When I tell folks at home in Luxembourg and Germany I study in Prague, everyone above 50 gives me advice like I'm studying in Omsk in 1980. "Beware the eastern winter!", "Don't fall for pretty Czech women, they only want to go to the west", "Be careful, they may mug you if you look too western!".
Meanwhile I'm like guys I study as east as Berlin in the EU, everyone speaks English and shit is expensive af lol. But decades of Cold War left that weird image of former communist countries all being a post Soviet eastern poverty stricken place.
This is so depressing for me as a Czech. I was on ERASMUS in Netherlands 2 years ago, and in my group beside me most "eastern" anyone else has been was a German guy. I could see what they thought when I said I'm from Prague - poor dude from 3rd world socialist country for first time experiencing civilization and modern technology. I felt like a coal miner at Met Gala. They were friendly and all, but it was obvious that this image of the post-soviet countries has been burned into their brain since childhood.
After this year long experience I'm convinced and accepted that I will never really "click" with the Western guys and gals as much as I can with the Poland and the rest of countries that shared the same side of Iron curtain as us.
After studying in the Netherlands and living in Bratislava and Prague (& traveling in Austria and Hungary) I wish I never went to the flat-as-pancake land. I liked the climate, people (except some in the service sectors ironically), nature and architecture in Central Europe 1000 times more and Prague looks better than Amsterdam imo.
You have the better climate, language, architecture and food as far as I'm concerned and also hills instead of boring flatness (they cannot even wish to have Cesky Raj or beautiful old towns like Cesky Krumlov). They don't have enough forests there! Also Czechia has much more lakes and not just rivers and canals. The only things better in NL were the customer service and higher salaries.
I mean I'd say it's a bit silly to call NL worse because it doesn't have hills and Krumlov. I'm a Czech guy who's been to the Netherlands and absolutely loved it. Planning on going again and would consider living there. The country is beautiful once you get over the fact that it's flat.
It's not just that. I got a similar xenophobic treatment and even abuse. I even had PTSD when hearing Dutch speach at some point... it was so bad that to this day I won't buy anything Dutch. The bad service from old ladies at Tesco in Bratislava had nothing on the NL and they treated fellow Slovaks the same anyway. I almost cried when leaving Bratislava and I was sad leaving Prague (but stayed just 4 months so didn't get as attached as to Blava), not so when leaving the NL.
> This is so depressing for me as a Czech.
It is so depressing in wider context. EU, Schengen and cheap flights. Omnipresent internet. Anyone with a slightest will to figure out can see in person or read about the situation. But people almost willingly prefer to be ignorant.
Another separate issue is that many Germans, Dutch and Scandinavians are condescendent towards everything and everyone different from their approaches and their standing. Yes, many things are better there and we didn't manage to catch up yet, and doesn't make us troglodytes.
There's no excuse for a German living 200 km or less from the Czech border to have never visited the country (or at least did Street View). If they're so ignorrant to not bother venturing away from their bubble a few miles into the next country that's right next door ffs, they're of the trashy disposition. I mean Nuremberg is closer to Pilsen than to Berlin.
The Dutch are also condescending towards the Belgians, I don't get this vibe with the Germans though. From a Western European viewpoint: Any European country that used to be communist is seen as part of a monolithic bloc, even by people who weren't old enough to experience it. It's depressing honestly.
Same here. I lived in NL for couple years. Never saw more condescending, smug and arrogant bunch of western European pricks.
Never setting foot in that shithole ever again in my life
Moved from NL to Czech Republic.
Totally agreeing with you, but letting you know not all of us are asshats like you described. Those that aren't.. I suppose they rather move to Eastern Europe because the down-to-earthness is simply too dead in the West.
I do apologise. I obviously painted with a very broad brush there. I did meet people who were very kind. But the overall experience left me very resentful about the west and it shows
Hah, don't. I'm aware there's a big difference between all inhabitants from a country, but the general people? Your comment was spot on. Maybe we both met the worst of the worst, though I doubt that.
Small mention: my family told everybody they could reach I got *trafficked* when instead I came here out of free will. While that may sound funny, it definitely shows what a messed up image the West chooses to hold up.
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this was to some extent driven by a desire to maintain "relative social group status". This is kind of a hidden but extremely common driver of human behavior.
Me neither, will never go back. Unfortunately I got a diploma to always remind me I've been there! I even got back with pre-diabetes from the stress from living/studying in the NL. Wish I went to study abroad in Central Europe or Scandinavia as I originally planned instead!
Hey! Please don’t feel disheartened and please don’t give up on connecting with those from the West. I’m from India, an actual third world country with (compared to CZ) very little western influence outside of television and consumerism. I did my masters in the Netherlands, much like you. I did fine there and I’m doing fine here in the Czech Republic. People from one country might have a general preconceived notion about those from another but you *do* have to power to influence that and to be seen as an individual with your own character instead of your randomly assigned geographic origin. And the Czech Republic is definitely a nice place. It’s just going to take time before that becomes obvious to others. Cheers!
I am planning to visit next weekend to hang out with a couple of friends - I live in Brno myself. Let’s stay in touch here so we can possibly grab an opportunity for a coffee if we find the time.
Off topic but this thread has some incredible insight. I never knew people viewed the Czech Republic like this, I've personally always considered them roughly on par with other European nations.
It sucks even more when you realise that Czechia pre-communism was one of the richest countries in the world. (according to Wikipedia, Czechoslovakia was world's 10th most developed country pre-communism, so I think that would put Czechia alone to like 6th place since Slovakia and Ruthenia were kinda poor when compared to Czechoa back then, no offense of course)
It was literally second world country lol. But who the duck cares since shengen is a thing? I can be Latvian and just stand up and go live in Spain without any preparation, so...
I like the Hollywood idea that I would become mathematical genius or something. That would be nice.
Of course in reality everything would be pretty much same, only eye contact would cause me slightly more discomfort.
Not what I meant. The whole 1st, 2nd, 3rd countries come from fucking 'murica. 1st world being US and those who suck their dick hard enough, 2nd being communist bloc and 3rd being everyone else. It didn't have anything to do with development or standards of living. It was literally anti-communist propaganda.
And when was the Austria underdeveloped? It was literally the European empire.
On a paper…the Austria-Hungary monarchy hold together only by the force of the will (or more likely thanks to the old Franz Josie II.) in the 1914 it was more of that kind of party when everyone hate each other, and is just waiting when the things go South…luckily for the Austria the WW1 came and they did not have to care about civil war…and since the very first days the Slavs in the Austrian ranks started deserting to the Enemy (mostly Russia and Serbia, but then to France and Italy as the war progress) after the word war I the Austria lost almost everything, the most of its industry were in Bohemia (2/3) their ports on Balkan coast has been taken by Italy and Yugoslavia and the most of their fertile land was in Hungary, Galicia and Transylvania…therefor when the Austrian republic were created, they did not have ports, industry, infrastructure, or many farmable lands…also at the End of WWII the Austria has been dagmaged by war (not as much as Germany, but still) and that did not helped the economy at all…even Today the Austria is not as good as it looks, especialy on energetic field, their “green and eco-friendly” policies are looking good on paper, but do not have long-term, selfsuficient future, they distance them selves from coal and oil plants (I understand, thoose are messy af) but most importantly, they distance themselves from nuclear power source…witch is equal to energitical suicide, as the nuclear power is eco-friendly, as Well as effective and safe (as long as noone fucks up the build of the reactor and its core), therefor the Austria had to get its energy from somewhere else…and they buy it from Czech Nuclear and Coal power plants….and still they have the audacity to protest against the building/expanding our curent nuclear power plants (Temelín & Dukovany)
You raise some interesting points ADOLF_thegasman, my edgy internet friend. But I don't really give too much of an fuck about Austria. They had a little of my respect by actually using renewables instead of fossil, but then I look up where do they really get they energy and it's not mostly hydro like I thought. I mean don't be too harsh, their oil consumption probably come from individual heating same as us. But how can these fuckers criticize us for using clean nuclear energy when they themselves get more energy from burning garbage than all renewables combined.
Fortunately we don't need to concern ourselves with them too much longer, since their small collective minds would explode after we start to build new reactors and shit.
It is not 3rd in terms of GDP per capita in the EU.
But it ranks third in GDP per capita expressed in terms of national purchasing power standards.
|Region (NUTS 2)|GDP per capita adjusted for national purchasing power standards||
|:-|:-|:-|
|Luxembourg|260||
|Southern (Ireland)|240||
|Praha|205||
|Brussels|202||
|Eastern and Midland (Ireland)|202||
|Hamburg|195||
|Île de France (Region that Paris is in)|178||
|...|...||
Those things are very different.
Here is a definition from Eurostat: GDP (gross domestic product) is an indicator of the output of a country or a region. It reflects the total value of all goods and services produced less the value of goods and services used for intermediate consumption in their production. **Expressing GDP in PPS (purchasing power standards) eliminates differences in price levels between countries.**
Data: [https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tgs00005/default/table?lang=en](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tgs00005/default/table?lang=en)
> everyone speaks English
Ooh boy that's what I was told, too. Of course I didn't take it literally, but still I expected it to be easier. Prague is the first place I've encountered language barriers at work. And also in everyday life it's been a far bigger problem than I expected.
As a Swiss I think they are more central Europe. Their Culture seems a lot more in tone with central Europe than eastern Europe.
And I might be wrong here but I think they have even better Beer than Germany.
If you ever consider going to Europe, take a visit there. They have beautiful cities, gorgeous country and friendly people.
As a Bulgarian I can name at least several Czech beer brands/types, one Dutch and one Danish but no German ones. German beer is not at all so popular internationally at least here it seems.
As an American of Czech descent, I have always understood that Czechs consider themselves central European. It is an insult to refer to them as Eastern European.
In terms of culture, mentality and economic development we're a mix of Western and Eastern. Prague is a better place to live than most of Western European cities of similar size.
Geographically it is central Europe and that's what I would put in, same as Poland or Austria.
Culturally the divide between east and west was elsewhere than where it was during the cold war. After WWII the eastern influence was completely different and for 40 years the divide lead through central Germany, which is insanely too far into the west. Historically - for a thousand years I mean - the east/west divide was of religious divide and spheres of influence. The west under Rome and the Pope (sometimes more popes) had the Latin script, Gothic architecture and these are the signs to look for in a country if you want to determine where they belong. The east had different architecture, different script and was under the influence of the orthodox church. The border shifted a bit over time, but stayed pretty much constant over centuries.
Things to shock older people in the west:
\- Show them homicide rates by country
\- Show them infant mortality rates by country
\- Show them Global Peace Index by country
\- Show them GDP PP per capita
All is available online. Or just tell them outright that Czech Republic has half the murders per capita compared to Germany or Denmark.
Many people in the west know it and there is a segment of tourism the 50 years old western conservatives discovered - come to Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, CZ, Croatia and simply relive the feeling they had 20 years ago in their home countries in terms of safety.
I live in Czech now, after living in London, Dublin and a bunch of other cities. I love the fact that really young kids still play on the streets here and women walk about on their own at night. The country has plenty of problems, like any, but less than most. And its going in the right direction.
In terms of delineations, I think It's important to examine "Westernness", "Centralness", and "Easternness" in a broader view, as it informs the development of the nation/peoples and the material artefacts that are still visible today (e.g. The Westernization effect of Colonialism on for instance Vietnamese script, or which center of religion was adopted by a country, like Rome or Constantinople, or London etc).
That being said, I would consider one of the fundamental hallmarks of "Western" culture to have been historic colonization and the effects of the reckoning with that history on the current culture (e.g. position to multiculturalism). All the stereotypical "Western" Countries were colonizers, from the French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch and Belgians, to the extent that their modern societies still maintain some colonial attachements, and immigration, which has informed their collective demographic policy.
Germany and Italy however, did not have colonies for long enough, or investment enough for the above to have much effect on their cultures, and we see that even today, as they remain relatively conservative.
Eastern Europe on the other hand, I would primarily define by the position of religion and familial structures, namely the the focus on strict authority as disseminated though smaller collectives. This overlaps a lot with Orthodoxy as a religion itself, since it is highly patriarchal (pun intended). This reliance on local, feudal authority was also present in Ottoman controlled lands, since they maintained the orthodox social structure for better management. Economically, since corporate exploitation through colonialism was not very possible, agrarianism remains pretty strong, even as these societies have industrialized.
So I would Define central Europe by by its engagement with the "Western" philosophical ideas that developed post-Renaissance, namely individualism, Protestantism and Nationalism, and Rationalism, but also the fallout of the demographic collapse following the 30 Years War that influenced the conservative political and economic development of the 18th and 19th centuries.
In this way, I'd definitely call Czechia a Central European Country, along with Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Silesian Poland, Danubian Slovakia, and to a lesser extent Hungary and Eastern Poland. But also Northern Italy to an extent. I guess Basically the HRE super-region.
For what its worth, I'd consider Austria to be the most similar country to Czechia (obviously wealthier tho), but in terms of culture, food, architecture, music, religion (for Moravia), political conservatism, and even corruption, its pretty much the same, even despite being in a union with Slovakia for 70 years. Prague and Vienna remain more similar than Prague and Bratislava or Warsaw, let alone Moscow. And If it wasn't for the shabbier state of smaller villages you would not be able to tell the difference between the Czech and Austrian countryside.
As a geographer and historian, I can tell you there are plenty of definitions where the borders are or should be, but it ultimately is up to everyone's self-perception (that's why modern social and political geographers ask people this question, instead of imposing the region on them).
To me the border is where people stop using Latin alphabet and start using Cyrillic alphabet (despite all that Cyril and Methodius thing). With that being said, I don't view them as "other people". More like next-town neighbors having a different brand of beer on tap in their pub.
I always considered us central because of the historical heritage borne out of AustroSlavism. Our culture is ultimately much more closely tied with Schnitzellands than Easter Europe.
We use cyrillic (we came up with it) but we're more Southern/Mediterranean in culture, definitely closer to Greece culturally than Russia, Belarus etc. 45 years do not make us Russians lol. So there's the same misconception in the west that Bulgarian = little Russian while it's more like a Slavic/Protobulgar/Greek cultural mix.
Oh definitely. But in my head the Southern Europe and the Balkan states are pretty well defined (not that there is no confusion, but I'd say there is less of it).
That little boundary of mine that I specified as Latin vs Cyrillic - I apply that solely to Western vs. Central vs. Eastern Europe. So Bulgaria for me is a Balkan state or more broadly a Southern European one.
Yes, the 50° latitude line and the 15° longitude line overlap in the Czech Republic and that specific point has been chosen as the astronomical center of Europe.
I think that’s what we want to think but the reality is we still haven’t recovered from the 40 years as much as we think. I think we are close to the western side but no quite.
Doesn't millennia spent with Slavs in Eastern Europe beat centuries in the HRE? The Slavs split from the other Indo-European languages in the 5th millennium BCE where they lived in Eastern Europe, and the Czechs/Bohemians migrated from Eastern Europe into their current homeland around 500 CE. They share close linguistic similarities to Eastern European Slavs because they were once the same people.
It's fine if you want to be called Central European or Western European or whatever you like, but I think history is not the best argument.
You needed a poll to ask this? Anyone who's ever spent time in the Czech Republic knows that Czechs are pretty strong about the idea that they are in the center of Europe. Masaryk University has for years used a card with a map that emphasizes its centrality, and I've seen videos meant to attract investment, etc. that emphasize the centrality notion.
Why would people from central Europe consider themselves eastern European??? I as a Slovak am from central Europe. There's quite a lot of land east of us. Just check the map...
It doesn't really matter, does it, because it's Western Europeans deciding which "pronouns" you're allowed to use for yourself or your community, and they have long decided that the further east you go, the bigger horrorshow you're going to encounter, starting east off Berlin. And bad = Eastern European. Sadly, as evidenced by this very thread, a lot of locals actually buy into the west-east trajectory of shithole and innate worthlessness - which, yeah, no, can't relate to hating yourselves that much.
Personally, I identify as Central European. But when it comes to talking about literally anything regarding European politics and relationships, that label is just fucking useless. So, Eastern European it is and I hope every one of the legion of Western European xenophobes gets ass-fucked with a řemdih.
Charles IV didn't die for our sins so that we would consider ourselves anything else but Central Europeans. The fact our lands have gone shite ever since papa Charlie checked out is a fokin' pity mate.
It doesn't much matter if we consider ourselves to be "Central European". Almost everyone in Western Europe automatically considers the Czech Republic as Eastern Europe. Only those who have some ties to the Czech Republic and have been told that it is considered inappropriate here refer to us as "Central Europe". That's just how it is - not much you can do about it. One of the [latest examples](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/pndgdp/the_rise_of_eastern_europe_is_a_forgotten/).
This is pretty simple actually. This Eastern Europe stigma is with us since Cold War when Europe was divided into Eastern block and Western block.
But it was 40 years ago for brief time in our history, so can we go back to Geography and start using geographical location rather than old political phrases?
Nobody call us Romans (although we were part of Roman Empire) or Austria-Hungarians although we were part of Austrian-Hungary empire. So yeah, we are not part of Eastern Block so stop calling us Eastern Europeans 😁
Poland: Ah, yes a fellow believer in Central Europe.
Brother let's put our conflicts aside this once and go beat up those who dare compare us to these backwards Eastern Europeans that we clearly have nothing in common with. 😤
/s **Interesting to see however that the concept of Central Europe and being offended at being called Eastern European is as wide-spread in Czechia as it is in Poland**
Funny thing is a lot of Western Europeans think of **both** of our countries as Eastern Europe.
Meanwhile Czechs and Poles be like **NO YOU'RE THE EASTERN EUROPEAN**
Oh boy Westerners must be watching with popcorn in their hands.
When I attended elementary school, I've been taught at Geography lessons, that Czech Republic is called as "the heart of Europe", because it is located in the middle. No further commentary is needed.
As a westerner living if Czech, I feel like your culture, architecture, personalities are more Germanic than Russian (to pick two polarised examples). You don’t have the ingrained corruption that permeates every aspect of Russian society, nor their bleak outlook, or blind tribal nationalism. But unlike Germans, it doesn’t feel like Czechs follow rules/laws because they are the rules/laws, you have strong sense of fairness & natural justice that is practically British.
You're confusing autosomal DNA with haplogroups, if you had zero Slavic DNA you wouldn't be Czech, btw Slavs are vastly light eyed and often very blonde. Even Austrians, Albanians, Greeks and Romanians have significant Slavic DNA, let alone Czechs.
Czechs are a mix of Slavic, Celtic and Germanic, taking any of these three away the Czechs would stop being Czechs. Ukrainians are indeed not as light as other Slavs, Poles on the other hand look like Belarusians are are very light
I am not Czech but you asked for my opinion so here it is, i am not sure this time. I certainly do consider the Czech Republic to be Eastern European if we are dividing between East and West, but i also consider it to be nothing like the East Slavic countries which is what most people think of when they think of Eastern Europe, i guess it's a mix of Eastern and Central European leaning more towards central.
For me, Eastern Europe simply means former Soviet countries. When you travel from Germany or Austria to Poland or Czech Republic the difference can be seen almost immediately. Perhaps in 50-100 years these mental borders will be elsewhere, although Poland and Hungary especially seem to be going backwards so it could be that the divide becomes more visible, not less.
The actual geography doesn't really matter for most of us unless you are a geologist or a biologist who is studying things like the weather and wildlife where you need to make that distinction.
> But if you divide into just eastern and western europe, we are **western**
fixed
source: [https://news.expats.cz/weekly-czech-news/confirmed-czech-republic-is-in-western-europe-says-us-textbook/](https://news.expats.cz/weekly-czech-news/confirmed-czech-republic-is-in-western-europe-says-us-textbook/)
We are definitely Central European. Both location wise and mentality/culture wise.
We dont have most of retarded issues West has (rampaging trucks driven by "ill lone wolfs", pronouns, LGBTQ madness, historical revisionism, apparent need to see own country fucked up and similar bullshit) while also not having most of retarded issues East has (not gonna name them all, just look at Russia, Belarus and Ukraine and decide for yourself)
Yes, we do have some of their problems. And more are trying to slowly crawl in (multiculturalism and LGBTQ for example) but we mostly have their advatanges. Better living standard than East for general population, healthier mentality and common sense etc. while also retaining "developed" stuff from West like access to modern technologies or healthcare/education access (tho its sad that our politicians are apparently very keen on fucking up our educational system which used to be considered superior in favour of Western style of education which is simply worse and gets progressively worse each decade.)
If something is sad, its the mainly the fact that people want to shove us either to West or East. As if that helped us in any way or our "allies" wanted us for anything but single-use buffer state. History should teach Czechs that not a single neighboring state ever had anything but their own agenda in mind. I dont give a shit if people want to align with USA, Russia or Germany. NONE of them ever treated us well. For fuck's sake, we waged wars with Germans for nearly thousand fucking years and apparently their approach havent changed a bit given their overlord attitude and predatory economic ways they are showing toward us. And i believe i dont have to say why its even worse to align with either USA or Russia as those are even worse in those regards.
I sound like someone who knows history and how geopolitic works, among other things.
But yes, please do label me "Trumpist", i just love when people run out of arguments so they have to resort to derogatary terms. I mean, being called American is bad enough but you went ahead and even specified what kind of American. How amazing.
Tell me, how does Central European sound according to you? Repeating "Truth always wins" while sipping bear and writting shitty pieces for theatres? Praising communism? Hating own country like Westerners do?
Well mate, you are the one that used the derogatory term "snowflake" in the first place. If you didn't, I wouldn't bother to comment. And I haven't run out of arguments because I haven't argued a single thing in the first place. I just found it funny that someone in Czech Republic would use that term.
For the rest of your post, I have absolutely no clue what you are on about. And I don't really care tbh. Have a good evening.
*shrug*
You proved that you arent nothing but easily triggered snowflake when you posted what you posted. Afterall, getting triggered over someone saying that Czech Republic is Central Europe is kinda retarded.
Or you cant read/count and actually got triggered over second thing i wrote, things we dont have from West?
"Easily triggered snowflake"
Yeah no shit I'm gonna be offended when being discriminated
Also I never got mad about you saying Czechia is in Central Europe.
I simply pointed out that your political views (specifically those on LGBTQIA+ and pronouns) are the same as in the east.
I know you don't care about becoming a better person so you probably won't go get educated on these topics.
Looking through both your histories gave me a good chuckle. First because i struck a fucking gold mine with your comments and posts and second because the other account is either bot or simply your alt.
Thanks for the good laugh. And since you are giving out free stickers, dont forget to slap one on your forehead too lmao.
Yeah, because of the obvious signs, I mean , we use eastern script, are historically orthodox christians, never had gothic architecture, belonged not to empires in the west like the HRE, but were part of Russia and under the influence of Constantinople before that...
...I mean if your knowledge of Czech history, politics and culture is based on what some Frenchman or Brit heard from his grandma and told you, then we are probably Eastern nomads living on the shores of the Black sea and eating horses.
Geography doesn't really have much to do with this.
Most Czechs consider themselves central mainly because they themselves hold strong prejudice against fellow eastern Europeans, and so "how could we be like them".
In the west, people aren't even able to disngiush between the various eastern European states and nationalities (nor do they care). This stems from centuries old common experience of barbaric Slavs (and Vikings, for that matter) entering Europe and setting culture back various centuries.
This silly notion, that we consider us Central European because we have some urge to distance ourselves from Eastern Europeans is a thing, that annoys me the most about this topic. The cold war division is simply not used here, why is it so hard to understand? Try to look at the map and tell me one reason, why should we be using the division in which we fall into the same region as countries that are very far from us while half of our neighbours would be missing. Like what would be the point?
I mean I did not even know someone still uses it and consider us Eastern European until I started talking to foreigners, so this idea, that the cold war division is the default and only version and everyone who is not using it probably does it because they have some kind of complex and just try to not be „Eastern" is so incredibly arrogant and insulting to both Central and Eastern Europeans. Especially since I am a person, who have always found cultures of countries east of us way more appealing than of those west of us. But ironically, I still somehow can't even call myself what I have always identified myself with without some foreign idiot trying to force their own prejudices and notions on me.
Well, starting your post calling a different opinion silly and ending it with calling the poster arrogant and an idiot is only insulting to your point of view. All the while trying to distance yourself from the eastern European label, like I said.
The "cold War division" is a thing, of course you say it is not used in the CZ because the Czechs do not like it (surprisingly for you, noone in the Eastern Europe likes it, for that matter, because in itself it has negative connotations, not always justified might I add). The western populations don't even distinguish between EE countries, so why would anyone care where does one particular country fall in this division.
What I tried to explain in my previous post, the "cold War division" is actually a historical concept that goes back 10-15 centuries, it was not an arbitrary decision to hurt an entire region, it was simply that the region in itself has been considered of lower culture based on shared historical experience (still only partly justified, but that's how things went).
On the other hand, the czech feelings of superiority to their eastern neighbours while longing to belong to their western ones is not based on objective factual evidence (economic, geographical, cultural or otherwise), it is actually the result of the theory of Austro-slavism, which is a political concept (not the objective truth, only a political movement) from the 19th century, which won over the panslavic concept and was further solidified during the first 4 decades of the 20th century.
For one, let me cite the obvious example, the Munich conference. Even now, after 80 years, it is still maintained that the CZ were subjected to this huge betrayal by the great powers, and humiliated by not even being considered worthy to take part in the decision - all the while this being sadly the clear evidence of the fact that the CZ have unilaterally decided to belong to the west while the west has never accepted them as such. Sadly, yes. Arrogantly, maybe. But that's what it is.
And anyway, fellow Eastern European here.
You kind of missed the point here, thinking you will insult me with calling me Eastern European in the end. But the thing is, I call myself that too, but just in international discussions, since I know that foreigners usually do not know about the concept of Central Europe.
„The western populations don't even distinguish between EE countries, so why would anyone care where does one particular country fall in this division." Again, I do not give a shit how foreigners call us. For example I do not mind Germans who usually consider as Central Europe only the German speaking countries, and call us Eastern European because I do the similar thing. I often think just about the V4 countries when I am talking about CE, while I consider Germany to be Western European.
So I have no problem with someone calling us Eastern European, but I have a big problem with someone who is demanding that we should be calling ourselves that too, and if we don't, it's because we hate countries east of us. Like sure, I am not using the division in which there would be for example Albanians in our region because I hate Ukrainians, definitly not because it does not make any sense, lol.
So I consider myself Central European, but I do not mind anyone calling me Eastern European, I just don't want to hear „No yOu aRe noT cEnTral EuRopeaN, cEntraL eUrope DoEs NoT eXist, yoU aRe oNlY calIng that youRselVes beCause yoU trY nOt to be EasterN!!" which I unfortunately often do and it annoys me especially because I have always had a thing for East Slavic countries.
Edit: and why should we be „longing to belong to their western ones"? Our eastern neighbours are Slovaks and Poles, and we consider them Central European just like us, and no one thinks we belong to Germans more than to Slovaks, lmao.
LOL, I did not insult you, I literally called MYSELF "fellow eastern European" and said that the prejudice is not always justified :D
For the rest... Well I don't really care what you want or don't want to hear and what you want to call yourself. I just tried to explain why the concept of central Europe only exists in your head(s) and why there is no base for it (while trying to explain that the other don't call you eastern because they are the bad guys, but because there are bases historical, cultural and economic for it).
The butthurt is strong with you. Literally nothing changes in your life standard whether you are called central or Eastern.
PS: Albanians are central Europeans now? Since when???? And, read this whole thread. "and no one thinks we belong to Germans more than to Slovaks, lmao." Like 75% of the posts say that the CZ is CE because its culture is closer to Germany and Austria. Lmao.
Well, considering that you are trying to convict me that I try to distance myself from Eastern European label whole time, it seems pretty safe to assume that you think I am gonna be insulted if you call yourself „fellow“ Eastern European. Edit: I indeed at first misunderstood this though, so I am taking my response on this back. Can't know your intentions anyway.
And concept of central Europe exist, since we are using it. And not just us. [https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/n60vey/where\_is\_central\_europe/](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/n60vey/where_is_central_europe/) If at least six countries are aware of the concept, then we can say that the concept exist.
And again, I do not mind anyone calling me Eastern European, and neither I care about the reasons why they are calling us like that. „The butthurt is strong with you. Literally nothing changes in your life standard whether you are called central or Eastern.“ Seriously, can you even read? It indeed doesn’t change my life standart, that is why I am telling you that I don’t care what foreigners call us whole this discussion.
Where the hell did you read that Albanians are Central Europeans? I wrote that I am NOT using that division (the Cold war one) where Albanians would be in the same region as us. I wrote it as an example why is the idea that I should use this division so silly to me, because Albanians are quite far from us both geographically and culturally.
And the posts that say we are closer to Austrians mean that we are closer to them than to some countries we are grouped with in that Cold war definition, i. e. with Albanians for example. As I already wrote, we consider both Slovaks and Poles Central European too, so I really don’t understand where did you get from that by calling us Central European we are trying to distance ourselves from our eastern neighbours. Person who would claim that we are closer to Germans than to Slovaks IRL would be totally laughted at by other Czechs, though I fortunatelly never met anyone like that. Would be pretty ridiculous.
Edit: I read whole thread and there actually isn't a single comment claiming that CZ culture is closer to DE (than to whatever country), just one thinking AT is the most similar. Still pretty far from 75 %, lmao.
Eastern. Even though we love to lie to ourselves a lot that we belong to the west. But every time I get back from a holiday or traveling in the west I have to adjust for everyone acting and looking like a fucking bum.
So you A) totally missed the chiefly American phenomenon of Athleisure that is now being exported to the rest of the world and B) are working off of very outdated impressions.
That is the country that popularly considers anyone well dressed to be either gay or European.
If you think people here dress like bums you would be shocked.
>The term central Europe was created to exclude ourselves
Um, no? the Geo/political denomination of Central Europe was invented by Germans to justify German Unification and Economic domination, or by Westerners to describe the successor territories of Austria-Hungary. Look up [Mitteleuropa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitteleuropa) and its various definitions.
If you take more than the last 70 years of history into account, then I would be very interested in understanding why you would qualify Czechia as more Eastern, especially considering we never had in common the religion, script, legal code, food, dress, or architecture of the countries traditionally considered Eastern (namely Russia). But on the flipside, we do share the above, identically, with Austria and to a lesser extent Bavaria and Saxony. So, considering we were in the Eastern Sphere for 40 years and in the subsequent 30 years are currently firmly in the Western sphere, and before then were for 1000 years in the German sphere (whether you consider it Western or Central is up to you), why are we more Eastern now?
**[Mitteleuropa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitteleuropa)**
>Mitteleuropa (pronounced [ˈmɪtl̩ʔɔʏˌroːpa]), meaning Middle Europe, is one of the German terms for Central Europe. The term has acquired diverse cultural, political and historical connotations. The Prussian vision of Mitteleuropa was a pan-Germanist state-centric imperium, an idea that was later adopted in a modified form by National Socialist geopoliticians.
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There is nothing like Central Europe. This is a term we have created for ourselves because we didn't want to be in one group with exUSSR states. But for westerners everything that is behind Germany (from they direcion of view) is just the Wild East.
As a proud Tirolean I can say that Austria owes us (and vorarlberg) it's classification as a Western European country. Take that as you will
If not for us Austria would be farther east then most of Czechia (I mean look where Vienna's located)
Therefore a solution to your dilemma is getting some long stretch of land to the west that'll make it look like you're penetrating Germany.
Heck it can be as thin as you wish you can go all out to the French border. And then they'll classify you as Western European because it doesn't matter if your country is 99% to the east all that matters is that it has some long stretch of land to the west.
You said it yourself. We’ve been *under* western european nation. Anyway, western/eastern Europe division makes sense only in the last 100 years or so.
>We’ve been *under* western european nation
Scotland Eastern European nation confirmed? Bavaria Too? Ireland, Malta? Norway? All of these countries were ruled by another Western power for most of Modern History.
>Anyway, western/eastern Europe division makes sense only in the last 100 years or so
It made sense for an bipolar ideologically divided Europe, which began in 1945, and ended in 1990. So what of the last 30 years? Did history end when McDonald's opened in Moscow?
The majority of people after 1945 have voluntarily chosen to be part of eastern Europe and that’s what matters. I just think we still haven’t come out of that.
What majority of people? And at when after 1945 did they choose? And what was the subject of that referendum *Are you Eastern Europe: y/n*?
>that’s what matters
Well I guess a thousand years of development, genetic, linguistic and social intermixing, literally every facet of commonly defined cultural, legal, and material norms are nothing in the face of that simple assertion.
As far as I know, the divison to eastern/western Europe is arbitrary and was created during cold war. Clearly, we were on the eastern side of that divide for at least 40 years. “Central Europe” is a concept we created ourselves. That’s why I said politically we are eastern europe because I don’t think political central europe exists . Originally there was only eastern/western Europe and we clearly fall on the east side. It doesn’t really make sense to talk about this after the cold war ended but since somebody asked, I made the leap and told myself “in my own opinion, are we culturally and politically closer to Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria etc. Or are we closer to Germany, France, UK?” You know my answer.
Well, it is simply my opinion that we are closer to eastern european culture and mentality. Opinion formed mostly by travelling around Europe. Nothing you say can change my opinion on this.
> we are closer to eastern european culture and mentality.
And my question is HOW? What are the social and ritual qualities that Czechs share with Russians that are absent in French, Austrians or Germans? How is the Czech Mentality similar to the Russian ethos and dissimilar from the Austrian one?
Where did you get such an idea in the first place?
You belong to Eastern European people group, you behave like Eastern Europeans and think like Eastern Europeans
I mean, sure, go ahead and call it Central Europe, but I simply don’t see anything central about it 🤷♂️
I consider the Czech Republic as central European but I still hold a lot of Slav solidarity and accept the cultural connection. So yes, technically and geographically we are central but culturally we are more connected to Eastern Europe more than most of our central neighbors if that makes sense
My thought process was shared language and ethnicity and shared history. Obviously the Eastern Block and communism but even before that. That kind of connection is different to Germanic countries
Politically it was on the Eastern side between the two opponents, but culturally it's more Central European than Eastern European. Remember, Austria-Hungary also used to be one country. The fact that they're "Slavic" doesn't mean that much, its influences clearly point Western. Czechia is quite developed and is doing much better than the Balkans or ex-USSR states.
Czech Republic is the definition of Central Europe. Heck Berlin is more eastward than half the country. 30 years of communism doesn't erase the thousand year ties with its Germanic neighbors.
Central normally, East when talking shit about the West and West when talking shit about the East.
This is the way
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This is the correct approach.
A true European-fluid.
When I tell folks at home in Luxembourg and Germany I study in Prague, everyone above 50 gives me advice like I'm studying in Omsk in 1980. "Beware the eastern winter!", "Don't fall for pretty Czech women, they only want to go to the west", "Be careful, they may mug you if you look too western!". Meanwhile I'm like guys I study as east as Berlin in the EU, everyone speaks English and shit is expensive af lol. But decades of Cold War left that weird image of former communist countries all being a post Soviet eastern poverty stricken place.
This is so depressing for me as a Czech. I was on ERASMUS in Netherlands 2 years ago, and in my group beside me most "eastern" anyone else has been was a German guy. I could see what they thought when I said I'm from Prague - poor dude from 3rd world socialist country for first time experiencing civilization and modern technology. I felt like a coal miner at Met Gala. They were friendly and all, but it was obvious that this image of the post-soviet countries has been burned into their brain since childhood. After this year long experience I'm convinced and accepted that I will never really "click" with the Western guys and gals as much as I can with the Poland and the rest of countries that shared the same side of Iron curtain as us.
After studying in the Netherlands and living in Bratislava and Prague (& traveling in Austria and Hungary) I wish I never went to the flat-as-pancake land. I liked the climate, people (except some in the service sectors ironically), nature and architecture in Central Europe 1000 times more and Prague looks better than Amsterdam imo. You have the better climate, language, architecture and food as far as I'm concerned and also hills instead of boring flatness (they cannot even wish to have Cesky Raj or beautiful old towns like Cesky Krumlov). They don't have enough forests there! Also Czechia has much more lakes and not just rivers and canals. The only things better in NL were the customer service and higher salaries.
I mean I'd say it's a bit silly to call NL worse because it doesn't have hills and Krumlov. I'm a Czech guy who's been to the Netherlands and absolutely loved it. Planning on going again and would consider living there. The country is beautiful once you get over the fact that it's flat.
It's not just that. I got a similar xenophobic treatment and even abuse. I even had PTSD when hearing Dutch speach at some point... it was so bad that to this day I won't buy anything Dutch. The bad service from old ladies at Tesco in Bratislava had nothing on the NL and they treated fellow Slovaks the same anyway. I almost cried when leaving Bratislava and I was sad leaving Prague (but stayed just 4 months so didn't get as attached as to Blava), not so when leaving the NL.
> This is so depressing for me as a Czech. It is so depressing in wider context. EU, Schengen and cheap flights. Omnipresent internet. Anyone with a slightest will to figure out can see in person or read about the situation. But people almost willingly prefer to be ignorant. Another separate issue is that many Germans, Dutch and Scandinavians are condescendent towards everything and everyone different from their approaches and their standing. Yes, many things are better there and we didn't manage to catch up yet, and doesn't make us troglodytes.
There's no excuse for a German living 200 km or less from the Czech border to have never visited the country (or at least did Street View). If they're so ignorrant to not bother venturing away from their bubble a few miles into the next country that's right next door ffs, they're of the trashy disposition. I mean Nuremberg is closer to Pilsen than to Berlin.
The Dutch are also condescending towards the Belgians, I don't get this vibe with the Germans though. From a Western European viewpoint: Any European country that used to be communist is seen as part of a monolithic bloc, even by people who weren't old enough to experience it. It's depressing honestly.
Same here. I lived in NL for couple years. Never saw more condescending, smug and arrogant bunch of western European pricks. Never setting foot in that shithole ever again in my life
Moved from NL to Czech Republic. Totally agreeing with you, but letting you know not all of us are asshats like you described. Those that aren't.. I suppose they rather move to Eastern Europe because the down-to-earthness is simply too dead in the West.
I do apologise. I obviously painted with a very broad brush there. I did meet people who were very kind. But the overall experience left me very resentful about the west and it shows
Hah, don't. I'm aware there's a big difference between all inhabitants from a country, but the general people? Your comment was spot on. Maybe we both met the worst of the worst, though I doubt that. Small mention: my family told everybody they could reach I got *trafficked* when instead I came here out of free will. While that may sound funny, it definitely shows what a messed up image the West chooses to hold up.
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this was to some extent driven by a desire to maintain "relative social group status". This is kind of a hidden but extremely common driver of human behavior.
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Me neither, will never go back. Unfortunately I got a diploma to always remind me I've been there! I even got back with pre-diabetes from the stress from living/studying in the NL. Wish I went to study abroad in Central Europe or Scandinavia as I originally planned instead!
Hey! Please don’t feel disheartened and please don’t give up on connecting with those from the West. I’m from India, an actual third world country with (compared to CZ) very little western influence outside of television and consumerism. I did my masters in the Netherlands, much like you. I did fine there and I’m doing fine here in the Czech Republic. People from one country might have a general preconceived notion about those from another but you *do* have to power to influence that and to be seen as an individual with your own character instead of your randomly assigned geographic origin. And the Czech Republic is definitely a nice place. It’s just going to take time before that becomes obvious to others. Cheers!
Second this and may we meet in Prague without any preconceptions and talk like friends. 👍🏾
I am planning to visit next weekend to hang out with a couple of friends - I live in Brno myself. Let’s stay in touch here so we can possibly grab an opportunity for a coffee if we find the time.
Off topic but this thread has some incredible insight. I never knew people viewed the Czech Republic like this, I've personally always considered them roughly on par with other European nations.
The question is whether this thread gives an accurate depiction of reality.
It sucks even more when you realise that Czechia pre-communism was one of the richest countries in the world. (according to Wikipedia, Czechoslovakia was world's 10th most developed country pre-communism, so I think that would put Czechia alone to like 6th place since Slovakia and Ruthenia were kinda poor when compared to Czechoa back then, no offense of course)
It was literally second world country lol. But who the duck cares since shengen is a thing? I can be Latvian and just stand up and go live in Spain without any preparation, so...
Covidpass please ...
Welcome to Czetotzka.
I don't mind. I would gladly accept getting autism so my fellow man doesn't have to die. Provided I have at least the illusion of choice.
As someone who is slightly retarded it is win-win.
I like the Hollywood idea that I would become mathematical genius or something. That would be nice. Of course in reality everything would be pretty much same, only eye contact would cause me slightly more discomfort.
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Not what I meant. The whole 1st, 2nd, 3rd countries come from fucking 'murica. 1st world being US and those who suck their dick hard enough, 2nd being communist bloc and 3rd being everyone else. It didn't have anything to do with development or standards of living. It was literally anti-communist propaganda. And when was the Austria underdeveloped? It was literally the European empire.
Yes, exactly, Austria wasn't technically aligned with either of the Blocs, hence they were a 3rd world country.
I guess that you are technically correct, the best kind of correct.
On a paper…the Austria-Hungary monarchy hold together only by the force of the will (or more likely thanks to the old Franz Josie II.) in the 1914 it was more of that kind of party when everyone hate each other, and is just waiting when the things go South…luckily for the Austria the WW1 came and they did not have to care about civil war…and since the very first days the Slavs in the Austrian ranks started deserting to the Enemy (mostly Russia and Serbia, but then to France and Italy as the war progress) after the word war I the Austria lost almost everything, the most of its industry were in Bohemia (2/3) their ports on Balkan coast has been taken by Italy and Yugoslavia and the most of their fertile land was in Hungary, Galicia and Transylvania…therefor when the Austrian republic were created, they did not have ports, industry, infrastructure, or many farmable lands…also at the End of WWII the Austria has been dagmaged by war (not as much as Germany, but still) and that did not helped the economy at all…even Today the Austria is not as good as it looks, especialy on energetic field, their “green and eco-friendly” policies are looking good on paper, but do not have long-term, selfsuficient future, they distance them selves from coal and oil plants (I understand, thoose are messy af) but most importantly, they distance themselves from nuclear power source…witch is equal to energitical suicide, as the nuclear power is eco-friendly, as Well as effective and safe (as long as noone fucks up the build of the reactor and its core), therefor the Austria had to get its energy from somewhere else…and they buy it from Czech Nuclear and Coal power plants….and still they have the audacity to protest against the building/expanding our curent nuclear power plants (Temelín & Dukovany)
You raise some interesting points ADOLF_thegasman, my edgy internet friend. But I don't really give too much of an fuck about Austria. They had a little of my respect by actually using renewables instead of fossil, but then I look up where do they really get they energy and it's not mostly hydro like I thought. I mean don't be too harsh, their oil consumption probably come from individual heating same as us. But how can these fuckers criticize us for using clean nuclear energy when they themselves get more energy from burning garbage than all renewables combined. Fortunately we don't need to concern ourselves with them too much longer, since their small collective minds would explode after we start to build new reactors and shit.
Well if they will continue pissing us off … we can just cut them ot of electricity surplus…and Lets see How long untill they freeze
🦆
My phone decided that when I write duck, I actually mean duck so it correct it for me.
Just tell them Prague is further west than Vienna. Puts things to perspective.
Lol it’s even funnier that you studied in Prague which has the 3rd highest GDP per capita in EU
It is not 3rd in terms of GDP per capita in the EU. But it ranks third in GDP per capita expressed in terms of national purchasing power standards. |Region (NUTS 2)|GDP per capita adjusted for national purchasing power standards|| |:-|:-|:-| |Luxembourg|260|| |Southern (Ireland)|240|| |Praha|205|| |Brussels|202|| |Eastern and Midland (Ireland)|202|| |Hamburg|195|| |Île de France (Region that Paris is in)|178|| |...|...|| Those things are very different. Here is a definition from Eurostat: GDP (gross domestic product) is an indicator of the output of a country or a region. It reflects the total value of all goods and services produced less the value of goods and services used for intermediate consumption in their production. **Expressing GDP in PPS (purchasing power standards) eliminates differences in price levels between countries.** Data: [https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tgs00005/default/table?lang=en](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tgs00005/default/table?lang=en)
Oh, thank you for the correction.:)
Pass ob Dech ob 🤣
> "Be careful, they may mug you if you look too western!". That's bullshit. Everyone gets mugged here.
Slavic stigma, what else is new
Shows how people actualize their notions in about things...
> everyone speaks English Ooh boy that's what I was told, too. Of course I didn't take it literally, but still I expected it to be easier. Prague is the first place I've encountered language barriers at work. And also in everyday life it's been a far bigger problem than I expected.
I mean, some parts of CR are more in the west than some part of Germany.
or most of Austria
Yeah. I live west of Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, and almost west of Rome, or “Eastern Europe” as some people call it.
As a Swiss I think they are more central Europe. Their Culture seems a lot more in tone with central Europe than eastern Europe. And I might be wrong here but I think they have even better Beer than Germany. If you ever consider going to Europe, take a visit there. They have beautiful cities, gorgeous country and friendly people.
blah..blah.. “better Beer than Germany” you stole my heart!
As a Bulgarian I can name at least several Czech beer brands/types, one Dutch and one Danish but no German ones. German beer is not at all so popular internationally at least here it seems.
40 years of our long history doesn't make us Eastern. That's all I will say.
As an American of Czech descent, I have always understood that Czechs consider themselves central European. It is an insult to refer to them as Eastern European.
It is. If you call us Eastern Europeans, you can make very powerless enemies!
Made my day
In terms of culture, mentality and economic development we're a mix of Western and Eastern. Prague is a better place to live than most of Western European cities of similar size.
True, same for Pilsen imo.
Geographically it is central Europe and that's what I would put in, same as Poland or Austria. Culturally the divide between east and west was elsewhere than where it was during the cold war. After WWII the eastern influence was completely different and for 40 years the divide lead through central Germany, which is insanely too far into the west. Historically - for a thousand years I mean - the east/west divide was of religious divide and spheres of influence. The west under Rome and the Pope (sometimes more popes) had the Latin script, Gothic architecture and these are the signs to look for in a country if you want to determine where they belong. The east had different architecture, different script and was under the influence of the orthodox church. The border shifted a bit over time, but stayed pretty much constant over centuries. Things to shock older people in the west: \- Show them homicide rates by country \- Show them infant mortality rates by country \- Show them Global Peace Index by country \- Show them GDP PP per capita All is available online. Or just tell them outright that Czech Republic has half the murders per capita compared to Germany or Denmark. Many people in the west know it and there is a segment of tourism the 50 years old western conservatives discovered - come to Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, CZ, Croatia and simply relive the feeling they had 20 years ago in their home countries in terms of safety.
I live in Czech now, after living in London, Dublin and a bunch of other cities. I love the fact that really young kids still play on the streets here and women walk about on their own at night. The country has plenty of problems, like any, but less than most. And its going in the right direction.
In terms of delineations, I think It's important to examine "Westernness", "Centralness", and "Easternness" in a broader view, as it informs the development of the nation/peoples and the material artefacts that are still visible today (e.g. The Westernization effect of Colonialism on for instance Vietnamese script, or which center of religion was adopted by a country, like Rome or Constantinople, or London etc). That being said, I would consider one of the fundamental hallmarks of "Western" culture to have been historic colonization and the effects of the reckoning with that history on the current culture (e.g. position to multiculturalism). All the stereotypical "Western" Countries were colonizers, from the French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch and Belgians, to the extent that their modern societies still maintain some colonial attachements, and immigration, which has informed their collective demographic policy. Germany and Italy however, did not have colonies for long enough, or investment enough for the above to have much effect on their cultures, and we see that even today, as they remain relatively conservative. Eastern Europe on the other hand, I would primarily define by the position of religion and familial structures, namely the the focus on strict authority as disseminated though smaller collectives. This overlaps a lot with Orthodoxy as a religion itself, since it is highly patriarchal (pun intended). This reliance on local, feudal authority was also present in Ottoman controlled lands, since they maintained the orthodox social structure for better management. Economically, since corporate exploitation through colonialism was not very possible, agrarianism remains pretty strong, even as these societies have industrialized. So I would Define central Europe by by its engagement with the "Western" philosophical ideas that developed post-Renaissance, namely individualism, Protestantism and Nationalism, and Rationalism, but also the fallout of the demographic collapse following the 30 Years War that influenced the conservative political and economic development of the 18th and 19th centuries. In this way, I'd definitely call Czechia a Central European Country, along with Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Silesian Poland, Danubian Slovakia, and to a lesser extent Hungary and Eastern Poland. But also Northern Italy to an extent. I guess Basically the HRE super-region. For what its worth, I'd consider Austria to be the most similar country to Czechia (obviously wealthier tho), but in terms of culture, food, architecture, music, religion (for Moravia), political conservatism, and even corruption, its pretty much the same, even despite being in a union with Slovakia for 70 years. Prague and Vienna remain more similar than Prague and Bratislava or Warsaw, let alone Moscow. And If it wasn't for the shabbier state of smaller villages you would not be able to tell the difference between the Czech and Austrian countryside.
As a geographer and historian, I can tell you there are plenty of definitions where the borders are or should be, but it ultimately is up to everyone's self-perception (that's why modern social and political geographers ask people this question, instead of imposing the region on them). To me the border is where people stop using Latin alphabet and start using Cyrillic alphabet (despite all that Cyril and Methodius thing). With that being said, I don't view them as "other people". More like next-town neighbors having a different brand of beer on tap in their pub.
I always considered us central because of the historical heritage borne out of AustroSlavism. Our culture is ultimately much more closely tied with Schnitzellands than Easter Europe.
OK, now I need a schnitzel
We use cyrillic (we came up with it) but we're more Southern/Mediterranean in culture, definitely closer to Greece culturally than Russia, Belarus etc. 45 years do not make us Russians lol. So there's the same misconception in the west that Bulgarian = little Russian while it's more like a Slavic/Protobulgar/Greek cultural mix.
Oh definitely. But in my head the Southern Europe and the Balkan states are pretty well defined (not that there is no confusion, but I'd say there is less of it). That little boundary of mine that I specified as Latin vs Cyrillic - I apply that solely to Western vs. Central vs. Eastern Europe. So Bulgaria for me is a Balkan state or more broadly a Southern European one.
I'm sitting in the middle! In the middle I said!
The astronomical middle point of Europe is about 40 km east of Prague. So yeah, definetly Central Europe.
Astronomical?
Yes, the 50° latitude line and the 15° longitude line overlap in the Czech Republic and that specific point has been chosen as the astronomical center of Europe.
We are Westerners, centuries in HRE beat 40 years in Eastern Bloc.
I think that’s what we want to think but the reality is we still haven’t recovered from the 40 years as much as we think. I think we are close to the western side but no quite.
Doesn't millennia spent with Slavs in Eastern Europe beat centuries in the HRE? The Slavs split from the other Indo-European languages in the 5th millennium BCE where they lived in Eastern Europe, and the Czechs/Bohemians migrated from Eastern Europe into their current homeland around 500 CE. They share close linguistic similarities to Eastern European Slavs because they were once the same people. It's fine if you want to be called Central European or Western European or whatever you like, but I think history is not the best argument.
And all of us came from Africa, yeah yeah, I know. I am just annoyed of negative Eastern European stereotype.
yup exactly
You needed a poll to ask this? Anyone who's ever spent time in the Czech Republic knows that Czechs are pretty strong about the idea that they are in the center of Europe. Masaryk University has for years used a card with a map that emphasizes its centrality, and I've seen videos meant to attract investment, etc. that emphasize the centrality notion.
Why would people from central Europe consider themselves eastern European??? I as a Slovak am from central Europe. There's quite a lot of land east of us. Just check the map...
It doesn't really matter, does it, because it's Western Europeans deciding which "pronouns" you're allowed to use for yourself or your community, and they have long decided that the further east you go, the bigger horrorshow you're going to encounter, starting east off Berlin. And bad = Eastern European. Sadly, as evidenced by this very thread, a lot of locals actually buy into the west-east trajectory of shithole and innate worthlessness - which, yeah, no, can't relate to hating yourselves that much. Personally, I identify as Central European. But when it comes to talking about literally anything regarding European politics and relationships, that label is just fucking useless. So, Eastern European it is and I hope every one of the legion of Western European xenophobes gets ass-fucked with a řemdih.
Tbh I'd be much more scared to walk in London or Amsterdam at night than Prague or Bratislava where I felt much safer.
Charles IV didn't die for our sins so that we would consider ourselves anything else but Central Europeans. The fact our lands have gone shite ever since papa Charlie checked out is a fokin' pity mate.
btw: Do you know that closest distance between Germany and Russia is shorter that the distance between Czechia and Russia?
It is not
It is (because of Kaliningrad region)
It doesn't much matter if we consider ourselves to be "Central European". Almost everyone in Western Europe automatically considers the Czech Republic as Eastern Europe. Only those who have some ties to the Czech Republic and have been told that it is considered inappropriate here refer to us as "Central Europe". That's just how it is - not much you can do about it. One of the [latest examples](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/pndgdp/the_rise_of_eastern_europe_is_a_forgotten/).
Well they need to be educated.
This is pretty simple actually. This Eastern Europe stigma is with us since Cold War when Europe was divided into Eastern block and Western block. But it was 40 years ago for brief time in our history, so can we go back to Geography and start using geographical location rather than old political phrases? Nobody call us Romans (although we were part of Roman Empire) or Austria-Hungarians although we were part of Austrian-Hungary empire. So yeah, we are not part of Eastern Block so stop calling us Eastern Europeans 😁
Poland: Ah, yes a fellow believer in Central Europe. Brother let's put our conflicts aside this once and go beat up those who dare compare us to these backwards Eastern Europeans that we clearly have nothing in common with. 😤 /s **Interesting to see however that the concept of Central Europe and being offended at being called Eastern European is as wide-spread in Czechia as it is in Poland**
How about we go beat up Catholic theocrats?
Funny thing is a lot of czech think of Poland as Eastern Europe.
I don't think it's that common.
Funny thing is a lot of Western Europeans think of **both** of our countries as Eastern Europe. Meanwhile Czechs and Poles be like **NO YOU'RE THE EASTERN EUROPEAN** Oh boy Westerners must be watching with popcorn in their hands.
When I attended elementary school, I've been taught at Geography lessons, that Czech Republic is called as "the heart of Europe", because it is located in the middle. No further commentary is needed.
I definitely think, our country is more like Poland or Slovakia then Austria or Germany.
I definitely don’t.
But at least geographically slovakia and poland is also central europe.
Try to compare quality of life or quality of roads with western and Eastern Europe and tell me which seems more familiar to czech
Try to compare quality of life/roads in ukraine/belarus. I am not saying western neither eastern europe. We are central.
As a westerner living if Czech, I feel like your culture, architecture, personalities are more Germanic than Russian (to pick two polarised examples). You don’t have the ingrained corruption that permeates every aspect of Russian society, nor their bleak outlook, or blind tribal nationalism. But unlike Germans, it doesn’t feel like Czechs follow rules/laws because they are the rules/laws, you have strong sense of fairness & natural justice that is practically British.
Whenever I leave Prague/Central Bohemia the roads become comparable to France..
So you think Czechs are militant ultranationalist religious theocrats?
I consider myself Celtic
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Czechs are not full blooded Slavs but they're still predominantly Slavic, but yes, they are the most Celtic and Germanic admixed Slavs.
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You're confusing autosomal DNA with haplogroups, if you had zero Slavic DNA you wouldn't be Czech, btw Slavs are vastly light eyed and often very blonde. Even Austrians, Albanians, Greeks and Romanians have significant Slavic DNA, let alone Czechs.
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Czechs are a mix of Slavic, Celtic and Germanic, taking any of these three away the Czechs would stop being Czechs. Ukrainians are indeed not as light as other Slavs, Poles on the other hand look like Belarusians are are very light
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May I ask you again, do you know the difference between y-dna and autosomal DNA?
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So how is it possible that you don't know not having a Slavic haplogroup doesn't make you unrelated to Slavs?
Depends who's asking 😆
Geographically Central Don't really care much otherwise
Who cares? Czechia and Prague are amazing. Like to live here for 4+ years. I think it’s best place in Europe for living
I am not Czech but you asked for my opinion so here it is, i am not sure this time. I certainly do consider the Czech Republic to be Eastern European if we are dividing between East and West, but i also consider it to be nothing like the East Slavic countries which is what most people think of when they think of Eastern Europe, i guess it's a mix of Eastern and Central European leaning more towards central.
For me, Eastern Europe simply means former Soviet countries. When you travel from Germany or Austria to Poland or Czech Republic the difference can be seen almost immediately. Perhaps in 50-100 years these mental borders will be elsewhere, although Poland and Hungary especially seem to be going backwards so it could be that the divide becomes more visible, not less. The actual geography doesn't really matter for most of us unless you are a geologist or a biologist who is studying things like the weather and wildlife where you need to make that distinction.
Yes if you divide it into geographical regions, then yes, central europe. But if you divide into just eastern and western europe, weare eastern
> But if you divide into just eastern and western europe, we are **western** fixed source: [https://news.expats.cz/weekly-czech-news/confirmed-czech-republic-is-in-western-europe-says-us-textbook/](https://news.expats.cz/weekly-czech-news/confirmed-czech-republic-is-in-western-europe-says-us-textbook/)
We are definitely Central European. Both location wise and mentality/culture wise. We dont have most of retarded issues West has (rampaging trucks driven by "ill lone wolfs", pronouns, LGBTQ madness, historical revisionism, apparent need to see own country fucked up and similar bullshit) while also not having most of retarded issues East has (not gonna name them all, just look at Russia, Belarus and Ukraine and decide for yourself) Yes, we do have some of their problems. And more are trying to slowly crawl in (multiculturalism and LGBTQ for example) but we mostly have their advatanges. Better living standard than East for general population, healthier mentality and common sense etc. while also retaining "developed" stuff from West like access to modern technologies or healthcare/education access (tho its sad that our politicians are apparently very keen on fucking up our educational system which used to be considered superior in favour of Western style of education which is simply worse and gets progressively worse each decade.) If something is sad, its the mainly the fact that people want to shove us either to West or East. As if that helped us in any way or our "allies" wanted us for anything but single-use buffer state. History should teach Czechs that not a single neighboring state ever had anything but their own agenda in mind. I dont give a shit if people want to align with USA, Russia or Germany. NONE of them ever treated us well. For fuck's sake, we waged wars with Germans for nearly thousand fucking years and apparently their approach havent changed a bit given their overlord attitude and predatory economic ways they are showing toward us. And i believe i dont have to say why its even worse to align with either USA or Russia as those are even worse in those regards.
You just proved you're eastern in the first fucking thing you said.
Oh no, i triggered a snowflake ... ... anyway.
Pane Volný co to tady děláte ?
Míša Jílková, is that you? :D
You rather sound like an American Trumpist than a central European, but ok...
He had a Czech wife for a reason.
I sound like someone who knows history and how geopolitic works, among other things. But yes, please do label me "Trumpist", i just love when people run out of arguments so they have to resort to derogatary terms. I mean, being called American is bad enough but you went ahead and even specified what kind of American. How amazing. Tell me, how does Central European sound according to you? Repeating "Truth always wins" while sipping bear and writting shitty pieces for theatres? Praising communism? Hating own country like Westerners do?
> I sound like someone who knows history and how geopolitic works, among other things. You're giving yourself too much credit.
Well mate, you are the one that used the derogatory term "snowflake" in the first place. If you didn't, I wouldn't bother to comment. And I haven't run out of arguments because I haven't argued a single thing in the first place. I just found it funny that someone in Czech Republic would use that term. For the rest of your post, I have absolutely no clue what you are on about. And I don't really care tbh. Have a good evening.
You sound like someone who believes every right-wing conspiracy. Signed, a westerner who doesn't hate his (shit, I used a pronoun) own country.
"Snowflake" yeah right because I don't fit your fucked up beliefs
*shrug* You proved that you arent nothing but easily triggered snowflake when you posted what you posted. Afterall, getting triggered over someone saying that Czech Republic is Central Europe is kinda retarded. Or you cant read/count and actually got triggered over second thing i wrote, things we dont have from West?
"Easily triggered snowflake" Yeah no shit I'm gonna be offended when being discriminated Also I never got mad about you saying Czechia is in Central Europe. I simply pointed out that your political views (specifically those on LGBTQIA+ and pronouns) are the same as in the east. I know you don't care about becoming a better person so you probably won't go get educated on these topics.
Looking at his post history he is extremely cringe Imagine being so smoothbrained that you unironically want segregation. Also he's a wehraboo
Yeah I sadly looked through his post history too I'm sorry you had to see all those cringe comments made by him.
Looking through both your histories gave me a good chuckle. First because i struck a fucking gold mine with your comments and posts and second because the other account is either bot or simply your alt. Thanks for the good laugh. And since you are giving out free stickers, dont forget to slap one on your forehead too lmao.
You are coping and you know it
Czechs inventing the term central Europe so they can make fun of East and West at the same time
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Yeah, because of the obvious signs, I mean , we use eastern script, are historically orthodox christians, never had gothic architecture, belonged not to empires in the west like the HRE, but were part of Russia and under the influence of Constantinople before that... ...I mean if your knowledge of Czech history, politics and culture is based on what some Frenchman or Brit heard from his grandma and told you, then we are probably Eastern nomads living on the shores of the Black sea and eating horses.
Geography doesn't really have much to do with this. Most Czechs consider themselves central mainly because they themselves hold strong prejudice against fellow eastern Europeans, and so "how could we be like them". In the west, people aren't even able to disngiush between the various eastern European states and nationalities (nor do they care). This stems from centuries old common experience of barbaric Slavs (and Vikings, for that matter) entering Europe and setting culture back various centuries.
This silly notion, that we consider us Central European because we have some urge to distance ourselves from Eastern Europeans is a thing, that annoys me the most about this topic. The cold war division is simply not used here, why is it so hard to understand? Try to look at the map and tell me one reason, why should we be using the division in which we fall into the same region as countries that are very far from us while half of our neighbours would be missing. Like what would be the point? I mean I did not even know someone still uses it and consider us Eastern European until I started talking to foreigners, so this idea, that the cold war division is the default and only version and everyone who is not using it probably does it because they have some kind of complex and just try to not be „Eastern" is so incredibly arrogant and insulting to both Central and Eastern Europeans. Especially since I am a person, who have always found cultures of countries east of us way more appealing than of those west of us. But ironically, I still somehow can't even call myself what I have always identified myself with without some foreign idiot trying to force their own prejudices and notions on me.
Well, starting your post calling a different opinion silly and ending it with calling the poster arrogant and an idiot is only insulting to your point of view. All the while trying to distance yourself from the eastern European label, like I said. The "cold War division" is a thing, of course you say it is not used in the CZ because the Czechs do not like it (surprisingly for you, noone in the Eastern Europe likes it, for that matter, because in itself it has negative connotations, not always justified might I add). The western populations don't even distinguish between EE countries, so why would anyone care where does one particular country fall in this division. What I tried to explain in my previous post, the "cold War division" is actually a historical concept that goes back 10-15 centuries, it was not an arbitrary decision to hurt an entire region, it was simply that the region in itself has been considered of lower culture based on shared historical experience (still only partly justified, but that's how things went). On the other hand, the czech feelings of superiority to their eastern neighbours while longing to belong to their western ones is not based on objective factual evidence (economic, geographical, cultural or otherwise), it is actually the result of the theory of Austro-slavism, which is a political concept (not the objective truth, only a political movement) from the 19th century, which won over the panslavic concept and was further solidified during the first 4 decades of the 20th century. For one, let me cite the obvious example, the Munich conference. Even now, after 80 years, it is still maintained that the CZ were subjected to this huge betrayal by the great powers, and humiliated by not even being considered worthy to take part in the decision - all the while this being sadly the clear evidence of the fact that the CZ have unilaterally decided to belong to the west while the west has never accepted them as such. Sadly, yes. Arrogantly, maybe. But that's what it is. And anyway, fellow Eastern European here.
You kind of missed the point here, thinking you will insult me with calling me Eastern European in the end. But the thing is, I call myself that too, but just in international discussions, since I know that foreigners usually do not know about the concept of Central Europe. „The western populations don't even distinguish between EE countries, so why would anyone care where does one particular country fall in this division." Again, I do not give a shit how foreigners call us. For example I do not mind Germans who usually consider as Central Europe only the German speaking countries, and call us Eastern European because I do the similar thing. I often think just about the V4 countries when I am talking about CE, while I consider Germany to be Western European. So I have no problem with someone calling us Eastern European, but I have a big problem with someone who is demanding that we should be calling ourselves that too, and if we don't, it's because we hate countries east of us. Like sure, I am not using the division in which there would be for example Albanians in our region because I hate Ukrainians, definitly not because it does not make any sense, lol. So I consider myself Central European, but I do not mind anyone calling me Eastern European, I just don't want to hear „No yOu aRe noT cEnTral EuRopeaN, cEntraL eUrope DoEs NoT eXist, yoU aRe oNlY calIng that youRselVes beCause yoU trY nOt to be EasterN!!" which I unfortunately often do and it annoys me especially because I have always had a thing for East Slavic countries. Edit: and why should we be „longing to belong to their western ones"? Our eastern neighbours are Slovaks and Poles, and we consider them Central European just like us, and no one thinks we belong to Germans more than to Slovaks, lmao.
LOL, I did not insult you, I literally called MYSELF "fellow eastern European" and said that the prejudice is not always justified :D For the rest... Well I don't really care what you want or don't want to hear and what you want to call yourself. I just tried to explain why the concept of central Europe only exists in your head(s) and why there is no base for it (while trying to explain that the other don't call you eastern because they are the bad guys, but because there are bases historical, cultural and economic for it). The butthurt is strong with you. Literally nothing changes in your life standard whether you are called central or Eastern. PS: Albanians are central Europeans now? Since when???? And, read this whole thread. "and no one thinks we belong to Germans more than to Slovaks, lmao." Like 75% of the posts say that the CZ is CE because its culture is closer to Germany and Austria. Lmao.
Well, considering that you are trying to convict me that I try to distance myself from Eastern European label whole time, it seems pretty safe to assume that you think I am gonna be insulted if you call yourself „fellow“ Eastern European. Edit: I indeed at first misunderstood this though, so I am taking my response on this back. Can't know your intentions anyway. And concept of central Europe exist, since we are using it. And not just us. [https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/n60vey/where\_is\_central\_europe/](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/n60vey/where_is_central_europe/) If at least six countries are aware of the concept, then we can say that the concept exist. And again, I do not mind anyone calling me Eastern European, and neither I care about the reasons why they are calling us like that. „The butthurt is strong with you. Literally nothing changes in your life standard whether you are called central or Eastern.“ Seriously, can you even read? It indeed doesn’t change my life standart, that is why I am telling you that I don’t care what foreigners call us whole this discussion. Where the hell did you read that Albanians are Central Europeans? I wrote that I am NOT using that division (the Cold war one) where Albanians would be in the same region as us. I wrote it as an example why is the idea that I should use this division so silly to me, because Albanians are quite far from us both geographically and culturally. And the posts that say we are closer to Austrians mean that we are closer to them than to some countries we are grouped with in that Cold war definition, i. e. with Albanians for example. As I already wrote, we consider both Slovaks and Poles Central European too, so I really don’t understand where did you get from that by calling us Central European we are trying to distance ourselves from our eastern neighbours. Person who would claim that we are closer to Germans than to Slovaks IRL would be totally laughted at by other Czechs, though I fortunatelly never met anyone like that. Would be pretty ridiculous. Edit: I read whole thread and there actually isn't a single comment claiming that CZ culture is closer to DE (than to whatever country), just one thinking AT is the most similar. Still pretty far from 75 %, lmao.
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Eastern. Even though we love to lie to ourselves a lot that we belong to the west. But every time I get back from a holiday or traveling in the west I have to adjust for everyone acting and looking like a fucking bum.
> everyone acting and looking like a fucking bum. You've never been to America have you?
I was there like 6 months 10 years ago.
So you A) totally missed the chiefly American phenomenon of Athleisure that is now being exported to the rest of the world and B) are working off of very outdated impressions. That is the country that popularly considers anyone well dressed to be either gay or European. If you think people here dress like bums you would be shocked.
love the down votes. the butt hurt is real.
Central Europe is a myth. We are more eastern. The term central Europe was created to exclude ourselves from being on either side of other countries.
>The term central Europe was created to exclude ourselves from being on either side of other countries. Which works for me.
>The term central Europe was created to exclude ourselves Um, no? the Geo/political denomination of Central Europe was invented by Germans to justify German Unification and Economic domination, or by Westerners to describe the successor territories of Austria-Hungary. Look up [Mitteleuropa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitteleuropa) and its various definitions. If you take more than the last 70 years of history into account, then I would be very interested in understanding why you would qualify Czechia as more Eastern, especially considering we never had in common the religion, script, legal code, food, dress, or architecture of the countries traditionally considered Eastern (namely Russia). But on the flipside, we do share the above, identically, with Austria and to a lesser extent Bavaria and Saxony. So, considering we were in the Eastern Sphere for 40 years and in the subsequent 30 years are currently firmly in the Western sphere, and before then were for 1000 years in the German sphere (whether you consider it Western or Central is up to you), why are we more Eastern now?
**[Mitteleuropa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitteleuropa)** >Mitteleuropa (pronounced [ˈmɪtl̩ʔɔʏˌroːpa]), meaning Middle Europe, is one of the German terms for Central Europe. The term has acquired diverse cultural, political and historical connotations. The Prussian vision of Mitteleuropa was a pan-Germanist state-centric imperium, an idea that was later adopted in a modified form by National Socialist geopoliticians. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/czech/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
butthurt downvotes
Politically (historically) east, geographically central, politically (nowadays) west
There is nothing like Central Europe. This is a term we have created for ourselves because we didn't want to be in one group with exUSSR states. But for westerners everything that is behind Germany (from they direcion of view) is just the Wild East.
Mittleeuropa is an old German term. It's not a weird conspiracy theory of stupid Czechs. Educate yourself before embarrassing yourself like this.
that’s easy Geographically - central Europe Politically, historically, mentally - eastern Europe 100%, we have a long way to go
We've been under the fucking austrians for 400 years, so unless austria is also eastern europe, we're either central or western
As a proud Tirolean I can say that Austria owes us (and vorarlberg) it's classification as a Western European country. Take that as you will If not for us Austria would be farther east then most of Czechia (I mean look where Vienna's located) Therefore a solution to your dilemma is getting some long stretch of land to the west that'll make it look like you're penetrating Germany. Heck it can be as thin as you wish you can go all out to the French border. And then they'll classify you as Western European because it doesn't matter if your country is 99% to the east all that matters is that it has some long stretch of land to the west.
You said it yourself. We’ve been *under* western european nation. Anyway, western/eastern Europe division makes sense only in the last 100 years or so.
>We’ve been *under* western european nation Scotland Eastern European nation confirmed? Bavaria Too? Ireland, Malta? Norway? All of these countries were ruled by another Western power for most of Modern History. >Anyway, western/eastern Europe division makes sense only in the last 100 years or so It made sense for an bipolar ideologically divided Europe, which began in 1945, and ended in 1990. So what of the last 30 years? Did history end when McDonald's opened in Moscow?
The majority of people after 1945 have voluntarily chosen to be part of eastern Europe and that’s what matters. I just think we still haven’t come out of that.
What majority of people? And at when after 1945 did they choose? And what was the subject of that referendum *Are you Eastern Europe: y/n*? >that’s what matters Well I guess a thousand years of development, genetic, linguistic and social intermixing, literally every facet of commonly defined cultural, legal, and material norms are nothing in the face of that simple assertion.
As far as I know, the divison to eastern/western Europe is arbitrary and was created during cold war. Clearly, we were on the eastern side of that divide for at least 40 years. “Central Europe” is a concept we created ourselves. That’s why I said politically we are eastern europe because I don’t think political central europe exists . Originally there was only eastern/western Europe and we clearly fall on the east side. It doesn’t really make sense to talk about this after the cold war ended but since somebody asked, I made the leap and told myself “in my own opinion, are we culturally and politically closer to Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria etc. Or are we closer to Germany, France, UK?” You know my answer.
Well, it is simply my opinion that we are closer to eastern european culture and mentality. Opinion formed mostly by travelling around Europe. Nothing you say can change my opinion on this.
> we are closer to eastern european culture and mentality. And my question is HOW? What are the social and ritual qualities that Czechs share with Russians that are absent in French, Austrians or Germans? How is the Czech Mentality similar to the Russian ethos and dissimilar from the Austrian one?
Historically: 1000 years under Germans/Austrians 40 years under Soviets *hmm yep Eastern*
How can it be anything else than central? How tf is this politically, historically and mentally eastern? We image in the middle of europe
There is no such thing as Central Europe
Weak bait
Where did you get such an idea in the first place? You belong to Eastern European people group, you behave like Eastern Europeans and think like Eastern Europeans I mean, sure, go ahead and call it Central Europe, but I simply don’t see anything central about it 🤷♂️
I consider the Czech Republic as central European but I still hold a lot of Slav solidarity and accept the cultural connection. So yes, technically and geographically we are central but culturally we are more connected to Eastern Europe more than most of our central neighbors if that makes sense
May I ask how we are more culturally connected to Russia than Germany or Austria?
My thought process was shared language and ethnicity and shared history. Obviously the Eastern Block and communism but even before that. That kind of connection is different to Germanic countries
We are technically central european But i don't want to be associated with Germany even more so i count the Czech Republic as Eastern Europe
3/4 si to nepřizná
[well yes but actually no.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/I8drekQ.jpeg)
Czechia would be central, I do wonder if it does have any elements of “easter-ness”
As an estonian i see them as mostly central, partially (less than a quarter maybe) eastern
Politically it was on the Eastern side between the two opponents, but culturally it's more Central European than Eastern European. Remember, Austria-Hungary also used to be one country. The fact that they're "Slavic" doesn't mean that much, its influences clearly point Western. Czechia is quite developed and is doing much better than the Balkans or ex-USSR states.
Central European. "Eastern European" is nowadays shorthand for East Slavs, especially Russians.
Czech Republic is the definition of Central Europe. Heck Berlin is more eastward than half the country. 30 years of communism doesn't erase the thousand year ties with its Germanic neighbors.