THE NEW EUROPE
The Magyars are also taking their part in the discussion regarding Pangermanic "Central Europe" and the Customs' Union. On the whole they accept the political scheme of Berlin-Bagdad, and merely claim for themselves a privileged position in the new World-Empire; but their economists either express doubts respecting the feasibility of a Customs' Union or altogether condemn the scheme on its merits.[1]
Pangerman literature before the war definitely laid down the rôle which the present conflict was to play in the German scheme. It is interesting to compare the proposed programme with the results actually achieved up to the present moment. Two books will be enough to indicate what the programme was. The first, "Grossdeutschland und Mitteleuropa um das Jahr 1950," by "A German" (1895), anticipated the war with Russia, and declared that, in case of victory, Germany would annex the Baltic provinces (Esthonia, Livonia, Courland), form a Polish State and a Ruthenian Kingdom, which would comprise the Jews and Slavs of Germany, would organise "Central Europe" on the basis of a political and economic union, and would thus have an empire which, in addition to Austria-Hungary, would include Luxemburg, Holland, Belgium and German Switzerland. That empire would form, together with the Baltic provinces, Poland and Ruthenia, the great Zollverein, in which the Germans would be the ruling lords and masters, and the other nations their servants. The author estimated that the empire would contain 86 million, and the Customs Union 131 million, inhabitants. The second book, "Grossdeutschland, die Arbeit des 20ten Jahrhunderts" ("Greater Germany, the Work of the Twentieth Century"), by Tannenberg (1911), similarly based its speculations upon the assumption of a decisive victory over Russia and France. According to this forecast, Germany, in addition to the colonies which
- ↑ The Pangerman plan is treated from the Magyar point of view by E. Pályi, "Deutschland und Ungarn" (1915), and "Das mitteleuropäische Weltreichbündniss gesehen von einem Nicht-Deutschen" (1916). Pályi accepts the plan of a close Customs' Union. In opposition to him the well-known Hungarian economist and ex-Minister, Szterényi, declines to accept the Customs' Union, but demands a system of preterential duties for Hungary.
begriff," 1916 (a very interesting attempt at a philosophy of history by a biologist, though it must be admitted that Herr Schneider's Pangerman bias does not lead him into intolerance).
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