The term Europe has not always been under-stood in the same way. Depending on the period and
influenced by the dominant interpreting elites at the time it was always different features
that were emphasised »new« traditions that were discovered and »created« and different values
- specific to the period - that were claimed as European. Europe is a construct. That is as
true today as in the period before 1945. This monograph focuses on »Sachbücher« (nonfiction
books) travelogues and literary-political writings by eight authors who played a key role in
the discourse on Europe in the Third Reich and also partly in the early German Federal
Re-public. One of them is Walter Kiaulehn. In World War II in the periodical Signal Kiaulehn
draws up a European »family tree« of a somewhat different totalitarian kind - naturally
excluding semi-Asiatic Russia as well as England »a refugee from Eu-rope«. England has »swum
off« in the direction of the USA. For Ernst Wilhelm Eschmann Great Britain and France belong
to the »margins of Eu-rope« anyway while the central powers Germany and Italy constitute the
actual core of the continent. Europe evolves from the centre and it is characteristically
medial balanced mediating between tradition and progress. It is the others who are radical
and have no appreciation for the middle course: the Americans with their skyscraper fantasies
and the Bolsheviks with their anti-cultural tabula-rasa mentality. »The New Europe« on the
other hand is the continent where in accordance with a golden mean that has developed
historically a moderate Modernism takes shape. An instance of this is the »New Bari« the
»favor-ite city of Fascism« that Gustav R. Hocke visits in 1937 and in which instead of giant
high-rises he encounters much smaller six-storey buildings along the new waterfront
promenade. The term »The New Europe« became generally accepted in Germany during the 1930s and
by the beginning of World War II it was an integral part of the German discourse on Europe.
Carl Wege teaches at the University of Biele-feld. His research focuses on the interface of
lit-erary studies historiography and journalism. His most recent book is Buchstabe und
Maschine. Beschreibung einer Allianz published by Suhr-kamp Verlag. At present he is working
on a new research project titled »The construction of a community of values and of a shared
destiny. The discourse on Finland in Germany from 1933 to 1945«.
