Názory TGM na ideu sjednocené Evropy

Libor Svoboda

Názory TGM na ideu sjednocené Evropy

Vol.5,No.2–3(2003)

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The article deals with the issue of the views of the politician and philosopher T. G. Masaryk with respect to perspectives and possibilities of European unification. From the very beginning of his political carrier, TGM was preoccupied with the question of the difficult position of small nations located in the wide belt between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and the Balkans – nations under the control of Austro-Hungarian empire, Germany and Russia. Reflecting on the fate of these nations, Masaryk came to the conclusion that it was up to the allies to help them solve their problems. From the beginning, Masaryk was critical of the German policies practised in this region. After coming to exile at the beginning of the First War he started his struggle for the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the restructuring of post-war Europe. He outlined his vision of post-war Middle Europe in his programmatic work “New Europe” in which he presented and defined basic conditions for the establishment of new federations. According to Masaryk it is a necessary precondition for the establishing of a federation that all nations be free. During the first years after the war, Masaryk abandoned his federalisation plans and began – in response to the political situation at the time – proceed in a quite pragmatic way. In 1919 – 1923 he resolutely refused any federation or confederation plans for the Danube area. He returned to the idea of the possibility of united Middle Europe as late as the beginning of the 1930s. He also continued to be respected by the proponents of the idea of united Europe. The American playwright G.B. Shaw once said that he could imagine TGM as the head of the united Europe. The founder of Paneurope, Coudenhove-Kalerghi, mentions in his memoirs that he proposed to Masaryk in an unequivocal language that he should become the George Washington of the United States of Europe. Masaryk refused the proposal saying that the time was not ripe yet. Not that he would like the idea of united Europe, but he was too much of a realist to believe that the idea could be realised in near future.

Keywords:
Masaryk; Central Europe; The Democratic Union of Central Europe; Richard Coudenhove-Kalerghi;

References

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