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Linking contemporary concerns about democratic fragility with historical analysis, this volume examines the crisis and failure of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe during the interwar period from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. The contributions explore political culture, constitutional traditions, religion, violence, and crisis discourse in Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. Rather than focusing narrowly on institutional breakdown, the authors emphasize long-term cultural legacies, narratives of crisis, and exclusionary identities that undermined democratic pluralism. Interwar Europe functioned as a laboratory of democracy whose experiences offer critical insights into the challenges facing liberal democracies today.
“A well-researched and comprehensive exploration of the crises of democracy and capitalism in Central Europe throughout the 20th century, drawing insightful parallels to contemporary issues... The essays are well-written, thoroughly researched, and provide valuable contributions to the field of modern European history. The scholarly rigor and depth of analysis make this volume a valuable resource for scholars and students of Central European history and politics.” • Rudolf Kučera, Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Martin Schulze Wessel is a German historian and professor of Eastern and Southeastern European history at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich since 2003. His research focuses on the history of Ukraine, Russia, Poland and Eastern Europe, as well as religious history and imperial history. Since 2004, he has been Director of the Collegium Carolinum. He is a co-founder of the German-Ukrainian Historical Commission. From 2012 to 2016, he was chairman of the Association of German Historians. His most recent publication, The Overlooked Nation, is a study of the interrelated German-Ukrainian relations since the 19th century.
Introduction
Martin Schulze Wessel
Chapter 1. Crises of Democracy and Capitalism Intertwined: The Interwar Years as Space of Experience and Usable Past
Stefanie Middendorf
Chapter 2. Vertical Power Division and the Rule of Law: A Constitutional Analysis of Poland and Romania
Madeleine Hartmann and Dietmar Müller
Chapter 3. Czech and Czechoslovak Communists 1921–2021: The Rise and Fall of an Anti-System Party
Jakub Rákosník
Chapter 4. From Godless Amazons to the Gender Lobby: Czech Anti-Gender Activism in Historical Perspective
Melissa Feinberg
Chapter 5. ‘The Protestants and Us’: State, Nation, and Religion in Interwar and Today’s Slovakia
Darina Volf
Chapter 6. The Return of Christian Hungary: Religion, Nationalism, and Historical Memory
Paul Hanebrink
Chapter 7. Victory, Homogeneity, and International Order: Czechoslovakia's Violent Paths to National Democracy in 1918, 1945, and 1989
Ota Konrád
Chapter 8. Practice and Ideology in the Study of Fascist Movements in Interwar Europe
Daniel Siemens
Index