EN German Policy Towards Central Europe in the 20th and 21st Centuries

2024

Facta Simonidis. Zeszyty Naukowe Państwowej Wyższej Szkoły Zawodowej w Zamościu

Rocznik: 2024 | Tom: 17 | Numer: 2

artykuł naukowy

polski

PL German policy towards Central Europe throughout the 20th and 21st centuries has been con-sistently shaped by Berlin’s political and economic interests. Prior to 1914, German focus centred on maintaining the political status quo established after the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a pivotal element of the Central European order. During World War I, Germany envisioned Central Europe as a sphere of exclusive German dominance, encapsulated by the con-cept of Mitteleuropa and the “Eastern Empire.” The Weimar Republic (1919-1933) rejected the Central European order imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. Its rapprochement with the Soviet Union was characterized by an anti-Polish stance and a disregard for Central European political independence. This approach persisted in Hitler’s Lebensraum-driven foreign policy. Similarly, the architects of West Germany’s Ostpolitik in the 1970s and 1980s neglected the interests of Central European nations. This pattern of disregard has continued in the policies of subsequent German governments towards Putin’s Russia, overlooking threats not only to Central Europe but also to Germany itself.

127 - 141

10.56583/fs.2611

https://czaz.akademiazamojska.edu.pl/index.php/fs/issue/view/165

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ostateczna wersja opublikowana

12.2024

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