Scope and Meaning of the Wall in the 20th Century. The Resurgence of a Triple European Centrality

Abstract

The article examines the consequences of the berlin Wall Fall from a geopolitical and pan European point of view. We will explain how Europe —a continent divided between two powers and without a hold on its destiny— has returned to a “triple centrality” after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Between 1989 and 1992, Germany recovered its place as a geographical and political centre for Europe. Meanwhile, the European Union stands as a new economic, diplomatic, and financial centre since the establishment of the euro and the Maastricht treaty of 1991. We will give a particular attention to a fact usually overviewed by internationalists, the rebirth of a ‘Central Europe’ understood not only in accordance to historical and cultural roots, but also as an idea with recognizable political sense and influence inside the construction of a new European project, particularly towards its relations with the East (Russia) and the South (the Middle East). This rebirth is to be put in the broader context of the re-birth of former empires (Russian, Chinese, Ottoman). This fact, added to the decline of the United States as a superpower, contributes to the advent of a multipolar world.