The Future of the Family with Reference to East Central European Countries

Abstract

The so called Hajnal’s line (Hajnal 1965) from St. Petersburg to Trieste divides Europe with respect to the sociology of family far more naturally than the line of the old Iron Curtain. It divides European families into two types — West European and South East European. This division is deeply rooted in history. Family is a morphostatic institution: it changes slowly. It was approximately on this line that the western Christianity came to a halt, until now the line has marked the western boundary of the Orthodox Church in the north and of Islam in the south. It was also approximately on this line that the progress of the industrial revolution also came to a halt when it was working its way eastward in the latter half of the 19th century. If we consider this line decisive for family sociology, it is not an attempt to deny the fatal consequences of another line — the Iron Curtain, a line which was much too real for almost half a century, and which is still clearly dividing European societies notwithstanding the fact that it does not follow the boundaries of European states, as you here in Germany know very well. In a large part of Europe, defined by the triangle between the Iron Curtain and the Hajnal’s line (approx. in current Poland, the Baltic republics, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia), the family has gone through a special experience during the last fifty years. As this experience lasted almost fifty years, even such a robust institution as the family was ultimately forced to yield to it.