Editing Central Europe (section)

===Mitteleuropa===
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 (historian)|Fritz Fischer]] ''Mitteleuropa'' was a scheme in the era of the [[German Empire|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]].<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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}}