Русская версияGeographically, the continent of Europe blends into Asia with no
obvious border.
That peculiarity allows countries across Europe to
claim that they are its heart -- often on very different grounds.
Slovakia is one of the more recent countries to lay claim to the
title. Dozens of websites refer to the EU newcomer as the "heart of
Europe," and many geographers argue that it lies exactly midway
between Europe's extremes.
Serious academic attention was even devoted to the matter in a
paper published by the chief research fellow at the Institute for
Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Science, Ladislav Machacek, in
2003.
Location, location, location
According to Machacek, the country's location "evokes in the
Slovaks exalted emotions that they are anchored in the very heart
of Europe."
Bildunterschrift:
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
Hungary celebrated joining Europe
But Slovakia's neighbors also exploit their central locations to
make the highly contested anatomical claim.
Prague and Budapest extend their self-promotion as the Heart of
Europe on cultural grounds as well. And British historian Norman
Davies famously called his history of Poland "Heart of Europe" when
he published it in 1984.
In 2006, travel writer and historian Bart Nabrdalik wrote that
Vienna deserves to be seen as the "true heart of Europe." Viennese
residents' "soft, melodious German has a touch of Italian charm,
French
joie de vivre
and especially a sprinkle of Slavic sentimentality and
melancholy," he wrote as justification.
But lately, the central Europeans have faced a challenge from the
shores of the Baltic Sea. In 2000, experts from the French National
Geographic Institute calculated that the center of Europe lay in
Lithuania.
History of domination
The announcement led to a surge of Lithuanian claims that their
country is the continent's power organ. But it also provoked
renewed counter-claims from neighbors Poland and even Belarus.
In April, 2005 Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko proclaimed:
"Ukraine is the heart of Europe. Tell me, please, how can Europe
live without its heart?"
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Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
Slovenia -- the next heart?
That may have been rhetorical, but it may be the key to
understanding why so many European countries want to be seen as
Europe's beating center. The one thing which almost all those who
make the claim have in common is that they were dominated, and in
some cases ruled directly, by Moscow until the collapse of the
USSR.
That domination has left them with a deep-seated urge to prove that
they are "real Europeans," rightful members of the Western club.
Nordic Estonians, western Czechs
Thus Poles and Lithuanians are adamant that they come from central,
not eastern Europe. Estonians insist that they are Nordic, and
Czechs point out that their capital is further west than Vienna.
And Yushchenko is struggling to move his country closer to Europe
at a time when many opponents say that Ukraine, as the birthplace
of Russian civilization, should rather be turning East.
Cynics might argue that a claim to be Europe's heart says far more
about a country's own feelings than it does about Europe's. And as
more ever more countries line up to make the claim (Slovenia
annointed itself the Heart of Europe in January,) it is worth
asking whether their enthusiasm says more about Europe's enduring
strength -- or their own underlying uncertainty.
(Deutsche Welle)
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