What holds Central Europe together

Four memberships, arrived at from three directions

The Federal Republic of Germany was a party to the treaties that founded the European Communities in 1957 and had joined NATO in May 1955. Austria's record dates its membership of the European Union from 1 January 1995. The five states of the former Eastern bloc arrived in a single decade: Czechia, Hungary and Poland entered NATO on 12 March 1999, Slovakia and Slovenia on 29 March 2004, and all five joined the European Union on 1 May 2004.

Switzerland and Liechtenstein belong to the European Free Trade Association instead, Switzerland's record from 3 May 1960 and Liechtenstein's from 1 September 1991. Liechtenstein sits inside the European Economic Area and Switzerland outside it. Liechtenstein has been within the Swiss customs territory since a treaty concluded in 1923, and its record gives the Swiss franc as its currency. None of the records for Austria, Switzerland or Liechtenstein carries NATO, so the line between the alliance and the states outside it runs through the middle of the group.

Schengen does not follow that line. Germany had been inside it since 26 March 1995 and Austria's record gives 1 December 1997. The five states that joined the Union in 2004 had their land and sea border controls lifted on 21 December 2007 and their airport controls on 30 March 2008. Switzerland's record gives 12 December 2008 and Liechtenstein's 19 December 2011, so the two states outside the Union are inside the area.

The euro came to Germany in 1999 and as notes and coin in 2002, to Slovenia in 2007 and to Slovakia in 2009, and Austria's record carries it too. Czechia, Hungary and Poland kept the currencies they had, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein share the Swiss franc.

Where the water goes

Three rivers organise the northern and eastern ground, and each of them leaves it. The Elbe rises in the Krkonoše on the Czech side of the ridge it shares with Poland, and the point where it crosses into Germany is the lowest place recorded in the Czech record. The Oder rises in the Czech hills as well, and its lower course carries the boundary between Germany and Poland that the two states confirmed by a treaty signed at Warsaw on 14 November 1990. The Danube crosses Bavaria and then divides Slovakia from Hungary below Bratislava.

Hungary lies wholly inside the Danube basin and Slovakia very nearly so. Slovenia sends the Sava and the Drava the same way and drains a corner of itself to the Adriatic instead. Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia and Switzerland reach no coast at all. Austria's lowest point is Neusiedl Lake at 115 metres and Switzerland's is Lake Maggiore at 193 metres, while Liechtenstein's record puts its lowest ground on the Rhine.

The high ground, and where it is shared

The Eastern Alps span Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Slovenia and Switzerland, with Italy beyond the group, and five of the highest points recorded here are Alpine: Switzerland's Dufourspitze at 4,634 metres, Austria's Grossglockner at 3,798 metres, Germany's Zugspitze at 2,962 metres, Slovenia's Triglav at 2,864 metres and Liechtenstein's Grauspitz at 2,599 metres.

The highest point recorded for Poland and the highest recorded for Slovakia stand in one small range further east. Rysy reaches 2,501 metres on the border itself and Gerlachovský štít 2,655 metres a few valleys to the south, both of them in the Tatras. Sněžka, at 1,603 metres the highest ground in Czechia, also sits on the Polish border. Hungary's Kékes at 1,014 metres is a worn volcanic hill in the Mátra.

The languages, and the one outside the family

German is official in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Four of the official languages recorded here are Slavic. Polish, Czech and Slovak belong to the western branch and Slovene to the southern one. Switzerland's record adds French, Italian and Romansh, and Austria's lists Austrian Sign Language beside German. Hungarian is Uralic, and the languages closest to it are spoken far to the north and east of the group. Czech and Slovak were both official in one state until the last day of 1992.

How the states came by their dates

Hungary's record reaches back to the year 1000, Austria's to 996 and Switzerland's to 1291, with a second Swiss date of 12 September 1848. Liechtenstein's record gives 12 July 1806. Most of the other dates come from the twentieth century, and most of those from two of its endings. Poland's founding date is 11 November 1918, Austria's record adds 12 November of the same year, and Czechoslovakia was declared on 28 October, while the Slovene lands went into the state of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on 1 December 1918. The Treaty of Trianon, signed on 4 June 1920, drew the borders of Hungary and left Hungarian speakers in the states around it; Hungarian is a protected minority language in Slovenia and in Slovakia for that reason.

The German record runs from the Basic Law of 23 May 1949 and the unification of 3 October 1990. Slovenia declared independence on 25 June 1991. Czechoslovakia divided into Czechia and Slovakia on 1 January 1993, under a constitutional act passed on 25 November 1992.

Two alliances, two neutrals, and a line inside the group

The Warsaw Treaty was signed on 14 May 1955, days after the Federal Republic of Germany joined NATO. The German Democratic Republic was a party to it and the Federal Republic sat on the other side of it, so the division ran through German territory. Austria and Switzerland were neutral through the Cold War, and Slovenia was inside Yugoslavia, which was non-aligned. None of the three belonged to either alliance.

The dates that ended the arrangement are spread across the same ground. Round table talks in Warsaw ran from 6 February to 5 April 1989 and produced the partly free election of 4 June. Hungary began dismantling the fence along its Austrian border on 2 May 1989 and opened that border to citizens of the German Democratic Republic on 11 September. Demonstrations began in Prague on 17 November. Comecon was wound up at Budapest on 28 June 1991, and the Warsaw Pact at Prague three days after that.

Where the edges are argued

The World Factbook defines Central Europe as Austria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland, which is the list filed here. Other readings in print differ at the edges. Wikipedia's account of the region adds Croatia and Lithuania, and the Encyclopédie Larousse leaves out Hungary and Poland. EuroVoc, the thesaurus of the European Union, keeps no term for Central Europe on its own and sends it to Central and Eastern Europe.

The M49 standard published by the UN Statistics Division has no Central Europe in it either. It files Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia under Eastern Europe, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland under Western Europe and Slovenia under Southern Europe, and states that its groupings are a statistical convenience carrying no political meaning. Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein were filed under Western Europe in this catalogue too until 26 September 2026. Both readings are in print and neither is settled here.

The bodies that carry the name do not agree with each other either. The Visegrád Declaration was signed on 15 February 1991 at a castle on the Danube bend, chosen for the congress the kings of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland held there in 1335; its parties were Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, and the group became four states when Czechoslovakia divided. No other state filed here has been in it. The Central European Initiative, founded in 1989, lists Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia among its members, along with Albania, Belarus, Italy, Moldova and Ukraine, and has never listed Germany.