‘Mitteleuropa’ in the Adenauer Era, 1944–63

Abstract

The end of Hitler’s dictatorship marked a caesura in the continuity of German Mitteleuropa thought and policy. First, until 1948, Germany was powerless with respect to its domestic and even more so its foreign policy. Secondly, much more than after World War One, the term and concept were so anathematized that they disappeared from the political vocabulary. Nevertheless, after 1945 politicians of all political parties insisted that Germany retain its 1937 borders. Thus Mitteleuropa survived as a political entity in the form of the pre-1938 German Reich. Although ‘Mitteleuropa’ disappeared from the political discourse of politicians and statesmen, it survived in the popular mind. Much like the European Union, today, Mitteleuropa remained in the public consciousness.