Nordosteuropa: Geschichtsregion mit Zukunft

Abstract

The concept of "North Eastern Europe" is very popular in present political discussions, not in the least as an argument for developing political frameworks after the end of the Cold War. But North Eastern Europe is neither a ne invention, nor should it be understood as a purely historical regional concept, which only is concentrated on a definite historical epoch – as the term is used in the works of Klaus Zernack. The present use of the term describes the relaunch of an old concept. It is a historically developed structural artifice, which still works in present times. The concept of a "clash of civilization" – the deeping chasm between the Catholic and Protestant Western Europe and the Eastern European Orthodox tradition – is not a fact which could be proven in civilization-historical terms. In this matter, the historical region of North Eastern Europe is the missing link, which brint together Russia and "the West" to construct the concept of Europe.