalistic framework. Betti attempts to depict the papal policy in East Central Europe as ambiguous. The bulk of the Apostolic See’s sources examined for the images of Constantine-Cyril and Methodius, as well as of Moravia, are letters of three successive ninth-century popes in touch with and sympathetic to the two missionaries: Nicholas I, Hadrian II, and John VIII. However, Pope Stephen V, John VIII’s successor, removed the Apostolic See’s earlier support for the use of Slavonic in the Christian liturgy, and attempted to maintain papal jurisdiction in East Central Europe by supporting the Frankish clergy, the opposite of John VIII’s behavior. Alongside these Betti uses other Roman sources including the official biographical record on the Roman popes known as the Liber Pontificalis, and the correspondence of the papal secretary Anastasius Bibliothecarius (“The Librarian”). Other sources used in this analysis are Slavonic biographical works on Constantine-Cyril and Methodius (two vitae and an encomium), Frankish annals, ecclesiastical documents such as the Conversion of the Bavarians and the Carantanians, and letters of Frankish bishops. In chapter 2, Betti discusses sources associated with popes Nicholas I and Hadrian II. The Slavonic biographies of the brothers mix up the acts of Nicholas I and Hadrian II, claiming that it was Nicholas I, and not Hadrian II, [End Page 213] who ordained Methodius priest to work as a missionary, when in fact he did not even live to see the brothers whom he had invited to Rome. Pope John VIII is not even referred to by name in...

Family Business: Dynastic Power in Central Europe in the Earlier Middle Ages

This article aims at describing the norms and practices of dynastic power in Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary in the earlier Middle Ages. It focuses on the questions concerning the internal structure of the ruling house, the modes of wielding power, and the rules of succession to the throne. Discussing the various strategies used by the dynasties ruling the Central European polities to define their monarchical position and shape their identity, it presents changing patterns of dynastic rulership and put them against the wider background of processes of transformation of the concepts of dynastic power in the medieval West.

Either Sing or Go Get the Beer: Contradictions of (Romani) Female Power in Central Europe

AbstractThis essay on gender relations in Romani communities residing in various parts of Central Europe aims to contextualize the Romani struggle for women’s rights within the surrounding spaces and cultures. I argue against making generalizations about Romani women’s roles, both at the level of the group as a whole and in terms of the nuances or negotiations of power that take place in each family, musical performance, or other social sphere. While the particular challenges faced by Romani women have been acknowledged, my essay points to the importance of parsing out issues of class, location, generation, occupation, and (mis)translations of semantic fields when approaching Romani men and women from a feminist standpoint.

Political support for nuclear power in Central Europe

Since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, nuclear energy has been under increased media scrutiny. The focus is mainly on Germany and the radical transformation of the position on nuclear energy in that country. To understand and potentially predict the development, however, the situation needs to be viewed from a wider Central European perspective. Polarisation of countries' attitudes towards nuclear energy is characteristic of the Central European space. In post–communist countries there is no relevant political opposition to constructing nuclear power plants, whereas all political parties in Austria, and now in Germany as well, are strictly anti–nuclear. The paper presents seven hypotheses explaining this situation. Roots are sought in the past, in the nationalisation of the issue, in endeavours to produce environmentally–friendly energy, in the imperatives of energy security, etc. Importance of nuclear energy for the respective countries' power production, and public opinion on this issue, are also briefly analysed.

Sir George Clerk and the struggle for British influence in central Europe, 1919–26

During the Great War, Sir George Clerk was a senior Foreign Office official, strongly sympathetic to the cause of the ‘oppressed nationalities’ of Austria‐Hungary and the liberal ideals associated with the journal, The New Europe. In 1919 he was granted a unique opportunity to shape the face of the New Europe when he embarked on his mission to Hungary. As British minister to Czechoslovakia in the early 1920s, Clerk harnessed his idealism for the Czechs to his ambition to make Prague a centre of British influence and power in central Europe. Though this policy ultimately failed, Clerk showed a greater rapport and sympathy for the Czechs than any of his successors.

The West and the East in the Jagellonian Commonwealth

The Kingdom of Poland, in a federal union with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, became, in the 15th and 16th centuries, an important power in Central Europe. The Polish civilization took the side of the West but still remained open to another Europe. The Commonwealth—in the English of the day—was a constitutional and parliamentary alternative to Western absolutism and Eastern despotism. The multi-ethnic and multi-religious identity of the Commonwealth was ensured by law. This pax Jagellonica had latent weaknesses in politics, both internal and external.

The West and the East in the Jagellonian Commonwealth

The Kingdom of Poland, in a federal union with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, became, in the 15th and 16th centuries, an important power in Central Europe. The Polish civilization took the side of the West but still remained open to another Europe. The Commonwealth—in the English of the day—was a constitutional and parliamentary alternative to Western absolutism and Eastern despotism. The multi-ethnic and multi-religious identity of the Commonwealth was ensured by law. This pax Jagellonica had latent weaknesses in politics, both internal and external.

German Reunification and the Jews

Immediately after November 9, 1989, my trepidation about the future of the new Germany suddenly seemed an adequate Jewish response to the sudden, unpredictable changes in what had seemed to be an immutable political solution to the Question. The very changes in an apparently rigid status quo evoked specific memories of the past. In Israel, Shimon Peres stated that on the one hand, what is happening there brings forth great hope. On the other hand, no one among us is free of the memories of the Second World War.... When we hear of a united Germany, we must ask: kind of Germany will it be? A Germany with an army, without an army? A demilitarized Germany, an undermilitarized Germany?2 Peres's feeling, like mine, is cast in an image of a Germany as the military power in Central Europe. And that image was linked to only one event in both German and Jewish history the Shoah. It is to this focus of the relationship between Jews, in Germany and the rest of Europe, to the path of German history, that I shall return. The emblematic survivor of the Shoah, Eli Wiesel, shared Peres's views. While greeting the collapse of the wall as a moving and rewarding experience, he too asked: What next? Will this unexpected turn of events lead to a reunification of Germany? ... Will a united, powerful new Germany break away from the conquest-thirsty demons that dominated the old Germany? I cannot hide the fact that the Jew in me is troubled, even worried. Whenever Germany was too powerful, it fell

Wealth and Taxation in Central Europe: The History and Sociology of Public Finance

This book shows how finance and taxation are key to an understanding of the distribution of social and political power in central Europe from the late Middle Ages to the 20th century.

Narrative of the transference of the German Weimarian Army to the Crown of France in the Seventeenth Century

During the varied events of the Thirty Years' War in the seventeenth century, a constant struggle for power in central Europe was maintained between the Emperor of Germany, whose seat of government was at Vienna, and the King of France.