The term‘Eastern Central Europe’has been in use since the First World War, particularly within the field of history, where it has become most firmly established. It represents a refinement of the widely used term‘Central Europe’, which was established as a political concept, in particular by Friedrich Naumann (1860–1919) during the First World War, but was also in circulation in everyday language (e.g. MITROPA). The starting point for‘Eastern Central Europe’is the term ‘Zwischeneuropa’ coined by Albrecht Penck (1858–1945) in 1915.^[1] Penck used this term to describe the region stretching from the White Sea to the Bosporus as a significantly broader and more dynamic sphere of German influence than that of Central Europe. However, with the emergence of the ‘peripheral states’ (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland) in this region after 1918, and the renewed disputes over territories with German populations, the German public and academic understanding of East-Central Europe came to focus primarily on the ‘Ostmark’, the‘German East’or‘East Germany’. At the heart of this school of thought, which described itself as‘German Eastern Studies’, lay the revision of the borders established by the Treaty of Versailles and the legitimisation of German claims to interpretation and ownership even beyond the pre-1914 borders. Research into Eastern Central Europe thus aimed at the concept of the ‘German ethnic and cultural homeland’ now propagated by Penck, in which ‘German identityin border regions and abroad’played a central role.

Alongside this line of development in the history of German identity, the term‘Eastern Central Europe’was also shaped by international discussions during the interwar period, which conceived of Eastern or Slavic Europe as a distinct historical region.

After 1945, the term‘Eastern Central Europe’gained significance in German historical scholarship as a designation for a concept that drew on this context of Eastern European history and distanced itself from the traditions of ‘Ostforschung’ (Eastern European studies) fixated on German identity.

A marked resurgence in the use of the term‘Eastern Central Europe’in public discourse, as well as in research within the humanities and social sciences, only began after the upheaval of 1989, although the term ‘Central Eastern Europe’ – which is logically incorrect – is also frequently used.

‘Eastern Central European studies’ – a term with varying definitions – refers in particular to research in the humanities and social sciences concerning the region between the Baltic Sea, the Adriatic and the Black Sea; or, more specifically, the belt of countries stretching from Finland and Estonia in the north to Hungary, Croatia and Transylvania in the south, and from Germania Slavica in the west to the ‘Kresy’ of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the east.

In contemporary academic disciplines, ‘Eastern Central Europe ’ generally refers to the countries of the Visegrád Group (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) and, to some extent, also the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovenia and Croatia.

English: East Central Europe; Polish: Europa środkowo-wschodnia; Hungarian: Kelet-Közép-Európa.

The meanings of these terms differ: ‘East Central Europe’ sometimes also includes the Balkan countries, including Greece. In English-language discourse, however, Paul Robert Magocsi replaced the term ‘East Central Europe’ with‘Central Europe’in the 2002 revised edition of his atlas, arguing that the latter is the term in general use.^[2] Geographically, the Polish term corresponds to the German understanding outlined above, but focuses on the area of Jagiellonian rule and the Polish–Lithuanian noble republic.

In French and Czech, on the other hand, equivalents of‘Mitteleuropa’(Europe centrale or médiane and Střední Evropa respectively) predominate, whilst in Austrian usagethe term ‘Zentraleuropa’is also employed.

It follows from the different interpretations of Eastern Central Europe outlined above that there is no single, uniform concept of research into Eastern Central Europe. The greatest degree of consensus lies in the view that‘Eastern Central Europe’is not a historical regional designation, but rather a political or academic neologism.

From a historical perspective, one problem is that the boundaries with other mesoregions cannot be drawn with complete precision, and consequently there are overlaps in places with Central Europe, North-Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe and Eastern Europe. Although a conceptually complementary ‘Western Central Europe’ is encountered in historical discourse, it has not yet gained widespread acceptance. Furthermore, the defining characteristics used to describe Eastern Central Europe as a subject of research vary. Klaus Zernack identifies the following historical processes as having shaped the region of Eastern Central Europe: High Medieval colonisation, early modern estate-based democracy, the superimposition of great powers from the 17th century onwards, restoration nationalisms in the 19th and 20th centuries, people’s democracies after 1945^[3] and the renewed democratisation after 1989. Jenő Szűcs (1928–1988) cites similar characteristics, but emphasises Eastern Central Europe’s incomplete alignment with Western Europe as the central criterion of his definition.^[4] Polish research on East-Central Europe, as understood by the Institute of East-Central Europe (Instytut Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej) founded by Jerzy Kłoczowski in Lublin in 1991 is understood, has historically focused primarily on the region of Jagiellonian Europe and the Polish–Lithuanian noble republic,^[5] but in contemporary research it refers to the former socialist states or their successors, from Estonia to the Caucasus. In North American research on East-Central Europe, Paul Robert Magocsi has, since the upheaval of 1989, defined the subject in the east-west dimension similarly to Zernack—from Germania Slavica to the Dnieper—but sees a different extent along the north-south axis: from Lithuania to western Anatolia.^[6] In his atlas, Magocsi uses a catalogue of 50 aspects, ranging chronologically from the Migration Period to the break-up of Yugoslavia and covering political, ethnic, religious and economic issues.

In Germany, historical research into Eastern Central Europe developed out of studies into the history of East Germany – or the Prussian East – as a distinct sub-discipline alongside Eastern European history (which focused on Russia ) even before the First World War. After 1918, this gave rise to research into ‘Volks- und Kulturboden’ (folk and cultural heritage), which was significantly shaped by scholars in Leipzig (notably Wilhelm Volz [1870–1958] and Rudolf Kötzschke [1867–1949]) and had an interdisciplinary focus. From the late 1920s onwards, this gave rise to the primarily political concept of ‘German Eastern Studies’, with the North and East German Research Association serving as the centre – coordinated by the Secret Prussian State Archives in Berlin – and its so-called‘Publications Office’. A defining feature of‘Eastern Studies’was, on the one hand, its focus on ‘Germanness’, that is, on German ethnic, cultural and political influences in Eastern Central Europe. On the other hand, it aimed to align research with the political interests of the German Empire in relation to the states of Eastern Central Europe, primarily Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Czechoslovakia.

In addition, research into Eastern Central Europe drew on the international debates of the interwar period concerning the history of Eastern Europe. Building on this, Oskar Halecki (1891–1973) defined Eastern Central Europe in 1952 as the ‘Borderlands of Western Civilisation’.^[7]

In West Germany, two distinct strands of East Central European studies subsequently emerged. One, based at the Johann Gottfried Herder Institute founded in Marburg in 1950, followed – under the leadership of Hermann Aubin (1885–1969) – initially followed the traditions of‘Ostforschung’and concentrated on elements of German history in Eastern Europe. The second strand, by contrast, dealt with the structural characteristics of East-Central Europe since the Middle Ages (Herbert Ludat [1910–1993], Walter Schlesinger [1908–1984] and Klaus Zernack).

In the early 1990s, the Centre for the Humanities: History and Culture of East-Central Europe (GWZO), which has been based in Leipzig since 1996, established itself as a new centre for German research on East-Central Europe. Its academic understanding of East-Central Europe is based on Klaus Zernack’s concept: the region of East-Central Europe is characterised by historical structural features over the longue durée, amongst which, alongside those mentioned above, ethnic pluralism resulting from the settlement of foreigners plays an important role. In practical research terms, the focus is on the core states of Poland, the Bohemian lands and Hungary, and encompasses not only history but also art history and literary studies.

By contrast, the Herder Institute in Marburg adopts a primarily geographical definition of Eastern Central Europe, which there focuses on the three Baltic states, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Under Hans Lemberg (1933–2009) as President of the Johann Gottfried Herder Research Council, the Herder Institute broke away from its traditions of Eastern European studies (as clearly evident in the renaming of its *Zeitschrift für Ostforschung* to *Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Research* in 1995). Furthermore, following 1989, there was a shift towards a more academic approach within the institutions operating under Section 96 of the Federal Foundation Act (BVFG), which had initially centred on an understanding of Eastern Central Europe based on the German population as a central historical and cultural element. An important role was played here by the Federal Institute for the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe (BKGE; until 1999: Federal Institute for East German Culture and History), founded in Oldenburg in 1989, which focuses on the relations between Germans and the other nations of Eastern Central Europe. Other institutions dealing with specific regions of Eastern Central Europe are also worth mentioning, such as the Institute for the Culture and History of Germans in North-Eastern Europe (Nordost-Institut, IKGN). The Collegium Carolinum in Munich has followed a distinct path, concentrating on the Bohemian lands and Czechoslovakia.

In addition, the Simon Dubnow Institute for Research into Jewish History and Culture in East-Central Europe was founded in Leipzig in 1995. Furthermore, since the upheaval of 1989, research into East-Central Europe has been taking place to a greater extent than before at universities and other research institutions.

Alongside the changes outlined above and the broadening of the institutional base for research into East Central Europe, a thematic and methodological diversification can also be observed, which has expanded the concept of (binational) history of relations to encompass a transnational history of interconnections and cultural transfer.

Outside the field of historical research in the narrower sense, research on Eastern and Central Europe has also become established in art history and ethnology. In political science, by contrast, the regional focus tends to be on Eastern Europe, or there is a thematic emphasis on transformation.

In 2013, the German Council of Science and Humanities observed that Germany had “a non-university research landscape on Eastern Europe that is unique worldwide in its diversity and, overall, well-resourced in terms of both personnel and funding”^[8].

In West German research on Eastern Central Europe, discussions right up until the 1990s centred primarily on distinguishing this field from ‘Eastern Studies’ and the associated focus on German historical factors.^[9] In research on the GDR, however, which did not adopt the concept of ‘Eastern Central Europe’ as a research framework, a polemical and critical engagement with ‘imperialist’ research on the East dominated. The central international debate centres on the question of whether‘Eastern Central Europe’remains a key concept for research in the humanities and social sciences. A critique has emerged in response to perspectives that view the region as characterised by specific backwardness and crisis-prone conditions,^[10] emphasising, from an opposing perspective, the region’s specific cultural and religious plurality and tolerance.^[11]

In the German debate, there are also approaches that seek to move away from a focus on Eastern Central Europe in favour of concentrating on the concept of ‘European-ness’^[12] or to integrate the region into broader European contexts through comparative analysis.^[13]

Regardless of these debates, however, the historical focus on East-Central Europe contributes to moving beyond national historical perspectives and to the establishment of transnational lines of inquiry.

• Werner Conze: Eastern Central Europe. From Late Antiquity to the 18th Century. Munich 1992.
• Michel Foucher: Fragments of Europe. Atlas of Central and Eastern Europe. Paris 1993.
• Oskar Halecki: Borderlands of Western Civilisation. A History of East Central Europe. New York, NY 1952; German edition: Grenzraum des Abendlandes. Eine Geschichte Ostmitteleuropas. Salzburg 1956.
• Rudolf Jaworski: Focus on East-Central Europe. Selected Essays. Osnabrück 2009.
• Jerzy Kłoczowski (ed.): Historia Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej [History of East-Central Europe]. 2 vols. Lublin 2000.
• Jürgen Kocka: Eastern Central Europe as a Challenge for a Comparative History of Europe. In: Journal of East-Central European Research 49 (2000), pp. 159–174.
• Paul Robert Magocsi: Historical Atlas of Central Europe. 2nd expanded edition. Seattle, WA 2002.
• Eduard Mühle: ‘The European East on the Mental Map of German Ostforschung’. In: Ibid. (ed.): Germany and the European East in the Short Twentieth Century. Oxford, New York 2003 (German Historical Perspectives, vol. 17), pp. 107–130.
• Michael G. Müller: The historicisation of the bourgeois project. Europe, Eastern Europe and the category of backwardness. In: Tel Aviv Yearbook for German History 29 (2000), pp. 163–170.
• Jan M. Piskorski, Jörg Hackmann, Rudolf Jaworski (eds.): ‘German Research on the East’ and ‘Polish Research on the West’ at the Crossroads of Academia and Politics. A Comparative Study of Disciplines. Osnabrück, Poznań 2002 (German Research on the East and Polish Research on the West 1).
• Joachim von Puttkamer: East-Central Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Munich 2010 (Oldenbourg Outline of History 38).
• Harald Roth (ed.): Study Guide to Eastern Europe. Vol. 1: History of East-Central and South-Eastern Europe. Cologne 1999 (Böhlau Study Books: Foundations of Study).
• Wolfgang Schmale: The European Character of East-Central Europe. In: Yearbook for European History 4 (2003), pp. 189–214.
• Peter F. Sugar, Donald W. Treadgold (eds.): A History of East Central Europe. 8 vols. Seattle, WA, 1974–2001.
• Jenő Szűcs: The Three Historical Regions of Europe. Frankfurt am Main, 1990 (orig. 1981).
• Stefan Troebst: ‘Introduction: What’s in a Historical Region? A Teutonic Perspective’. In: European Review of History 10 (2003), No. 2, pp. 173–188.
• Piotr S. Wandycz: The Price of Freedom. A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present. 2nd ed. London 2001.
• Klaus Zernack: Eastern Europe. An Introduction to its History. Munich 1977 (Beck’sche Elementarbücher).

• Central & Eastern European Review
• Debate: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe
• East Central Europe
• Yearbooks of Eastern European History
• Eastern Europe
• Rocznik Instytutu Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej [Yearbook of the Institute of East Central Europe]
• Slavonic and East European Review
• Transit
• Journal of Eastern Studies, from 1995: Journal of East Central European Research

• www.ceeol.com/ (Central and Eastern European Online Library. A platform providing access to numerous journals from and about East Central Europe)
• www.herder-institut.de/startseite.html (Website of the Herder Institute, Marburg, featuring a literature database and numerous digital resources)
• ostdok.de (platform for electronic full-text resources on German-language research into Eastern Europe)
• www.vifaost.de/ (Virtual Specialised Library on Eastern Europe, an interdisciplinary regional portal for research on Eastern Europe)

[1] Albrecht Penck: ‘Political-geographical lessons of war’. In: *Meereskunde* 9 (1915), no. 10, pp. 1–40.

[2] Magocsi: Historical Atlas of Central Europe. First edition published as: Historical Atlas of East Central Europe. Seattle, WA 1993.

[3] Zernack: Eastern Europe, pp. 33–37.

[4] Szűcs: The Three Historical Regions.

[5] See, for example: Jerzy Kłoczowski: Europa Środkowo-Wschodnia i jej miejsce w Europie [Eastern Central Europe and its place in Europe]. In: Ibid.: Europe – The Republic of Many Nations. Testimonies, interviews, speeches and sketches from 1990–2012 [A Republic of Many Nations. Testimonies, Interviews, Speeches and Sketches from 1990–2012]. Lublin 2012, pp. 201–232.

[6] Magocsi: Historical Atlas, p. xi.

[7] Halecki: Borderlands of Western Civilisation.

[8] Recommendations for the Further Development of Non-University Historical Research on Eastern Europe. Edited by the German Council of Science and Humanities, Drs. 2850-13, Berlin, 25 January 2013.

[9] Eugen Lemberg and Walter Schlesinger provided an important impetus in 1963. However, Schlesinger’s lecture to the Johann Gottfried Herder Research Council was not published until 1997: ‘The Medieval German Expansion Eastwards and German Research on the East’. In: Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropaforschung 46 (1997), pp. 427–457.

[10] See Larry Wolff: *Inventing Eastern Europe. The Map of Civilisation in the Mind of the Enlightenment*. Stanford, CA 1994.

[11] Clearly evident, for example, in: Kłoczowski: Central and Eastern Europe.

[12] Schmale: The European Character of East-Central Europe.

[13] Kocka: Eastern Central Europe as a Challenge.

Jörg Hackmann: Research on Eastern Central Europe. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2014. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32789 (as at 23 November 2021).