Central Europe

Central Europe is a region of the continent that is defined by its neighbors—that is, Central Europe lies between Eastern and Western Europe. The nations of Central Europe are Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Germany.

More than many other regions of the world, Central European countries share a common social, cultural, and historical identity. The region can be seen as a unified concept despite the differences in nationality and languages that separate the individual nations. In 1914, many Central European nations were parts of the German and Austro-Hungarian empires. Subsequently, other large portions of the region were part of the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence. Thus, until the closing decade of the twentieth century, much of Central Europe was aligned with Eastern Europe.

At the same time, Central Europe has a somewhat greater cultural and historical affinity with the countries of Western Europe than with those of Eastern Europe because of the east-west Christian schism of 1054 CE. Along with Western Europe, the Central European countries were aligned with the Roman Catholic Church, whereas the Eastern European nations followed Eastern Orthodoxy.

Over the century-long decline of empires in Central Europe, its individual nations have reasserted their own distinct characters. Yet, the portion of Europe that stretches roughly from the Baltic Sea to the Alps remains connected by history.

Historical Perspective

The unity prevailing in Central Europe was triggered by the schism in the Christian Church that occurred during the Middle Ages. In the wake of this schism, Western and Central Europe became Roman Catholic, whereas Eastern Europe remained Eastern Orthodox. The social and political models of Central Europe were also based on Western ideas. But the modern nation-states developed only gradually and not at the same pace.

During the feudal period following the collapse of Rome’s power in this region of Europe, autonomous centers of power and influence existed throughout the region. In 1335, King Charles I of Hungary convened a conference to unify Central Europe. He arranged a royal summit with the kings of Poland and Bohemia—monarchs in the area that would become the eastern Czech Republic. The three rulers agreed to cooperate politically and economically, setting the stage for future trade agreements.

Although empires and states rose and declined over the centuries, the modern nations of Central Europe did not take shape until the twentieth century. Central Europe as a concept was wrapped up in the empires that controlled most of the territory. The Austro-Hungarian Empire included all or part of these Central European countries: Austria, Hungary, southern Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. The German Empire included all of northern Poland.

Following World War I, the map of Central Europe changed. Austria and Hungary became separate nations. Czechoslovakia was created, and Poland was reassembled from the portions of the nation that had been under the control of Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. However, the German-speaking center of Europe remained, made up of Germany, Austria, large portions of Switzerland and Czechoslovakia, and the tiny Principality of Liechtenstein, a wealthy alpine constitutional monarchy located between Switzerland and Austria that first became a nation in 1806.

World War II changed the boundaries and affiliations of the Central European countries again. Germans were expelled as a result of ethnic cleansing from territories to the east of the Oder-Neisse line that separated Germany from Poland. Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, as well as the eastern half of Germany, all became part of the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence, the Warsaw Pact nations. These now-communist states were still considered linked to Western Europe by history and cultural inclination, even though they were part of the Soviet bloc.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the former Soviet satellites in Central Europe all asserted their independence. Hungary had precipitated the collapse of East Germany when it opened its borders in 1989, and within ten months of this event, Hungary had left the communist fold and could no longer be considered an Eastern Bloc nation. Poland held democratic elections in 1989. Germany was reunited as a single nation in 1990. The borders of Central Europe were stabilized in 1993 when the Czech Republic and Slovakia peacefully chose in a referendum to separate into independent nations.

Geography and Climate

Central Europe has a varied topography and climate. In the south, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and large portions of Austria are alpine nations. North of the Alps, Central Europe stretches across the Northern European Plain to the Baltic Sea. This plain covers most of Germany and Poland and reaches as far as the Czech Republic, providing this area with fertile land and plentiful rain and rivers. This area is generally less than 150 meters (492 feet) above sea level, and it is crisscrossed by navigable rivers such as the Rhine, Oder, Elbe, and Vistula.

To the south of the Northern European Plain are the Central Uplands. This large zone extends in an east-west direction across the central part of the continent. The Central Uplands region includes the Black Forest and Taunus Mountains in Germany, as well as the Ore and Sudeten Mountains in the Czech Republic. The Central Uplands region is not heavily populated outside the valleys of the Rhine, Danube, and Elbe Rivers. These forested highlands extend south into parts of Switzerland and Austria and lead to the Alpine Mountains.

The Alps essentially form the southern border of Central Europe, except the Great Hungarian Plain. This area of southeastern Europe is surrounded by mountains, with the Alps, Dinaric Alps, and Carpathian ranges creating its borders. Consequently, the Great Hungarian Plain can be very dry. Its water comes mainly from snowmelt in the Alps and Carpathians.

The Carpathian Mountains also separate southern Poland from Slovakia. The Pannonian Plain between the Danube and Sava rivers covers portions of Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia.

North of the Alps, the climate of Central Europe is similar to the climate of the Midwestern United States, although Europe’s climate tends to be more transitional. Maritime air masses from the west collide with continental air masses in the core of Europe. Winters are cold, and summers are hot. However, the region enjoys abundant rainfall, and its plains provide soil for productive farming.

Climate change in the twenty-first century has caused heatwaves, droughts, flooding, and biodiversity loss in the region. The Climate‗CRICES project focuses on improving climate resilience in Central Europe by using data to create climate change projections and development plans. In late 2024, the project held an online collaboration meeting called the Synergies Roundtable on Climate Change Resilience to announce plans and research findings.

Economy

Central Europe is an economic powerhouse led by Germany, one of the strongest economies in the world. Early in the twenty-first century, all Central European nations were members of the eurozone or were scheduled to adopt the euro. Measured by the Legatum Prosperity Index, three Central European countries were among the world’s top fifteen economies in the 2020s: Switzerland (second), Germany (ninth), and Austria (fourteenth).

The region was industrialized very early, and it has a long history of good infrastructure, especially in rail and barge transport. The continent’s earliest rail systems were built in the Austria-Hungary and German territories. The excellent rail systems first devised in the 1800s were still very effective in the twenty-first century. Likewise, the rivers and systems of canals are still key transport routes for industrial and agricultural goods. The industrial economies of Central Europe are highly complex and sophisticated.

Although manufacturing and services dominate the region’s economies, Central Europe is also an agricultural powerhouse. Germany alone produces large amounts of hops, rye, barley, rapeseed, milk, and potatoes. Poland is a major fruit producer. However, the output of these products was impacted by extreme drought in 2003, 2015, 2018, and 2019.

However, the region’s economy has been shifting over time into services. Switzerland and Liechtenstein have long been known as banking and insurance centers. Several Central Europen cities are common outsourcing destinations, including Krakow, Warsaw, and Wroclaw, Poland; Budapest, Hungary; Prague and Brno, Czech Republic; and Bratislava, Slovakia. These cities are favorable, particularly healthcare software development, for outsourcing because of their positive business climates and skilled workforce.

Central Europe’s economy is somewhat less integrated than, for example, Western Europe’s. One significant difference is the fact that not all of the nations are members of the eurozone. Switzerland does not use the euro, and since 1815, it has remained strictly neutral throughout the region’s many conflicts. Liechtenstein’s currency is the Swiss franc. Euros, however, are accepted by merchants in both countries. Germany, Austria, and Slovakia are members of the eurozone. Poland, Hungary, Romania, and the Czech Republic are members of the European Union but have not replaced their national currencies with the euro.

Demographics

Central Europe is densely populated, with about 173 million citizens. In size, the countries range from Germany, by far the largest (about 84 million), down to tiny Liechtenstein (fewer than forty thousand citizens).

Historically, the region's population has been overwhelmingly White and Christian. In the early decades of the twenty-first century, as Muslim immigrants arrived from the Middle East and North Africa, the religious and ethnic makeup of the Central European countries began to change somewhat. The new arrivals tended to be more religious than the original ethnic populations, among whom church attendance had fallen steadily since the mid-twentieth century. This development was particularly true of the four German-speaking countries in Central Europe—Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland.

Although new immigrants would be expected to bring the average age down across the region as they moved to the Central European countries, the main demographic shift in the region showed a steadily aging population. The median age in Germany in the 2020s, for example, was around 45 years old. In Austria, around 19 percent of the population was sixty-five years or older; in Germany, the proportion was above 22 percent. In addition to an aging population, much of Central Europe also experienced a shrinking population in the 2020s due to low fertility rates and emigration.

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