Central Europe#States

In the early Middle Ages, Central Europe had a diverse landscape, with various ethnic groups inhabiting the region. Germanic tribes, among them the Franks, Alemans and Bavarians, were predominantly situated in the west, and Slavic tribes were predominantly in the east.{{Cite web |title=Central Europe (including Germany), 500–1000 A.D. {{!}} Chronology {{!}} Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History {{!}} The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/06/euwc.html#:~:text=Overview,Roman%20and%20Byzantine%20imperial%20power. |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History}} However, the region encompassed a wide spectrum of additional tribes and communities.

From the late 6th century to the early 9th century, the area roughly corresponding to the Carpathian Basin was part of the Avar Khaganate, the realm of the Pannonian Avars.{{Cite web |last1=Saag |first1=Lehti |last2=Staniuk |first2=Robert |date=2022 |title=Historical human migrations: From the steppe to the basin |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10153156/9/Staniuk_2022_Saag&Staniuk_finaldraft.pdf |access-date=2024-01-03 |website=University College London |page=3}}{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=1,400 years old mystery of origins of Avars elucidated with ancient DNA |url=https://www.elte.hu/en/content/1-400-years-old-mystery-of-origins-of-avars-elucidated-with-ancient-dna.t.2211 |access-date=2024-01-03 |website=Eötvös Loránd University}} While the Avars dominated the east of what is now Austria, its north and south were under Germanic and Slavic influence, respectively.{{Citation |last=Štih |first=P. |title=VII. The Carantanians – An Early Medieval Slavic Gens Between East And West |date=2010-01-01 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004187702/Bej.9789004185913.i-463_009.xml |work=The Middle Ages between the Eastern Alps and the Northern Adriatic |pages=108–122 |access-date=2023-12-15 |publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-18770-2}} Meanwhile, the territories now comprising Germany and Switzerland were under the influence of the Merovingian dynasty, and later the Carolingian dynasty.{{Cite web |title=Merovingian dynasty {{!}} Frankish Kings & Legacy|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Merovingian-dynasty |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=britannica.com}}{{Cite web |last=Griffith |first=Michael |title=Carolingian Dynasty |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Carolingian_Dynasty/ |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=World History Encyclopedia}} Various Slavic tribes that inhabited eastern Central Europe established settlements during this period, primarily in present-day Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.{{Cite web |last=Kazanski |first=Michel |date=2020 |title=Archaeology of the Slavic Migrations |url=https://hal.science/hal-02902087/file/Kazanski_Archaeology-Slavic%20Migrations_2020.pdf}} The territory of Lithuania was inhabited by Baltic tribes. Amongst them were the Samogitians, Lithuanians and Curonians.{{Cite web |title=Samogitian {{!}} people|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Samogitian |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=britannica.com}}

The Holy Roman Empire was founded at the turn of the 9th century, following the coronation of Charlemagne by Pope Leo III.{{Cite web |title=Holy Roman Empire - Charlemagne, Coronation, Empire|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Holy-Roman-Empire/Coronation-of-Charlemagne-as-emperor |access-date=2023-12-26 |website=britannica.com}} At its inception, it incorporated present-day Germany and nearby regions, including parts of what is now Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Switzerland. Three decades later, Great Moravia, centred on present-day Czech Republic and Slovakia, became one of the first West Slavic states to be founded in Central Europe. In the late 9th Century, the Hungarian tribes, originating in parts of Asia along the east of the Eurasian Steppe,{{Cite web |date=2024-02-14 |title=Hungary {{!}} History, Map, Flag, Population, Currency, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Hungary |access-date=2024-02-15 |website=britannica.com}}{{Cite journal |last1=Fóthi |first1=Erzsébet |last2=Gonzalez |first2=Angéla |last3=Fehér |first3=Tibor |last4=Gugora |first4=Ariana |last5=Fóthi |first5=Ábel |last6=Biró |first6=Orsolya |last7=Keyser |first7=Christine |date=January 2020 |title=Genetic analysis of male Hungarian Conquerors: European and Asian paternal lineages of the conquering Hungarian tribes |journal=Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences |language=en |volume=12 |issue=1 |page=31 |doi=10.1007/s12520-019-00996-0 |issn=1866-9557|doi-access=free |bibcode=2020ArAnS..12...31F }}{{Cite web |last=Orsolya |first=Kuli |date=2024-04-02 |title=Egy fideszes képviselő megmondta: évszázadok óta tartó rejtély után kiderült, a magyarok tényleg leszármazottai-e a hunoknak |url=https://index.hu/tudomany/2024/04/02/kutatas-tanulmany-hunok-magyarsag/ |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=index.hu |language=hu}} settled in the Carpathian Basin and established the Principality of Hungary.{{Cite web |last1=Cloet |first1=Pierre-Robert |last2=Legue |first2=Benedicte |last3=Martel |first3=Kerstin |date=2018 |title=Hungary |url=https://institutdelors.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/flag-anthem-hungary.pdf |website=Institut Jacques Delors}}

The earliest recorded concept of Europe as a cultural sphere, instead of simply a geographic term, was formed by Alcuin of York in the late 8th century during the Carolingian Renaissance and was limited to the territories that practised Western Christianity at the time. "European" as a cultural term did not include much of the territories in which the Orthodox Church represented the dominant religion until the 19th century.{{cite book |author=Sanjay Kumar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iGc9EAAAQBAJ |title=A Handbook of Political Geography |publisher=K.K. Publications |year=2021 |pages=125–127}}

Following the Christianization of various Central European countries, elements of cultural unity emerged within the region, specifically Catholicism and Latin. Eastern Europe remained Eastern Orthodox, and was dominated by Byzantine cultural influence. After the East–West Schism in 1054, significant parts of Eastern Europe developed cultural unity and resistance to Catholic Western and Central Europe within the framework of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Church Slavonic and the Cyrillic alphabet.{{sfn|Magocsi|2002|loc=chapter 11}}{{cite book |title=Religion and Culture in Early Modern Europe |author=Kasper von Greyerz |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SmEpMnfYZ-oC&q=%22all+of+central+Europe%22 |isbn=978-0-19-804384-3 |pages=38– |date=2007 }}{{cite book |title=East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000–1500 |author=Jean W Sedlar |publisher=University of Washington Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3o5lrvuwOVwC&q=%22estrangement+to+be+permanent%22 |isbn=0-295-97291-2 |pages=161– |year=1994 }}{{cite web|url=http://biblio.hiu.cas.cz/documents/161327|trans-title=The shape of Europe. The spirit of unity through culture in the eve of Modern Europe|title=Uspořádání Evropy – duch kulturní jednoty na prahu vzniku novověké Evropy|language=cs|url-access=registration |last=Dumitran|first=Adriana|year=2010|location=Czech Republic|publisher=Bibliography of the History of the Czech Lands, The Institute of History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic}}

Francia 814.svg|Frankish Empire and its tributaries in 814

East Francia 843.svg|East Francia in 843

Great moravia svatopluk.png|Possible furthest extent of Great Moravia under Svatopluk I (870–894)

Duchy of Poland 1000.svg|Duchy of Poland under the Piast dynasty in 1000

Duchy of Bohemia 1000.svg|Duchy of Bohemia (Czech Duchy) in 1000

Kingdom of Germany 1004.svg|Kingdom of Germany in 1004

Kingdom of Hungary 1190.svg|Kingdom of Hungary in 1190

Croatia 1260.png|Kingdom of Croatia in 1260

Holy Roman Empire (c. 1600).svg|Holy Roman Empire in 1600

Map of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1619–1621).png|Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its fiefs in 1619

According to the historian Jenő Szűcs, Central Europe at the end of the 1st millennium became influenced by Western European developments. Szűcs argued that between the 11th and 15th centuries, Christianization influenced the cultures within Central Europe, and well-defined social features were also implemented in the region based on Western characteristics. The keyword of Western social development after the turn of the millennium was the spread of Magdeburg rights in some cities and towns of Western Europe. They began to spread in the mid-13th century in Central European countries and brought about self-governments of towns and counties.{{cite web|url=http://unipub.lib.uni-corvinus.hu/1162/1/Zsinka_2013b.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://unipub.lib.uni-corvinus.hu/1162/1/Zsinka_2013b.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|author=László Zsinka|title=Similarities and Differences in Polish and Hungarian History|access-date=15 January 2015}}

In 1335, the Kings of Poland, Bohemia and Hungary and Croatia met in the castle of Visegrád and agreed to cooperate closely in the field of politics and commerce. That has inspired the post-Cold War Visegrád Group.{{cite book|last=Halman|first=Loek|author2=Wilhelmus Antonius Arts|title=European values at the turn of the millennium|url=https://archive.org/details/europeanvaluesat00arts|url-access=limited|publisher=Brill Publishers|year=2004|page=[https://archive.org/details/europeanvaluesat00arts/page/n145 120]|isbn=978-90-04-13981-7}}

In 1386, Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, converted to Christianity (specifically Catholicism) and subsequently became King of Poland through marriage to Queen Jadwiga of Poland. That initiated the Christianization of Lithuania and resulted in the Union of Krewo, signifying a personal union between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland. The union commenced an enduring political alliance between the two entities and laid the foundations for the later establishment of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569.{{Cite book |last=Frost |first=Robert |title=The Oxford history of Poland-Lithuania. Volume 1: The making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385-1569 |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-19-880020-0 |edition=First published in paperback |location=Oxford |pages=47–57 |chapter=5}}

Between the 15th and the early 16th centuries, the Kingdom of Croatia, which was theb in personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary, served as a significant maritime gateway of Central Europe, with its ports facilitating key trade routes between Central Europe and the Mediterranean.{{Cite book |last=Krekić |first=Bariša |title=Dubrovnik in the 14th and 15th centuries: a city between East and West |date=1972 |publisher=Univ. of Oklahama Press |isbn=978-0-8061-0999-2 |series=Centers of civilization series |location=Norman}}{{Cite web |title=Dubrovnik |url=https://www.adrijo.eu/en/port/dubrovnik |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=Remember Adrijo}} The Republic of Ragusa emerged as a prominent hub for cultural exchange during this time. Following the Ottoman and Habsburg wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, the Kingdom of Croatia, under Habsburg rule, began to regain its position as a significant trade route, restoring ports and revitalising commercial activity.

File:Central Europe 1902.PNG (1902):Source: Geographisches Handbuch zu Andrees Handatlas, vierte Auflage, Bielefeld und Leipzig, Velhagen und Klasing, 1902. {{legend|#FF0000|Central European countries and regions: the German Empire and the Habsburg monarchy (without Bosnia and Herzegovina and Dalmatia)}}{{legend|#FF8080|Regions located at the transition between Central Europe and Southeastern/Eastern Europe: Romania}}]]

Before 1870, the industrialization that had started to develop in Northwestern and Central Europe and the United States did not extend in any significant way to the rest of the world. Even in Eastern Europe, industrialization lagged far behind. Russia, for example, remained largely rural and agricultural, and its autocratic rulers kept the peasants in serfdom.Jackson J. Spielvogel: Western Civilization: Alternate Volume: Since 1300. p. 618.

The concept of Central Europe was already known at the beginning of the 19th century,{{cite web|url=http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/graduateconference/barcelona/papers/681.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217051750/http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/graduateconference/barcelona/papers/681.pdf|archive-date=17 December 2008 |title="Mitteleuropa" is a multi-faceted concept and difficult to handle |access-date=31 January 2010}} but it developed further and became an object of intensive interest towards the 20th century. However, the first concept mixed science, politics, and economy and was strictly connected with the aspirations of German states to dominate a part of European continent called Mitteleuropa. At the Frankfurt Parliament, which was established in the wake of the March Revolution of 1848, there were multiple competing ideas for the integration of German-speaking areas, including the mitteleuropäische Lösung (Central European Solution) propagated by Austria, which sought to merge the smaller German-speaking states with the multi-ethnic Habsburg monarchy, but was opposed by Prussia and others. An imperialistic idea of Mitteleuropa also became popular in the German Empire, which was established in 1871 and experienced intensive economic growth. The term was used when the Union of German Railway Administrations established the Mitteleuropäische Eisenbahn-Zeit (Central European Railway Time) time zone, which was applied by the railways from 1 June 1891 and was later widely adopted in civilian life; the time zone's name has been shortened to the present-day Central European Time.{{cite news |title=Eisenbahner erfanden Europas Zeit |url=https://www.zeit.de/wissen/geschichte/2013-03/geschichte-mitteleuropaeische-zeit/komplettansicht |date=13 March 2013 |website=Die Zeit |accessdate=2023-10-28 |last1=Vensky |first1=Hellmuth }}

The German term denoting Central Europe was so fashionable that other languages started referring to it when indicating territories from Rhine to Vistula or even the Dnieper and from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans.A. Podraza, Europa Środkowa jako region historyczny, 17th Congress of Polish Historians, Jagiellonian University 2004 An example of this vision of Central Europe may be seen in Joseph Partsch's book of 1903.Joseph Franz Maria Partsch, Clementina Black, Halford John Mackinder, Central Europe, New York 1903

On 21 January 1904, Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftsverein (Central European Economic Association) was established in Berlin with economic integration of Germany and Austria (with eventual extension to Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands) as its main aim. Another time, the term Central Europe became connected to the German plans of political, economic, and cultural domination. The "bible" of the concept was Friedrich Naumann's book MitteleuropaF. Naumann, Mitteleuropa, Berlin: Reimer, 1915 in which he called for an economic federation to be established after World War I. Naumann's proposed a federation with Germany and the Habsburg monarchy as its centre that would eventually unite all external European nations through economic prosperity.{{Cite journal |last=Хессе |first=Райнхард |date=2021-06-23 |title=GERMANY AND ITS DIFFICULT SITUATION IN CENTRAL EUROPE / MITTELEUROPA |url=https://bulletin-irr.ablaikhan.kz/index.php/j1/article/view/91 |journal=Известия. Серия: Международные отношения и Регионоведение |language=en |volume=44 |issue=2 |doi=10.48371/ISMO.2021.44.2.006 |issn=2710-3633}} The concept failed after the German defeat in World War I.{{cn|date=August 2024}}{{Dubious|date=September 2024}} The revival of the idea may be observed during the Hitler era.{{cn|date=August 2024}}{{dubious|date=August 2024}}

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The interwar period (1918–1938) brought a new geopolitical system, as well as economic and political problems, and the concept of Central Europe took on a different character. The centre of interest was moved to its eastern part, particularly to the countries that had rappeared or reappared on the map of Europe. Central Europe ceased to be the area of German aspiration to lead or dominate and became a territory of various integration movements aiming at resolving political, economic, and national problems of "new" states, being a way to face German and Soviet pressures. However, the conflict of interests was too major, and neither the Little Entente nor Intermarium (Międzymorze) ideas succeeded. The Hungarian historian Magda Ádám wrote in her study Versailles System and Central Europe (2006): "Today we know that the bane of Central Europe was the Little Entente, military alliance of Czechoslovakia, Romania and Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), created in 1921 not for Central Europe's cooperation nor to fight German expansion, but in a wrong perceived notion that a completely powerless Hungary must be kept down".István Deák (2006) The English Historical Review, Volume CXXI, Issue 490, page: 338: The Versailles System and Central Europe [https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article-abstract/CXXI/490/338/458682] The events preceding World War II in Europe, including the so-called Western betrayal such as the Munich Agreement, were very much enabled by the rising nationalism and ethnocentrism that typified that period.

The interwar period brought new elements to the concept of Central Europe. Before World War I, it embraced mainly German-speaking states, and non-German speaking territories were an area of intended German penetration and domination, with German leadership being the 'natural' result of economic dominance. Post-war, the Eastern part of Central Europe was placed at the centre of the concept. At the time, the scientists took an interest in the idea: the International Historical Congress in Brussels in 1923 was committed to Central Europe, and the 1933, Congress continued the discussions.{{cite journal|last1=Deak|first1=I. |title=The Versailles System and Central Europe|doi=10.1093/ehr/cej100 |page=338|volume=CXXI |year=2006 |journal=The English Historical Review|issue=490}}

According to Emmanuel de Martonne, in 1927, Central Europe encompassed Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Switzerland, northern Italy and northern Yugoslavia. The author uses both Human and Physical Geographical features to define Central Europe but failed to take into account the legal development or the social, cultural, economic, and infrastructural developments in those countries.[https://web.archive.org/web/20100212050523/http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/5269/file0039ao0.jpg], [https://web.archive.org/web/20100212050523/http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1867/martonne2a.jpg] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20100212050523/http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/4384/martonne1.jpg] ; Géographie universelle (1927), edited by Paul Vidal de la Blache and Lucien Gallois

The avant-garde movements of Central Europe contributed to the evolution of modernism and reached their its peak throughout the continent during the 1920s. The Sourcebook of Central European avantgards (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) contains primary documents of the avant-gardes in the territories of Austria, Germany, Poland (including western parts of present-day Belarus and Ukraine, and southern parts of Lithuania), Czechoslovakia (including the Czech Republic and Slovakia), Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia (including present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia) from 1910 to 1930.{{cite web|url=http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=8958 |title=Between Worlds|publisher=The MIT Press |access-date=31 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060922195357/https://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=8958 |archive-date=22 September 2006 }}

With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire around 1800, there was a consolidation of power among the Habsburgs and the Hohenzollerns as the two major states in the area. They had much in common and occasionally cooperated in various channels, but more often competed. One approach in the various attempts at cooperation, was the conception of a set of supposed common features and interests, and this idea led to the first discussions of a Mitteleuropa in the mid-nineteenth century, as espoused by Friedrich List and Karl Ludwig Bruck. These were mostly based on economic issues.{{sfn|Evans|2006|p=296-297}}

Mitteleuropa may refer to a historical concept or a contemporary German definition of Central Europe. As a historical concept, the German term Mitteleuropa (or alternatively its literal translation into English, Middle Europe{{sfn|Johnson|1996|p=165}}) is an ambiguous German concept.{{sfn|Johnson|1996|p=165}} According to Fritz Fischer Mitteleuropa was a scheme in the era of the Reich of 1871–1918 by which the old imperial elites had allegedly sought to build a system of German economic, military and political domination from the northern seas to the Near East and from the Low Countries through the steppes of Russia to the Caucasus.{{sfn|Hayes|1994|p=16}} Later on, Professor Fritz Epstein argued the threat of a Slavic "Drang nach Westen" (Western expansion) had been a major factor in the emergence of a Mitteleuropa ideology before the Reich of 1871 ever came into being.{{sfn|Hayes|1994|p=17}}

In Germany, the word's connotation was also sometimes linked to the pre-war German provinces east of the Oder-Neisse line.{{Cite journal |last=Sinnhuber |first=Karl A. |date=1954 |title=Central Europe: Mitteleuropa: Europe Centrale: An Analysis of a Geographical Term |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/621131 |journal=Transactions and Papers (Institute of British Geographers) |issue=20 |pages=15–39 |doi=10.2307/621131 |jstor=621131 |issn=1478-4017}}

The term "Mitteleuropa" conjures up negative historical associations among some people although the Germans have not played an exclusively negative role in the region.{{sfn|Johnson|1996|p=6}} Most Central European Jews embraced the enlightened German humanistic culture of the 19th century.{{sfn|Johnson|1996|p=7}} Jews at the turn of the 20th century became representatives of what many consider to be Central European culture at its best, but the Nazi conceptualisation of "Mitteleuropa" sought to destroy that culture.{{sfn|Johnson|1996|pp=7, 165, 170}} The term "Mitteleuropa" is widely used in German education and media without a negative meaning, especially since the end of communism. Many people from the new states of Germany do not identify themselves as being part of Western Europe and therefore prefer the term "Mitteleuropa".{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

File:World War II in Europe, 1942.svg at the height of the Axis conquests in 1942]]

During World War II, Central Europe was largely occupied by Nazi Germany. Many areas were a battle area and were devastated. The mass murder of the Jews depopulated many of their centuries-old settlement areas or settled other people there and their culture was wiped out. Both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin diametrically opposed the centuries-old Habsburg principles of "live and let live" with regard to ethnic groups, peoples, minorities, religions, cultures and languages and tried to assert their own ideologies and power interests in Central Europe.Igor Lukes, "Central Europe Has Joined NATO: The Continuing Search for a More Perfect Habsburg Empire". SAIS Review (1999): 47–59. There were various Allied plans for state order in Central Europe for post-war. While Stalin tried to get as many states under his control as possible, Winston Churchill preferred a Central European Danube Confederation to counter those countries against Germany and Russia. There were also plans to add Bavaria and Württemberg to an enlarged Austria.{{Cite news|url=https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/churchill-und-die-deutschen-a-946593.html|title=Churchill und die Deutschen |first=Klaus |last=Wiegrefe |website=Der Spiegel|date=13 August 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230930131008/https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/churchill-und-die-deutschen-a-946593.html |archive-date= Sep 30, 2023 }} There were also various resistance movements around Otto von Habsburg that pursued that goal. The group around the Austrian priest Heinrich Maier also planned in that direction, which also successfully helped the Allies to wage war by, among other things, forwarding production sites and plans for V-2 rockets, Tiger tanks and aircraft to the United States.Peter Broucek "Die österreichische Identität im Widerstand 1938–1945" (2008), p 163.{{cite book |last=Pirker |first=Peter |year=2012 |title=Suberversion deutscher Herrschaft. Der britische Geheimdienst SOE und Österreich |series=Zeitgeschichte im Kontext |volume=6 |location=Göttingen |publisher=V & R Unipress |isbn=9783862349906 |page=252}} Otto von Habsburg tried to relieve Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and northern Yugoslavia (particularly the territories of present-day Croatia and Slovenia) from German and Soviet influence and control.Olga S. Opfell "Royalty Who Wait: The 21 Heads of Formerly Regnant Houses of Europe" (2001), p 133.{{Cite news|url=https://www.welt.de/geschichte/zweiter-weltkrieg/article190499367/Unternehmen-Margarethe-Wehrmacht-besetzt-1944-Ungarn.html|title="Unternehmen Margarethe": Wehrmacht besetzt 1944 Ungarn|first=Sven Felix|last=Kellerhoff|date=19 March 2019|work=Die Welt}} There were various considerations to prevent German and Soviet power in Europe after the war. Churchill's idea of reaching the area around Vienna before the Russians via an operation from the Adriatic had not been approved by the Western Allied chiefs of staff.{{Cite web|url=https://orf.at/stories/3163144/|title=1945/2020: Die Sowjets und die Österreich-Idee |last=Heidegger|first=Gerald|date=26 April 2020|website=orf.at|language=de|access-date=26 April 2020}} As a result of the military situation at the end of the war, Stalin's plans prevailed and much of Central Europe came under Soviet control.Gerald Stourzh "Geschichte des Staatsvertrages 1945–1955" (1980), p 4.Wolfgang Mueller "Die sowjetische Besatzung in Österreich 1945–1955 und ihre politische Mission" (German – "The Soviet occupation in Austria 1945–1955 and its political mission"), 2005, p 24.

File:Neutral and Non-Aligned European States.png during the Cold War: {{legend|#DFC56C| Neutral: Austria, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland}}

{{legend|#8BC870|Non-Aligned: Cyprus, Malta and Yugoslavia}}]]

Following World War II, parts of Central Europe became part of the Eastern Bloc. The boundary between the two blocks was called the Iron Curtain. Austria, Switzerland and Yugoslavia remained neutral.

The post-World War II period brought blocking of research on Central Europe in the Eastern Bloc countries, as its every result proved the dissimilarity of Central Europe, which was inconsistent with the Stalinist doctrine. On the other hand, the topic became popular in Western Europe and the United States, much of the research being carried out by immigrants from Central Europe.One of the main representatives was Oscar Halecki and his book The limits and divisions of European history, London and New York 1950 Following the Fall of Communism, publicists and historians in Central Europe, especially the anti-communist opposition, returned to their research.A. Podraza, Europa Środkowa jako region historyczny, 17th Congress of Polish Historians, Jagiellonian University 2004

According to Karl A. Sinnhuber (Central Europe: Mitteleuropa: Europe Centrale: An Analysis of a Geographical Term){{cite journal |last1=Sinnhuber |first1=Karl A. |title=Central Europe: Mitteleuropa: Europe Centrale: An Analysis of a Geographical Term |journal=Transactions and Papers |publisher=Institute of British Geographers |date=1954 |issue=20 |pages=15–39 |doi=10.2307/621131 |jstor=621131 |s2cid=133729155 }} most Central European states were unable to preserve their political independence and became Soviet satellites. Besides Austria, Switzerland and Yugoslavia, only the marginal European states of Cyprus, Finland, Malta and Sweden preserved their political sovereignty to a certain degree, being left out of any military alliances in Europe.

The opening of the Iron Curtain between Austria and Hungary at the Pan-European Picnic on 19 August 1989 then set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, at the end of which there was no longer an East Germany and the Eastern Bloc had disintegrated.Hilde Szabo: Die Berliner Mauer begann im Burgenland zu bröckeln (The Berlin Wall began to crumble in Burgenland – German), in Wiener Zeitung 16 August 1999; Otmar Lahodynsky: Paneuropäisches Picknick: Die Generalprobe für den Mauerfall (Pan-European picnic: the dress rehearsal for the fall of the Berlin Wall – German), in: Profil 9 August 2014.Ludwig Greven "Und dann ging das Tor auf", in Die Zeit, 19 August 2014. It was the largest escape movement from East Germany since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. After the picnic, which was based on an idea by Otto von Habsburg to test the reaction of the USSR and Mikhail Gorbachev to an opening of the border, tens of thousands of media-informed East Germans set off for Hungary.Miklós Németh in Interview, Austrian TV – ORF "Report", 25 June 2019. The leadership of the GDR in East Berlin did not dare to completely block the borders of their own country and the USSR did not respond at all.

This broke the bracket of the Eastern Bloc and Central Europe subsequently became free from communism.Otmar Lahodynsky "Eiserner Vorhang: Picknick an der Grenze" (Iron curtain: picnic at the border – German), in Profil 13 June 2019.Thomas Roser: DDR-Massenflucht: Ein Picknick hebt die Welt aus den Angeln (German – Mass exodus of the GDR: A picnic clears the world) in: Die Presse 16 August 2018.Andreas Rödder, Deutschland einig Vaterland – Die Geschichte der Wiedervereinigung (2009).

According to American professor Ronald Tiersky, the 1991 summit held in Visegrád attended by the Czechoslovak, Hungarian and Polish presidents was hailed at the time as a major breakthrough in Central European cooperation, but the Visegrád Group became a vehicle for coordinating Central Europe's road to the European Union, while development of closer ties within the region languished.{{sfn|Tiersky|2004|p=472}}

{{multiple image | direction=vertical | width=220

| image1=Floristic regions in Europe (english).png

| caption1=The European floristic regions

| image2=Carpathian Basin-Pannonian Basin.jpg

| caption2=The Pannonian Plain, between the Alps (west), the Carpathians (north and east), and the Dinaric Alps (southwest)

| image3=Mapcarpat2.png

| caption3=Carpathian countries (north-west to south-east): CZ, AT, PL, SK, HU, UA, RO, RS

}}

American professor Peter J. Katzenstein described Central Europe as a way station in a Europeanization process that marks the transformation process of the Visegrád Group countries in different, though comparable ways.{{sfn|Katzenstein|1997|p=6}} According to him, in Germany's contemporary public discourse "Central European identity" refers to the civilizational divide between Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.{{sfn|Katzenstein|1997|p=6}} He argued that there is no precise way to define Central Europe and that the region may even include Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Serbia.{{sfn|Katzenstein|1997|p=4}}

The issue of how to name and define the Central European area is subject to debates. Very often, the definition depends on the nationality and historical perspective of its author. The concept of "Central Europe" appeared in the 19th century. It was understood as a contact zone between the Southern and Northern areas, and later the Eastern and Western areas of Europe. Thinkers portrayed "Central Europe" either as a separate region, or a buffer zone between these regions.

In the early nineteenth century, the terms "Middle" or "Central" Europe (known as "Mitteleuropa" in German and "Europe centrale" in French) were introduced in geographical scholarship in both German and French languages. At first, these terms were linked to the regions spanning from the Pyrenees to the Danube, which, according to German authors, could be united under German authority. However, after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, the French began to exclude France from this area, and later the Germans also adopted this perspective by the end of World War I.{{cite book |last1=Aleksov |first1=Bojan |last2=Piahanau |first2=Aliaksandr |title=Wars and Betweenness: Big Powers and Middle Europe, 1918–1945 |date=2020 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=978-963-386-336-7 |pages=7–8 }}

The concept of "Central" or "Middle Europe", understood as a region with German influence, lost a significant part of its popularity after WWI and was completely dismissed after WWII. Two defeats of Germany in the world wars, combined with the division of Germany, an almost complete disappearance of German-speaking communities in these countries, and the Communist-led isolation of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Yugoslavia from the Western world, turned the concept of "Central/Middle Europe" into an anachronism. On the other side, the non-German areas of Central Europe were almost universally regarded as "Eastern European" primarily associated with the Soviet sphere of influence in the late 1940s–1980s.

For the most part, this geographical framework lost its attraction after the end of the Cold War. A number of Post-Communist countries rather re-branded themselves in the 1990s as "Central European.", while avoiding the stained wording of "Middle Europe," which they associated with German influence in the region. This reinvented concept of "Central Europe" excluded Germany, Austria and Switzerland, reducing its coverage chiefly to Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania and Yugoslavia.

The main proposed regional definitions, gathered by Polish historian Jerzy Kłoczowski and others, include:Jerzy Kłoczowski, Actualité des grandes traditions de la cohabitation et du dialogue des cultures en Europe du Centre-Est, in: L'héritage historique de la Res Publica de Plusieurs Nations, Lublin 2004, pp. 29–30 {{ISBN|83-85854-82-7}}

• West-Central and East-Central Europe – this conception, presented in 1950,Oskar Halecki, The Limits and Divisions of European History, Sheed & Ward: London and New York 1950, chapter VII distinguishes two regions in Central Europe: the German West-Centre and the East-Centre covered by a variety of nations from Finland to Greece, placed between the great empires of Scandinavia, Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union.
• Central Europe as a region comprising countries in mainland Europe speaking West Germanic (Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland) and West Slavic languages (the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland).Erich Schenk, Mitteleuropa. Düsseldorf, 1950
• Central Europe as the area of the cultural heritage of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth – Ukrainian, Belarusian and Lithuanian historians, in cooperation (since 1990) with Polish historians, insist on the importance of this concept.

File:Growth of Habsburg territories.jpg (divided between Cisleithanian/Austrian-administered and Transalthanian/Hungarian-administered)]]

• Central Europe as the area of the former Habsburg monarchy{{Cite journal |last1=Siegel |first1=Björn |last2=Thulin |first2=Mirjam |last3=Corbett |first3=Tim |date=2023 |title=Habsburg Central Europe: Culturally Heterogeneous and Polysemous Region |url=https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/64599/file/06_Czaky.pdf |journal=Intersections Between Jewish Studies and Habsburg Studies}} – a concept which is popular in large parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.{{Cite web |title=History of Bosnia and Herzegovina|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Bosnia-and-Herzegovina |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=britannica.com}}
• A concept underlining the links connecting Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine with Russia and treating the Russian Empire together with the whole Slavic Orthodox population as one entity – this position is taken by Russian historiographers.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}{{dubious|date=January 2024}}
• A concept putting the accent on links with the West,{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}{{dubious|date=January 2024}} especially from the 19th century and the grand period of liberation and formation of Nation-states, an idea that is represented by the South-Eastern states, which prefer the enlarged concept of the "East Centre" expressing their links with Western culture.{{dubious|date=January 2024}}{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Former University of Vienna professor Lonnie R. Johnson points out criteria to distinguish Central Europe from Western, Northern, Eastern and Southern Europe:{{sfn|Johnson|1996|p={{page needed|date=October 2023}}}}

• One criterion for defining Central Europe is the frontiers of medieval empires and kingdoms that largely correspond to the religious frontiers between Catholic Western and Central Europe and Orthodox Eastern Europe.{{sfn|Johnson|1996|p=4}} Following that criterion, the pagans of Central Europe were converted to Catholicism, but in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, they were brought into the fold of the Eastern Orthodox Church.{{sfn|Johnson|1996|p=4}}

He also thinks that Central Europe is a dynamic historical concept, not a static spatial one. For example, a fair share of Belarus and Right-bank Ukraine are in Eastern Europe today, but {{roundup|{{age|format=raw|1791|5|3}}|-1}} years ago, they were in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.{{sfn|Johnson|1996|p=4}} Johnson's study on Central Europe received acclaim and positive reviews in the scientific community.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/1997-05-01/central-europe-enemies-neighbors-friends|title=Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends|last=Legvold|first=Robert|date=May–June 1997|magazine=Foreign Affairs |publisher=Council on Foreign Relations|access-date=20 May 2009}}{{cite web|url=http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Politics/InternationalStudies/?view=usa&ci=9780195148251&view=usa |title=Selected as "Editor's Choice" of the History Book Club |work=Oxford University Press |access-date=20 May 2009 }}{{dead link|date=October 2015}}{{cbignore}} However, according to the Romanian researcher Maria Bucur, the very ambitious project suffers from the weaknesses imposed by its scope (almost 1600 years of history).{{cite web|url=http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=1030|title=The Myths and Memories We Teach By |last=Bucur|first=Maria|date=June 1997|publisher=Indiana University|access-date=23 December 2011}}

The World Factbook defines Central Europe as: Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. The Columbia Encyclopedia includes: Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland. While it does not have a single article defining Central Europe, Encyclopædia Britannica includes the following countries in Central Europe in one or more of its articles: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina,{{Cite web |title=Bosnia and Herzegovina |url=https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Bosnia-and-Herzegovina/345652 |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=Britannica}} Croatia,{{Cite web |title=Croatia - Medieval, Adriatic, Balkans |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Croatia/History |access-date=2024-01-10 |website=Britannica}} the Czech Republic, Germany,{{Cite web |date=2024-01-10 |title=Germany - Facts, Geography, Maps, & History |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=Britannica}} Hungary, Lithuania,{{Cite web |title=20th-century international relations - Central Europe, Middle East, Conflict {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/20th-century-international-relations-2085155/Central-Europe-and-the-Middle-East |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=Britannica |language=en}} Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.

The French Encyclopédie Larousse defines Central Europe as a region comprising Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Liechtenstein, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Encyclopédie Larousse en ligne |url=https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/rechercher?q=larousse |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=Larousse |language=fr}}

The German Encyclopaedia Meyers Grosses Taschenlexikon (Meyers Big Pocket Encyclopedia), 1999, defines Central Europe as the central part of Europe with no precise borders to the East and West. The term is mostly used to denominate the territory between the Schelde to Vistula and from the Danube to the Moravian Gate.

The German {{lang|de|Ständige Ausschuss für geographische Namen}} (Standing Committee on Geographical Names), which develops and recommends rules for the uniform use of geographical names, proposes two sets of boundaries. The first follows international borders of current countries. The second subdivides and includes some countries based on cultural criteria. In comparison to some other definitions, it is broader, including Luxembourg, Estonia, Latvia, and in the second sense, the Kaliningrad Oblast and parts of Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Italy, and France.

According to Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon,Band 16, Bibliographisches Institut Mannheim/Wien/Zürich, Lexikon Verlag 1980 Central Europe is a part of Europe composed of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Switzerland, and northern marginal regions of Italy and Yugoslavia (northern states – Croatia and Slovenia), as well as northeastern France.

File:Travel time by car or ferry from the geographical center of Europe.jpg]]

There is no general agreement either on what geographic area constitutes Central Europe, nor on how to further subdivide it geographically.{{sfn|Magocsi|2002|p=20}}

At times, the term "Central Europe" denotes a geographic definition as the Danube region in the heart of the continent, including the language and culture areas which are today included in the states of Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and usually also Germany.{{Sfn|Zepetnek|2011|p=24}}

The terminology EU11 countries refer the Central, Eastern and Baltic European member states which accessed in 2004 and after: in 2004 Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia; in 2007 Bulgaria, Romania; and in 2013 Croatia.{{cite journal |last1=Vértesy |first1=László |title=Macroeconomic Legal Trends in the EU11 Countries |journal=Public Governance, Administration and Finances Law Review |date=30 June 2018 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=94–108 |id={{ProQuest|2705387755}} |doi=10.53116/pgaflr.2018.1.9 |ssrn=3429014 |s2cid=219380180 |doi-access=free}}

The EU-funded Interreg region "Central Europe" includes the following countries and regions:{{Cite web |title=Interreg Central Europe • Interreg.eu |url=https://interreg.eu/programme/interreg-central-europe/ |access-date=2024-12-30 |website=Interreg.eu |language=en-GB}}

• Austria
• Croatia
• Czechia
• Germany: Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
• Hungary
• Italy: Lombardy, Trentino - Alto Adige, Aosta Valley, Veneto, Emiglia Romagna, Liguria, Friuli - Venezia Giulia
• Poland
• Slovakia
• Slovenia

File:Central European Free Trade Agreement.svg

The Central European Free Trade Agreement includes the following countries:

• Albania
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Kosovo
• Moldova
• Montenegro
• North Macedonia
• Serbia

File:Central Europe Katzenstein.png|Central Europe according to Peter J. Katzenstein (1997):
{{legend|#0000ff|The Visegrád Group countries are referred to as Central Europe in the book.{{sfn|Katzenstein|1997|p=6}}}}{{legend|#95e6ff|Countries for which there is no precise, uncontestable way to decide whether they are parts of Central Europe or not{{sfn|Katzenstein|1997|p=4}} }}

File:Visegrad group countries.png|According to The Economist and Ronald Tiersky, a strict definition of Central Europe means the Visegrád Group.{{sfn|Tiersky|2004|p=472}}{{cite news |date=14 April 2005 |title=From Visegrad to Mitteleuropa |newspaper=The Economist |url=http://www.economist.com/node/3871275?Story_ID=E1_PRSTNSV}}

File:Central Europe (Lonnie R. Johnson)2.PNG|Map of Central Europe, according to Lonnie R. Johnson (2011):{{sfn|Johnson|1996|p=16}}{{legend|#FE0000|Countries usually considered Central European (citing the World Bank and the OECD)}}{{legend|#FEC5C5|Countries considered to be Central European only in the broader sense of the term}}

File:Central Europe (by A.Mutton).PNG|Central Europe, according to Alice F. A. Mutton in Central Europe. A Regional and Human Geography (1961)

File:Central Europe (Larousse).PNG|Central Europe, as defined in the French Encylopédie Larousse (2009)

File:Europe médiane, Czesław Miłosz.png|Central Europe, as defined by Czesław Miłosz (1983)

File:Europe centrale, Castellan.png|Central Europe, as defined by Georges Castellan (1994)

File:Central Europe (by E. Schenk).PNG|Central Europe, as defined by E. Schenk (1950)Erich Schenk, Mitteleuropa. Düsseldorf, 1950

File:Central-Europe-Encarta.png|Central European countries in Encarta Encyclopedia (2009):{{cite encyclopedia |title=Slovenia |encyclopedia=Encarta |url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571128/Slovenia.html |access-date=1 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028131206/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571128/Slovenia.html |archive-date=28 October 2009 |url-status=dead}}
{{legend|#520fff|Central European countries}}{{legend|#57c5fa|Slovenia in "south central Europe"}}

File:Central Europe (Meyers Grosses Taschenlexikon).PNG|The Central European Countries according to Meyers Grosses Taschenlexikon (1999):
{{legend|#008000|Countries usually considered Central European}}{{legend|#74CC66|Central European countries in the broader sense of the term}}{{legend|#00FF00|Countries occasionally considered to be Central European}}

File:Central Europe (Brockhaus).PNG|Middle Europe (Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, 1998)

File:Central-Europe-SwanseaUniv.png|Central Europe according to Swansea University professors Robert Bideleux and Ian Jeffries (1998){{cite book|author1=Robert Bideleux|author2=Ian Jeffries|title=A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xdGEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA12|access-date=16 October 2015|date=10 April 2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-71984-6|page=12}}

File:Central Europe (Mayers Enzyklopaedisches Lexikon).PNG|Central Europe according to Meyers Enzyklopaedisches Lexikon (1980)

File:European_Regions_EuroVoc_(Denmark_in_Northern_Europe).png{{legend|#FF0000|Central and Eastern Europe}}{{legend|#67E863|Western Europe}}{{legend|#F6D600|Southern Europe}}{{legend|#0076D3|Northern Europe}}

]]

The choice of states that make up Central Europe is an ongoing source of controversy.{{cite news|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1124570.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110624033956/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1124570.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 June 2011 |title=For the Record | newspaper=The Washington Post |date=3 May 1990 |access-date=31 January 2010}} Although views on which countries belong to Central Europe are vastly varied, according to many sources (see section Definitions) the region includes some or all of the states listed in the sections below:

• Austria
• Croatia{{Cite web |title=Our Programme |url=https://www.interreg-central.eu/our-programme/ |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=Interreg Central Europe}}{{sfn|Johnson|1996|p={{page needed|date=October 2023}}}}{{cite web |date=September 2014 |title=In the Heavy Shadow of the Ukraine/Russia Crisis, page 10 |url=http://www.ebrd.com/downloads/research/REP/rep-2014.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.ebrd.com/downloads/research/REP/rep-2014.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |access-date=15 January 2015 |work=European Bank for Reconstruction and Development}}{{cite web |title=UNHCR in Central Europe |url=http://www.unhcr-centraleurope.org/en/about-us/unhcr-in-central-europe.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826202405/http://www.unhcr-centraleurope.org/en/about-us/unhcr-in-central-europe.html |archive-date=26 August 2013 |work=UNCHR}}{{cite web |date=October 2014 |title=Central European Green Corridors – Fast charging cross-border infrastructure for electric vehicles, connecting Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Germany and Croatia |url=http://inea.ec.europa.eu/download/project_fiches/multi_country/fichenew_2013eu92069s_final.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402222032/http://inea.ec.europa.eu/download/project_fiches/multi_country/fichenew_2013eu92069s_final.pdf |archive-date=2 April 2015 |work=Central European Green Corridors}}
• Czech Republic
• Germany
• Hungary
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania{{Cite web |title=Lithuania |url=https://www.strasbourg-europe.eu/lithuania/ |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=Information Center on the European Institutions (CIIE)}}{{Cite book |title=The Columbia Encyclopedia |date=2000 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-7876-5015-5 |editor-last=Lagassé |editor-first=Paul |edition=6th |location=New York, NY |editor-last2=Columbia University}}{{Cite web |title=StAGN Web - Gliederung Europa |url=https://www.stagn.de/DE/1_Der_StAGN/Publikationen/StAGN_GGEuropa/grosseu_node.html |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=www.stagn.de}}{{Cite web |title=Lithuania joins the Eurozone |url=https://www.ebrd.com/news/2014/lithuania-joins-the-eurozone.html |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)}}{{Cite journal |last=Eisfeld |first=Rainer |date=1993 |title=Mitteleuropa in Historical and Contemporary Perspective |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23735073 |journal=German Politics & Society |issue=28 |pages=39–52 |jstor=23735073 |issn=1045-0300}}
• Poland
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Switzerland

Depending on the context, Central European countries are sometimes not seen as a specific group, but sorted as either Eastern or Western European countries.{{Cite web |title=Geographic Regions |url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/ |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=United Nations Statistics Division}}{{cite web |author=Webra International Kft. |date=18 March 1999 |title=The Puzzle of Central Europe |url=http://www.visegradgroup.eu/the-visegrad-book/ash-timothy-garton-the |access-date=4 August 2014 |publisher=Visegradgroup.eu}} In this case Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland are often placed in Western Europe, while Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia are placed in Eastern Europe.{{cite web |url=http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm#europe |title=United Nations Statistics Division – Standard Country and Area Codes Classifications (M49) |publisher=United Nations |date=31 October 2013 |access-date=4 August 2014}}{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/worldageing19502050/pdf/96annexii.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/worldageing19502050/pdf/96annexii.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=World Population Ageing: 1950–2050|publisher=United Nations|access-date=15 January 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://eurovoc.europa.eu/drupal/?q=request&uri=http://eurovoc.europa.eu/100277 |title=Browse MT 7206 |publisher=Europa (web portal) |access-date=4 August 2014 |archive-date=5 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170105184226/http://eurovoc.europa.eu/drupal/?q=request&uri=http://eurovoc.europa.eu/100277 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://masticationmonologues.com/european-cuisine/western-europe/|title=Mastication Monologues: Western Europe|work=masticationmonologues.com|date=11 June 2014|access-date=15 January 2015}}

Croatia is alternatively placed in Southeastern Europe.{{Cite web |date=2003 |title=Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI) |url=https://unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/old_new_tir/seci/documents/GEReport0307-final.pdf |website=United Nations Economic Commission for Europe}}{{Cite web |title=South-Eastern Europe {{!}} UNECE |url=https://unece.org/south-eastern-europe |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=unece.org}}{{Cite web |title=Police Cooperation Convention for Southeast Europe (PCC SEE) |url=https://www.pccseesecretariat.si/index.php?item=9&page=static |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=PCC SEE Secretariat}} Additionally, Hungary{{Cite web |title=Member States |url=https://www.selec.org/member-states/ |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=Southeast European Law Enforcement Center}}{{Cite web |title=South-East Europe |url=https://europeanclimate.org/expertises/south-east-europe/ |access-date=2023-10-17 |website=European Climate Foundation|archive-date=29 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929061932/https://europeanclimate.org/expertises/south-east-europe/ |url-status=dead }}{{Cite book |last1=Hötte |first1=Hans |title=Atlas of Southeast Europe |last2=Mihalik |first2=Béla |publisher=Brill |year=2016 |location=Boston}}{{Cite web |date=2020 |title=The South-East European Multi-Hazard Early Warning Advisory System |url=https://www.ecmwf.int/en/newsletter/162/news/ecmwf-supports-south-east-european-multi-hazard-early-warning-advisory-system |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=ECMWF}} and Slovenia{{Cite web |title=SEECP Participants |url=https://www.seecp.info/services |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=SEECP}} are sometimes included in the region.

Lithuania is alternatively placed in Northeastern Europe.{{Cite web |last=Panda |first=Jagannath |date=2023-04-11 |title=Will There Be a "Free and Open Baltic Sea"? Japan and Northeastern Europe in a Strategic Tandem |url=https://isdp.eu/will-there-be-a-free-and-open-baltic-sea/ |access-date=2024-02-19 |website=Institute for Security and Development Policy}}File:Europe_subregion_map_UN_geoscheme.svg{{legend|#FF8080|Eastern Europe}}{{legend|#4080FF|Northern Europe}}{{legend|#00FF00|Southern Europe}}{{legend|#00FFFF|Western Europe}}

]]

Some sources also add regions of neighbouring countries for historical reasons, or based on geographical and/or cultural reasons:

• Bosnia and Herzegovina (as a former part of the Habsburg monarchy and Yugoslavia, alternatively placed in Southern or Southeast Europe){{cite book |last1=Geddes |first1=Andrew |title=The European Union and South East Europe: The Dynamics of Europeanization and Multilevel Governance |last2=Lees |first2=Charles |last3=Taylor |first3=Andrew |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-28157-0}}{{page needed|date=October 2023}}{{Cite web |title=Geographic Regions |url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/ |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=United Nations Statistics Division}}
• Estonia (considered to have been part of extended definitions of 'Mitteleuropa', alternatively placed in Eastern, Northeastern or Northern Europe)
• Italy (South Tyrol, Trentino, Trieste and Gorizia, Friuli, Lombardy, and Veneto or all of Northern Italy){{cite book |last1=Bokros |first1=Lajos |title=Accidental Occidental: Economics and Culture of Transition in Mitteleuropa, the Baltic and the Balkan Area |date=2013 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=978-615-5225-24-6 |page=2}}{{failed verification|date=August 2021}}
• Latvia (considered to have been part of extended definitions of 'Mitteleuropa')
• Romania (Transylvania, along with Banat, Crișana, Maramureș,Sven Tägil, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ll-6JYQyPsIC&dq=Transylvania+%22Central+Europe%22&pg=PA191 Regions in Central Europe: The Legacy of History], C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1999, p. 191 BukovinaKlaus Peter Berger, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gEeP9NY2qGkC&q=partof+Central+Europe&pg=PA132 The Creeping Codification of the New Lex Mercatoria], Kluwer Law International, 2010, p. 132{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_pgWBC1tyFAC&q=%22ROMANIA%20IS%20IN%20THE%20SOUTHEASTERN%20PART%20OF%20CENTRAL%20EUROPE%22&pg=PA78|title=Alan Rogers Central Europe 2007 – Quality Camping & Caravanning Sites|publisher=Alan Rogers Guides, Ltd.|page = 78|isbn=9780955048685|year=2007}}{{cite book|title=Council of Europe. Parliamentary Assembly. Official Report of Debates|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xH1gJ_OonGUC&pg=PA1579|access-date=16 October 2015|date=1994|publisher= Council of Europe|isbn=978-92-871-2516-3|page=1579}} and Muntenia along with Oltenia{{Cite web |title=Unitatile fizico-geografice din Europa Centrala – Profu' de geogra' |date=29 June 2013 |url=http://www.profudegeogra.eu/unitatile-fizico-geografice-din-europa-centrala/ |access-date=2022-06-02 |language=ro}})
• Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast)
• Serbia (primarily Vojvodina and Northern Belgrade, alternatively placed in Southeast Europe){{cite web|website =UNDP in Serbia|publisher =United Nations Development Programme|title =About Serbia|url =http://www.rs.undp.org/content/serbia/en/home/countryinfo.html|year =2018|access-date =13 November 2015|archive-date =14 May 2021|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20210514205403/https://www.rs.undp.org/content/serbia/en/home/countryinfo.html|url-status =dead}}Irena Kogan: Delayed Transition: Education and Labor Market in Serbia [https://books.google.com/books?id=a673YrEYenEC&dq=central+europe+serbia&pg=PT232], Making the Transition: Education and Labor Market Entry in Central and Eastern Europe, 2011, chapter 6{{cite web|first=Peter|last= Shadbolt |url = https://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/11/world/europe/serbia-country-profile/ |publisher= CNN|title =Serbia: the country at the crossroads of Europe|date =11 December 2014}}WMO, UNCCD, FAO, UNW-DPC [http://www.ais.unwater.org/ais/pluginfile.php/548/mod_page/content/75/Serbia_CountryReport.pdf], Country Report: Drought conditions and management strategies in Serbia, 2013, p. 1{{Sfn|Zepetnek|2011|p={{page needed|date=October 2023}}}}Government of Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's speech at the Energy Forum following a joint meeting of the Serbian and Hungarian cabinets [http://www.kormany.hu/en/the-prime-minister/the-prime-minister-s-speeches/prime-minister-viktor-orban-s-speech-at-the-energy-forum-following-a-joint-meeting-of-the-serbian-and-hungarian-cabinets] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181223073539/http://www.kormany.hu/en/the-prime-minister/the-prime-minister-s-speeches/prime-minister-viktor-orban-s-speech-at-the-energy-forum-following-a-joint-meeting-of-the-serbian-and-hungarian-cabinets|date=23 December 2018}}, Government of Hungary on Serbia, 2018
• Ukraine (Transcarpathia,{{cite book |last1=Batt |first1=Judy |chapter=Transcarpathia: Perephiral Region at the 'Centre of Europe' |page=155 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B9Mp6868gakC&pg=PA155 |editor1-last=Batt |editor1-first=Judy |editor2-last=Wolczuk |editor2-first=Kataryna |title=Region, State and Identity in Central and Eastern Europe |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-34323-0 }} Galicia and Northern Bukovina)

File:Danubemap.jpg watercourse system throughout Central and Southeastern Europe]]

Geography defines Central Europe's natural borders with the neighbouring regions to the north across the Baltic Sea, namely Northern Europe (or Scandinavia), and to the south across the Alps, the Apennine peninsula (or Italy), and the Balkan peninsula{{sfn|Magocsi|2002|p=20}} across the Soča–Krka–Sava–Danube line. The borders to Western Europe and Eastern Europe are geographically less defined, and for this reason the cultural and historical boundaries migrate more easily west–east than south–north.

Southwards, the Pannonian Plain is bounded by the rivers Sava and Danube – and their respective floodplains.[http://www.icpdr.org/main/sites/default/files/BA%20Facts%20Figures.pdf Danube Facts and Figures. Bosnia and Herzegovina (April 2007)] (PDF file) The Pannonian Plain stretches over the following countries: Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia, and touches borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine ("peri- Pannonian states").

South of the Eastern Alps (spanning Austria, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia and Switzerland),{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Dinaric-Alps |title=Dinaric Alps (mountains, Europe)|access-date=31 January 2010}} the Dinaric Alps extend for 650 kilometres along the coast of the Adriatic Sea (northwest-southeast), from the Julian Alps in the northwest down to the Šar-Korab massif, north–south. According to the Freie Universität Berlin, this mountain chain is classified as South Central European.{{cite book|author=Juliane Dittrich |url=http://www.grin.com/de/e-book/37159/die-alpen-hoehenstufen-und-vegetation |title=Die Alpen – Höhenstufen und Vegetation – Hauptseminararbeit |date=14 April 2005 |publisher=GRIN |isbn=9783638365840 |access-date=31 January 2010}} The city of Trieste in this area, for example, expressly sees itself as a città mitteleuropea. This is particularly because it lies at the interface between the Latin, Slavic, Germanic, Greek and Jewish culture on the one hand and the geographical area of the Mediterranean and the Alps on the other. A geographical and cultural assignment is made.

The Central European flora region stretches from Central France (the Massif Central) to the Northern Balkans, Central Romania (Carpathians) and Southern Scandinavia.Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch; Lehrbuch der Geobotanik. Pflanze und Vegetation in Raum und Zeit. Elsevier, Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, München 2004 {{ISBN|3-8274-1193-9}}

File:Population density in Central Europe.png

File:Population density map of the world.svg

Central Europe is one of the continent's most populous regions. It includes countries of varied sizes, ranging from tiny Liechtenstein to Germany, the second largest European country by population. Demographic figures for countries entirely located within notion of Central Europe ("the core countries") number around 173 million people, out of which around 82 million are residents of Germany.{{cite web |title=Demography report 2010|work=Eurostat |url=http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KE-ET-10-001/EN/KE-ET-10-001-EN.PDF|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227155258/http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KE-ET-10-001/EN/KE-ET-10-001-EN.PDF|archive-date=27 February 2012|access-date=12 May 2012}} Other populations include: Poland with around 38.5 million residents,{{cite web|url=http://stat.gov.pl/spisy-powszechne/nsp-2011/wyniki-spisu-nsp-2011|title=Główny Urząd Statystyczny / Spisy Powszechne / NSP 2011 / Wyniki spisu NSP 2011|date=14 July 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714010001/http://stat.gov.pl/spisy-powszechne/nsp-2011/wyniki-spisu-nsp-2011|archive-date=14 July 2014}} Czech Republic at 10.5 million,{{cite web |url=http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sources/census/2010_phc/Czech/2011CENSUS_CZE.pdf|title=Czech Republic: The Final Census Results to be Released in the Third Quarter of 2012|work=Czech Statistical Office|date=7 May 2012 |access-date=15 October 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303225533/http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sources/census/2010_phc/Czech/2011CENSUS_CZE.pdf|archive-date=3 March 2016}} Hungary at 10 million,{{cite press release|url=http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/idoszaki/nepsz2011/nepsz_sajto_20130328.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/idoszaki/nepsz2011/nepsz_sajto_20130328.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Sajtótájékoztató 2013|trans-title=Press Conference 2013|language=hu|agency=Hungarian Central Statistical Office|date=28 March 2013|access-date=15 October 2015}} Austria with 9.2 million, Switzerland with 8.5 million,{{cite web |url=http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/en/index/themen/01/02/blank/key/bevoelkerungsstand.html|title=Swiss Statistics – Overview|date=27 August 2015|publisher=Bfs.admin.ch|access-date=24 September 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160628063919/http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/en/index/themen/01/02/blank/key/bevoelkerungsstand.html|archive-date=28 June 2016}} Slovakia at 5.4 million,{{cite news |url=http://portal.statistics.sk/files/table-1.pdf|title=Development in the number of inhabitants – 2011, 2001, 1991, 1980, 1970|agency=Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic|year=2012|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114211217/http://portal.statistics.sk/files/table-1.pdf |archive-date=14 November 2012}} Croatia with 4.3 million,{{cite web |title=Central Bureau of Statistics |url=http://www.dzs.hr/Eng/censuses/census2011/results/htm/E01_01_01/e01_01_01.html |access-date=27 September 2015 |publisher=Dzs.hr |archive-date=14 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170114083102/http://www.dzs.hr/Eng/censuses/census2011/results/htm/E01_01_01/e01_01_01.html |url-status=dead }} Lithuania with 2.9 million, Slovenia with 2.1 million{{cite web |title=Population and household censuses |url=https://pxweb.stat.si/SiStat/en/Podrocja/Index/100/population |website=SiStat Database |access-date=15 January 2022}} and Liechtenstein at a bit less than 40,000.{{cite web |url=http://www.llv.li/#/11508/bevolkerungvorlaufige-ergebnisse--dezember-|title=Landesverwaltung Liechtenstein|publisher=Llv.li|access-date=24 September 2015}}

If the countries which are sometimes also included in Central Europe were counted in, partially or in whole – Romania (20 million), Latvia (2 million), Estonia (1.3 million), Serbia (7.1 million){{Cite web|url=http://www.stat.gov.rs/|title=ПОЧЕТНА {{!}} Републички завод за статистику Србије|website=www.stat.gov.rs|access-date=13 February 2019}} – this would contribute around an additional 30.4 million, although this figure would vary depending on whether a regional or integral approach is used.{{cite web|title=Total population, Candidate countries and potential candidates|work=Eurostat|url=http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tgs00027&plugin=1}} If smaller, western and eastern historical parts of Central Europe would be included in the demographic corpus, a further 20 million people of different nationalities would also be added in the overall count, surpassing a total of 200 million people.

{{Further|List of central European countries by development indexes#Economy}}

Currently, the members of the Eurozone include Austria, Croatia, Germany, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland use their own currencies (koruna, forint, Polish złoty, respectively), but are obliged to adopt the Euro. Switzerland uses its own currency (Swiss franc), as does Serbia (dinar) and Romania (Romanian leu).

{{Further|List of central European countries by development indexes#Human Development Index}}

[[File:2013 UN Human Development Report Quartiles.svg|upright=1.35|thumb|World map by quartiles of Human Development Index in 2013:

In 2018, Switzerland topped the HDI list among Central European countries, also ranking No. 2 in the world. Serbia rounded out the list at No. 11 (67 world).

{{Further|List of central European countries by development indexes#Globalisation}}

File:Globalization Index.svg

The index of globalization in Central European countries (2016 data):{{cite news|format=PDF|url=https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/dual/kof-dam/documents/Globalization/2018/Ranking_2018_2.xlsx|title=2018 KOF Globalization Index|agency=KOF Index of Globalization|year=2018|access-date=5 August 2019}} Switzerland topped this list as well (#1 world).

{{Further|List of central European countries by development indexes#Prosperity}}

Legatum Prosperity Index demonstrates an average and high level of prosperity in Central Europe (2018 data).{{Cite web|url=https://www.prosperity.com/rankings|title=Rankings|website=Legatum Prosperity Index 2018|access-date=25 July 2019}} Switzerland topped the index (#4 world).

{{Further|List of central European countries by development indexes#Corruption}}

[[File:Transparency international 2015.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Overview of the index of perception of corruption, 2015:

]]

Most countries in Central Europe tend to score above the average in the Corruption Perceptions Index (2018 data),{{Cite web|url=https://www.transparency.org/cpi2018|title=Corruption Perceptions Index 2018|last=e.V|first=Transparency International|website=transparency.org|date=29 January 2019|access-date=25 July 2019|archive-date=28 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228021007/https://www.transparency.org/cpi2018|url-status=dead}} led by Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.

File:Rail density map.svg

Central Europe contains the continent's earliest railway systems, whose greatest expansion was recorded in Austrian, Czech, German, Hungarian and Swiss territories between 1860-1870s.{{sfn|Magocsi|2002|p=1758}} By the mid-19th century Berlin, Vienna, Zurich, Pest and Prague were focal points for network lines connecting industrial areas of Saxony, Silesia, Bohemia, Moravia and Lower Austria with the Baltic (Kiel, Szczecin) and Adriatic (Rijeka, Trieste).{{sfn|Magocsi|2002|p={{page needed|date=October 2023}}}} By 1913, the combined length of the railway tracks of Austria and Hungary reached {{convert|43280|km|abbr=off}}. By 1936, 70% of the Swiss Federal Railway network had undergone electrification.{{Cite web |last=Elsasser |first=Kilian |date=2020 |title=All electricity is not the same |url=https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2020/05/electrifying-the-sbb/ |website=Swiss National Museum}}

Rail infrastructure in Central Europe remains the densest in the world. Railway density as of 2022, with total length of lines operated (km) per 1,000 km2, from highest to lowest is Switzerland (129.2), the Czech Republic (120.7), Germany (108.8), Hungary (85.0), Slovakia (74.0), Austria (66.5), Poland (61.9), Slovenia (59.6), Serbia (49.2), Croatia (46.3) and Lithuania (29.4).{{Cite web |title=Railway density - Data Portal - United Nations Economic Commission for Europe |url=https://w3.unece.org/PXWeb/en/Table?IndicatorCode=47 |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=UNECE}}{{cite web|url=http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Inland_transport_infrastructure_at_regional_level|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508143341/http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Inland_transport_infrastructure_at_regional_level|archive-date=8 May 2013|title=Inland transport infrastructure at regional level – Statistics Explained|publisher=European Commission|access-date=4 August 2014}}

Before the first railroads appeared in the 1840s, river transport constituted the main means of communication and trade.{{sfn|Magocsi|2002|p={{page needed|date=October 2023}}}} Earliest canals included Plauen Canal (1745), Finow Canal, and also Bega Canal (1710) which connected Timișoara to Novi Sad and Belgrade via the Danube.{{sfn|Magocsi|2002|p={{page needed|date=October 2023}}}} The most significant achievement in this regard was the facilitation of navigability on the Danube from the Black sea to Ulm in the 19th century.

The economies of Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland tend to demonstrate high complexity. Industrialisation reached Central Europe relatively early beginning with Germany and the Czech lands near the end of the 18th century.{{cite web|url=https://www.erih.net/how-it-started/industrial-history-of-european-countries/czech-republic |title=On the industrial history of the Czech Republic|access-date=20 May 2021}}

The industrialization of the cities of Romania{{cite book|author=Alin Rus|title=The Globalization of Rural Plays in the Twenty-First Century|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2022|page=1|isbn=978-1666915440|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJKbEAAAQBAJ&dq=industrialization+started+in+romania+interwar+period&pg=PA1}} and Serbia{{cite book|author1=Mauro Pinho|author2=Marco Antonio Schueda|author3=Danielle do Rocio Brostulin|title=Principles and concepts for development in nowadays society|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|year=2022|page=315|isbn= 9798218077921|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WffTEAAAQBAJ&dq=serbian+industrialization+interwar&pg=PA315}} started in the interwar period, and did not make significant progress until the post ww2 era.

Central European countries are some of the most significant food producers in the world. Germany is the world's largest hops producer with 34.27% share in 2010,Gnel Gabrielyan, [http://www.impact.wsu.edu/MarshFiles/AAEA%20Domestic%20and%20International%20Price%20Formation%20of%20US%20Hops.pdf Domestic and Export Price Formation of U.S. Hops] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140426215451/http://www.impact.wsu.edu/MarshFiles/AAEA%20Domestic%20and%20International%20Price%20Formation%20of%20US%20Hops.pdf |date=26 April 2014 }} School of Economic Sciences at Washington State University. PDF file, direct download 220 KB. Retrieved 25 April 2014. 3rd largest producer of rye and barley, 5th rapeseed producer, 6th largest milk producer, and 5th largest potato producer.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}} Poland is the world's largest triticale producer, 2nd largest producer of raspberries, currants, 3rd largest of rye, the 5th apple and buckwheat producer, and 7th largest producer of potatoes.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}} The Czech Republic is the world's 4th largest hops producer and 8th producer of triticale.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}} Slovenia is one of the world's leading producers of honey{{Cite web |title=Slovenia and beekeeping {{!}} GOV.SI |url=https://www.gov.si/en/registries/projects/world-bee-day/slovenija-in-cebelarstvo/ |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=Portal GOV.SI |language=en}} and the world's 6th largest hops producer.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}} Hungary is world's 5th hops and 7th largest triticale producer.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}} Serbia is the world's 2nd largest producer of plums and 2nd largest producer of raspberries.{{Cite web |title=Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Serbia |url=https://pod2.stat.gov.rs/ObjavljenePublikacije/G2012/pdf/G20122007.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101201001/http://pod2.stat.gov.rs/ObjavljenePublikacije/G2012/pdf/G20122007.pdf |archive-date=2013-11-01 |access-date=22 October 2022 |publisher=Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia |language=sr}}{{cite web |title=Serbia Overview |url=http://faostat3.fao.org/home/index.html#VISUALIZE_BY_AREA |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130401115157/http://faostat3.fao.org/home/index.html#VISUALIZE_BY_AREA |archive-date=1 April 2013 |access-date=14 June 2013 |publisher=Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations}}

Central European business has a regional organisation, Central European Business Association (CEBA), founded in 1996 in New York as a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting business opportunities within Central Europe and supporting the advancement of professionals in America with a Central European background.{{cite web|url=http://www.centraleurope.org/|title=Welcome centraleurope.org – Hostmonster.com|website=centraleurope.org|access-date=28 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160401224344/http://www.centraleurope.org/|archive-date=1 April 2016|url-status=dead}}

Central European countries, especially Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland are some of the most competitive tourism destinations.{{cite web|url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TravelTourismCompetitiveness_Report_2011.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TravelTourismCompetitiveness_Report_2011.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2011: Beyond the Downturn|work=World Economic Forum|year=2011|access-date=16 October 2015}}

{{Further|List of central European countries by development indexes#Education}}

{{Further|List of central European countries by development indexes#Languages}}

{{Further|List of central European countries by development indexes#Education performance}}

Student performance has varied across Central Europe, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment. In the 2012 study, countries scored medium, below or over the average scores in three fields studied.{{cite web|url=http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-overview.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-overview.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=PISA 2012 Results in Focus: What 15-year-olds know and what they can do with what they know|work=OECD|year=2014|access-date=16 October 2015}}

{{Further|List of central European countries by development indexes#Higher education}}

File:156 Univerzita Karlova, o Karolinum (Universitat Carolina).jpg of the Charles University in Prague]]

The first university established east of France and north of the Alps was in Prague in 1348 by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor. The Charles University was modeled upon the University of Paris and initially included the faculty of law, medicine, philosophy, and theology.Joachim W. Stieber: "Pope Eugenius IV, the Council of Basel and the secular and ecclesiastical authorities in the Empire: the conflict over supreme authority and power in the church", Studies in the history of Christian thought, Vol. 13, Brill, 1978, {{ISBN|90-04-05240-2}}, p.82; Gustav Stolper: "German Realities", Read Books, 2007, {{ISBN|1-4067-0839-9}}, p. 228; George Henry Danton: "Germany ten years after", Ayer Publishing, 1928, {{ISBN|0-8369-5693-1}}, p. 210; Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius: "The German Myth of the East: 1800 to the Present", Oxford Studies in Modern European History Series, Oxford University Press, 2009, {{ISBN|0-19-954631-2}}, p. 109; Levi Seeley: "History of Education", BiblioBazaar, {{ISBN|1-103-39196-8}}, p. 141

File:Nádor Street 9, Building of CEU entrance.jpg in Budapest]]

In 1991, Ernest Gellner proposed the establishment of a truly Central European institution of higher learning in Prague (1991–1995).{{cite journal|url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-mondes1-2014-2-page-129.htm|title=Transnational Philanthropy and Nationalism: The Early Years of Central European University|date=2014 |doi=10.3917/mond.142.0129 |access-date=20 May 2021 |last1=Pospíšilová |first1=Tereza |journal=Monde(s) |issue=2 |pages=129–146 }} Eventually, the Central European University (CEU) project was taken on and financially supported by the Hungarian philanthropist George Soros, who had provided an endowment of US$880 million, making the university one of the wealthiest in Europe.{{cite web|url=http://chronicle.com/article/For-President-of-Central/65338/|title=For President of Central European University, All Roads Led to Budapest|work=The Chronicle of Higher Education|author=Aisha Labi|date=2 May 2010|access-date=15 January 2015}} Over its 30-year history CEU has become one of the most internationally diverse and recognisable universities in the world. For example, as of 2019, 1217 students were enrolled in the university, of which 962 were international students, making the student body the fourth most international in the world.{{Cite web |title=World University Rankings 2020 |url=https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2020 |access-date=2023-06-05 |website=Top Universities}} CEU offers highly selective programs with a student to faculty ratio of 7:1.{{Cite web |title=Central European University |url=https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/central-european-university |access-date=2023-06-05 |website=Top Universities}} In 2021, the admission rate into its programs was 13%.{{Cite web |title=Institutional Factbook: Student Admissions {{!}} Central European University |url=https://www.ceu.edu/institutional-factbook/admissions |access-date=2023-06-05 |website=www.ceu.edu}} CEU has thus become a leading global university in Europe promoting a distinctively Central European perspective while emphasizing academic rigor, applied research, and academic honesty and integrity.{{cite web|url=https://eua.eu/news/182:eua-denounces-dismantling-of-university-autonomy-in-hungary.html|title=CEU Facts and Figures|publisher=Central European University|access-date=20 May 2021|archive-date=21 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521025528/https://eua.eu/news/182:eua-denounces-dismantling-of-university-autonomy-in-hungary.html|url-status=dead}} CEU is a founding member of CIVICCA, a group of prestigious European higher education institutions in the social sciences, humanities, business management and public policy, such as Sciences Po (France), The London School of Economics and Political Science (UK), Bocconi University (Italy) and the Stockholm School of Economics (Sweden).{{Cite web |title=About CIVICA – The European University of Social Sciences |url=https://www.civica.eu/who-we-are/about-civica/ |access-date=2023-06-05 |website=civica.eu |language=de}} In 2019, Central European University leadership announced their preparatory work on moving CEU to Vienna because of legal constraints against academic freedom in Hungary.{{cite web|url=https://www.ceu.edu/article/2019-03-22/central-european-university-announces-new-vienna-campus|title=Central European University Announces New Vienna Campus|access-date=20 May 2021}}

{{See also|Magdeburg rights}}

Research centres of Central European literature include Harvard University (Cambridge, MA),{{cite web|url=http://static.fas.harvard.edu/registrar/ugrad_handbook/current/chapter4/slavces.html|title=Central European Studies|author=Faculty of Arts and Sciences Harvard College|publisher=Static.fas.harvard.edu|access-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304075439/http://static.fas.harvard.edu/registrar/ugrad_handbook/current/chapter4/slavces.html|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}} Purdue University,{{cite book |last1=Totosy de Zepetnek |first1=Steven |title=Comparative Central European Culture |date=2002 |publisher=Purdue University Press |isbn=978-1-61249-017-5 |id={{Project MUSE|4130|type=book}} }}{{page needed|date=October 2023}} and Central European Studies Programme (CESP), Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.{{cite web|url=https://czs.muni.cz/en/student-from-abroad/exchange-non-degree-studies/cesp|title=Central European Studies Programme (CESP)|access-date=20 May 2021}}

{{Further|List of Central European countries by development indexes}}

{{multiple image

| align = right

| total_width = 450

| image1 = Percent of Catholics in Europe by Country–Pew Research 2011 (no legend).svg

| alt1 =

| caption1 = Adherence to Catholicism in Europe

| image2 = European_countries_by_percentage_of_Protestants_(2010).svg

| alt2 =

| caption2 = Adherence to Protestantism in Europe

| footer = Central European major Christian denomination is Catholicism as well as large Protestant populations. Click map to see legend.

}}

Central European countries are mostly Catholic (Austria, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia) or historically both Catholic and Protestant (the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and Switzerland). Large Protestant groups include Lutheran, Calvinist, and the Unity of the Brethren affiliates. Significant populations of Eastern Catholicism and Old Catholicism are also prevalent throughout Central Europe. Orthodox Christianity is a minority denomination observed to varying extents across Central Europe.

Central Europe has been the center of the Protestant movement for centuries, with the majority of Protestants suppressed and annihilated during the Counterreformation.{{cite web|url=http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/262/268312/art/figures/KISH_13_309.gif|title=Map: The Religious Divisions of Europe ca. 1555|publisher=Pearson|access-date=16 October 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/europe_religion_1560.htm|title=Map of Europe in 1560: Religion|publisher=Emersonkent.com |access-date=24 September 2015}}

Historically, people in Bohemia in today's Czech Republic were some of the first Protestants in Europe. As a result of the Thirty Years' War following the Bohemian Revolt, many Czechs were either killed, executed (see for Old Town Square execution), forcibly turned into Roman Catholics, or emigrated to Scandinavia and the Low Countries. In the aftermath of the Thirty Years' War, the number of inhabitants in the Kingdom of Bohemia decreased from three million to only 800,000 from multiple factors, including devastating ongoing battles such as the significant Battle of White Mountain and the Battle of Prague (1648). However, in recent years, most Czechs report as overwhelmingly non-religious, with some describing themselves as Catholic (10.3%).

Before the Holocaust (1941–45), there was also a sizeable Ashkenazi Jewish community in the region, numbering approximately 16.7 million people.{{cite book|title=American Jewish Year Book|publisher=American Jewish Committee|url=http://www.ajcarchives.org/main.php?GroupingId=10142|access-date=31 May 2017|archive-date=5 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505002513/http://www.ajcarchives.org/main.php?GroupingId=10142|url-status=dead}} Poland, Lithuania and Hungary had the largest Jewish populations in Europe as a percentage of their total populations, with Jews constituting 9.5% of the Polish population in 1933.{{Cite web |title=Jewish Population of Europe in 1933: Population Data by Country |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jewish-population-of-europe-in-1933-population-data-by-country |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org}}

Certain countries in Central Europe, particularly the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland have sizeable atheist and non-religious populations. In 2021, 48% of the Czech population declared that they had no religion.{{Cite web |title=Czech Republic |url=https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/czech-republic/ |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=United States Department of State}} In 2022, 43.8% of the German population declared that they had no religion.{{Cite web |date=2023-08-25 |title=Religionszugehörigkeiten 2022 |url=https://fowid.de/meldung/religionszugehoerigkeiten-2022 |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=fowid.de |language=de}} Meanwhile, 33.5% of the Swiss population stated that they were not affiliated with any religion.{{Cite web |last=Office |first=Federal Statistical |title=Religions |url=https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistiken/bevoelkerung/sprachen-religionen/religionen.html |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=bfs.admin.ch}}

Central European cuisine has evolved over centuries because of social and political change and is generally diverse. However, the national cuisines of western Central Europe share notable similarities, as do the cuisines of eastern Central Europe. Sausages, salamis and cheeses are popular in most of Central Europe, with the earliest evidence of cheesemaking in the archaeological record dates back to 5,500 BCE (Kuyavia region, Poland).{{cite journal|url=http://www.nature.com/news/art-of-cheese-making-is-7-500-years-old-1.12020|title=Art of cheese-making is 7,500 years old|journal=Nature News & Comment|year=2012|doi=10.1038/nature.2012.12020|last1=Subbaraman|first1=Nidhi|s2cid=180646880}} Other popular food items in Central Europe include soups, stews, pickled and fermented vegetables. Schnitzel, goulash and cabbage rolls are popular in the region.

Another common feature among Central European cuisines, particularly Austrian, Croatian, Lithuanian, Slovenian and Swiss cuisine, is the use of wild ingredients in traditional dishes, spanning from wild herbs to mushrooms and berries. Beer consumption is also prominent in parts of Central Europe, where the Czech Republic has the highest beer consumption per capita globally, followed by Austria, with Germany coming 4th. The cuisines of Central European countries that are included in broader definitions of Eastern Europe share similarities and traditions with other Eastern European cuisines. This is particularly evident in the cuisines of Lithuania and Poland, which feature dishes like borscht, pierogi and sour rye soup.

Generally, the countries in the region have been progressive on the issue of human rights: death penalty is illegal in all of them, corporal punishment is outlawed in most of them and people of both genders can vote in elections. However, Central European countries are divided on the subject of same-sex marriage and abortion. Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland also have a history of participation in the CIA's extraordinary rendition and detention program, according to the Open Society Foundations.{{cite web|url=https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/projects/globalizing-torture|title=CIA Secret Detention and Torture|work=Open Society Foundations|access-date=24 September 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925221248/https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/projects/globalizing-torture|archive-date=25 September 2015}}{{cite web|url=https://www.transcend.org/tms/2013/02/the-latin-american-exception-how-a-washington-global-torture-gulag-was-turned-into-the-only-gulag-free-zone-on-earth/|title=Transcend Media Service|access-date=24 September 2015}}

Regional writing tradition revolves around the turbulent history of the region, as well as its cultural diversity.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/in-praise-of-writers-bloc-how-the-tedium-of-life-under-communism-gave-rise-to-a-literature-alive-1964099.html|title=In praise of writers' bloc: How the tedium of life under Communism gave rise to a literature alive with surrealism and comedy|work=The Independent|access-date=24 September 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/titles/format/9781557532404|title=Comparative Central European Culture|publisher=Thepress.purdue.edu|access-date=24 September 2015}} Its existence is sometimes challenged.{{cite web|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2010/05/central-european-cioran-czech|title=Czech mates|work=New Statesman|access-date=24 September 2015}} Specific courses on Central European literature are taught at Stanford University,[https://undergrad.stanford.edu/courses/central-european-literature] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150223160430/https://undergrad.stanford.edu/courses/central-european-literature|date=23 February 2015}} Harvard University{{cite web|url=http://slavic.fas.harvard.edu/pages/secondary-fields|title=Secondary Fields|publisher=Slavic.fas.harvard.edu|access-date=24 September 2015}} and Jagiellonian University{{cite web|url=https://www.usosweb.uj.edu.pl/kontroler.php?_action=actionx:katalog2/przedmioty/pokazPrzedmiot(kod:WSM.IE-S33D)|title=Literatura Środkowoeuropejska w poszukiwaniu tożsamości|publisher=Usosweb.uj.edu.pl|access-date=24 September 2015}} as well as cultural magazines dedicated to regional literature.{{cite web|url=http://literalab.com/|title=literalab|access-date=24 September 2015}} Angelus Central European Literature Award is an award worth 150,000.00 PLN (about $50,000 or £30,000) for writers originating from the region.{{cite web|url=http://angelus.com.pl/english/regulations/|title=Regulations|publisher=Angelus.com.pl|access-date=24 September 2015|archive-date=15 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015211148/http://angelus.com.pl/english/regulations/|url-status=dead}} Likewise, the Vilenica International Literary Prize is awarded to a Central European author for "outstanding achievements in the field of literature and essay writing".{{cite web |url= http://vilenica.si/en/about-vilenica/|title= About Vilenica|author= |publisher= Vilenica Literary Festival|access-date= 14 February 2018}}

{{Further|List of central European countries by development indexes#Media}}

There is a number of Central European Sport events and leagues. They include:

• Central European Tour Miskolc GP (Hungary)*
• Central European Tour Budapest GP (Hungary)
• 2008 Central Europe Rally (Romania and Hungary)*
• 2023 Central Europe Rally (Germany, Austria and Czech Republic)
• Central European Football League (Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey)
• Central European International Cup (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and Yugoslavia; 1927–1960)
• Central Europe Throwdown*{{cite web|url=http://centraleuropethrowdown.com/#?aboutUs|title=Central Europe Throwdown 2015|access-date=24 September 2015|archive-date=8 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908063635/http://centraleuropethrowdown.com/#?aboutUs|url-status=dead}}

Football is one of the most popular sports. Countries of Central Europe hosted several major competitions. Germany hosted two FIFA World Cups (1974 and 2006) and two UEFA European Championships (1988 and 2024). Yugoslavia hosted the UEFA Euro 1976 before the competition expanded to 8 teams. Recently, the 2008 and 2012 UEFA European Championships were held in Austria & Switzerland and Poland & Ukraine respectively.

{{Further|List of central European countries by development indexes#Politics}}

Central Europe is a birthplace of regional political organisations:

• Central European Defence Cooperation
• Central European Free Trade Agreement
• Central European Initiative
• Centrope
• Middleeuropean Initiative
• Three Seas Initiative
• Visegrád Group

File:CEDC.svg|Central European Defence Cooperation

File:CEFTA 1992.PNG|CEFTA founding states

File:CEFTA 2003.PNG|CEFTA members in 2003, before joining the EU

File:Central European Free Trade Agreement.svg|Current CEFTA members

File:CEI members.svg|Central European Initiative

File:Three Seas Initiative.svg|Three Seas Initiative

File:Visegrad group countries.svg|Visegrád Group

{{Further|List of central European countries by development indexes#Democracy}}

File:Democracy Index 2022.svg Democracy index map for 2022, with greener colours representing more democratic countries]]

Central Europe is a home to some of world's oldest democracies. However, most of them have been impacted by totalitarianism, particularly Fascism and Nazism. Germany and Italy occupied all Central European countries, except Switzerland. In all occupied countries, the Axis powers suspended democracy and installed puppet regimes loyal to the occupation forces. Also, they forced conquered countries to apply racial laws and formed military forces for helping German and Italian struggle against Communists. After World War II, almost the whole of Central Europe (the Eastern and Middle part) had been transformed into communist states, most of which had been occupied and later allied with the Soviet Union, often against their will through forged referendum (such as the Polish people's referendum in 1946) or force (northeast Germany, Poland, Hungary et alia). Nevertheless, those experiences have been dealt in most of them. Most Central European countries score very highly in the Democracy Index.{{cite news|format=PDF |url=https://portoncv.gov.cv/dhub/porton.por_global.open_file?p_doc_id=1034 |title=Democracy index 2012: Democracy at a standstill: A report from The Economist Intelligence Unit |newspaper=The Economist |year=2013 |access-date=15 October 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103104154/https://portoncv.gov.cv/dhub/porton.por_global.open_file?p_doc_id=1034 |archive-date=3 January 2015 }}

{{Further|List of central European countries by development indexes#Global Peace Index}}

File:Global Peace Index.svg

In spite of its turbulent history, Central Europe is currently one of world's safest regions. Most Central European countries are in top 20%.{{Cite web|url=http://www.visionofhumanity.org/#page/indexes/global-peace-index/2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080520114004/http://www.visionofhumanity.org/#page/indexes/global-peace-index/2015|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 May 2008|title=Global Peace Index|website=Vision of Humanity}}

File:Time zones of Europe.svg

The time zone is a standard time, which is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. Countries using CET include:

• Albania
• Andorra
• Austria
• Belgium
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• France
• Germany
• Hungary
• Italy
• Luxembourg
• Monaco
• Montenegro
• Netherlands
• North Macedonia
• Norway
• Poland
• San Marino
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Serbia
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Vatican City

Central Europe is mentioned in the 35th episode of Lovejoy, entitled "The Prague Sun", filmed in 1992. While walking over the well-regarded and renowned Charles Bridge in Prague, the main character, Lovejoy, says: "I've never been to Prague before. Well, it is one of the great unspoiled cities in Central Europe. Notice: I said: 'Central', not 'Eastern'! The Czechs are a bit funny about that, they think of Eastern Europeans as turnip heads."{{cite web|title=Lovejoy – Season 3, Episode 13: The Prague Sun |url=http://www.tv.com/shows/lovejoy/the-prague-sun-78515/|website=TV.com|access-date=26 November 2014 |archive-date=15 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015211148/http://www.tv.com/shows/lovejoy/the-prague-sun-78515/ |url-status=dead}}

Wes Anderson's Oscar-winning film The Grand Budapest Hotel depicts a fictional grand hotel located somewhere in Central Europem, which is in actuality modelled on the Grandhotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. The film is a celebration of 1920s and 1930s Central Europe with its artistic splendor and societal sensibilities.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-grand-budapest-hotel-wes-andersons-artistic-manifesto|title='The Grand Budapest Hotel': Wes Anderson's Artistic Manifesto|author=Richard Brody|date=7 March 2014|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=24 September 2015}}{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-env-live-blog-oscars-20150222-htmlstory.html|title=Oscars 2015 live updates: J.K. Simmons, 'Grand Budapest Hotel' win first awards |work=Los Angeles Times|date=22 February 2015|access-date=24 September 2015}}

{{Portal|Geography|Europe}}

• Central and Eastern Europe
• Geographical midpoint of Europe
• Life zones of central Europe
• Międzymorze (Intermarum)

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{{Sister project links|auto=1|q=East/Central Europe|wikt=y}}

• [http://www.ece.ceu.hu Journal of East Central Europe]
• [http://www.politicsincentraleurope.eu/ Central European Political Science Association's journal "Politics in Central Europe"]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100503141351/http://www.ceu.hu/poliscijournal CEU Political Science Journal (PSJ)]
• [http://www.cejiss.org/ Central European Journal of International and Security Studies]
• [http://www.cepsr.com/ Central European Political Studies Review]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150120161454/https://www.wien.gv.at/english/politics/international/strategy/mycentrope.html The Centrope region]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111120070558/http://www.europemaps.info/ Maps of Europe and European countries]
• [http://www.central2020.eu/ CENTRAL EUROPE 2020] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015211149/http://www.central2020.eu/ |date=15 October 2015 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110805130513/http://www.databasece.com/en/macro-summary Central Europe Economy]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130826202405/http://www.unhcr-centraleurope.org/en/about-us/unhcr-in-central-europe.html UNHCR Office for Central Europe]

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Category:Regions of Europe