Meinolf Arens and Daniel Bein
The Origins of Civil Society Structures in Central
and Eastern Europe through the 18th Century
1. Introduction
From a historical point of view, the idea of living together on the basis of
mutual tolerance and equal status among different ways of life is a quite
recent concept. Nonetheless its roots can be traced back to the ancient world.
This chapter will present the conditions that led to the development of civil
societies, conditions that are not equally prevalent in all cultures.
Civil society is considered here as the intellectual product of a particular
(i.e., the “Western”) culture. It is important to emphasize that other cultures
in which this idea is not or is less present are not less developed, but rather
different. Indeed, the concept of civil society is not the expression of a
certain, universal stage of development. Moreover, the evolution of culture
does not follow a single, virtually inevitable, naturally upward movement, for
which the ultimate end consists in the civil society. Rather, “culture” is very
complex and is based on different lines of tradition. Experiences in the field
of “intercultural communications” show how difficult it can be to transfer
ideas that are almost self-evident in one culture into other cultures.
For centuries the Central and Eastern European societies have been an
integral part of Europe. In their reorientation after the collapse of the socialist
systems, they can adapt evolved structures and mentalities.
The historical settlement areas of contemporary Poland, Hungary,
Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Austria were penetrated by the
western-occidental culture until the 12th century. Nonetheless there emerged
in this process regional and chronological differences with Western Europe
as well as, over time, divergent developments. On the local level, the
intensity of the western-occidental penetration varied considerably. It has to
be pointed out that other territories, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Croatia, and Slovenia, also participated in these developments.
Apart from this, there are other cultures that have to be taken in account
as well, although they are considered today more as part of the easternmost
area of Europe. Especially for the development of civil societies in Russia,
the Ukraine and Romania, it is of crucial importance that, until World War II,
parts of these territories belonged to states of Central European character.
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Meinolf Arens and Daniel Bein
More specifically, for example, Transylvania, the Banat, Podolia, Bukovina,
East Galicia, Transcarpathia, and the northern part of East Prussia belonged
for centuries to Hungary, the Habsburg Monarchy, and the German Reich.
Especially in these regions the concept of civil society is falling on fertile
ground. Consequently, the nucleus of development can be located there.
Because of the geographic coincidence with cultural areas of ByzantineOrthodox character, these regions are particularly interesting. This holds true
also for the way the elite (little-Ruthenian nobility, Jewish and Armenian
town-dwellers) saw themselves and their identity, as well as for the way of
life of rural lower classes (East Slavonic and Polish serf peasants in Galicia,
Vlach shepherds in Transylvania, Roma/Gypsies). This merging of two very
different cultural models (concerning the city-religion-society-individual
relationship) can be observed still today in the states dealt with here.
Examples are the northeastern Voivodship in Poland around Bialystok, the
Lemko and Przemysl regions in southeastern Poland, as well as the
northeastern part of Slovakia.
The remainder of this chapter will provide an overview of these lines of
development, historically evolved structural features, and thought patterns.
Special attention will be paid to the considerable regional differences and to
the numerous cleavages among all levels of society.
2. From the beginnings into the 18th century
The outlines of the specific intellectual product “civil society” of the Central
European cultural area are identical in crucial aspects. However, the regional
intensity of particular cultural characteristics and historical processes varies
significantly.
2.1 Ancient outlines: the significance of the Roman Empire
Parts of the regions dealt with here were integral parts of the Roman Empire
between the 1st century BC and the 5th century AD. Long-term effects on
the evolving medieval Central and East-Central European cultural areas
could be traced along four lines of development:
•
The regional tradition and, since the Renaissance, more extensive
dissemination of the Roman legal system, which became the basis of
today’s legal conception of the whole Western, and therefore also
Central-East European, world. The Code Napoléon (1804), being an
example in many cases, should be mentioned in this context.
The Origins of Civil Society Structures in Central and Eastern Europe
3
•
•
•
The successful process of Christianization within the Roman
Empire. This process was the basis for the complete conversion to
Christianity carried out until the 15th century (Lithuania) in the
parts of the European continent not controlled by Islamic states
(Emirate of Granada until 1492, Ottoman Empire since 1352 in
South-East Europe).
The idea of a not merely religiously interpretive sense of art and
science rediscovered and developed further during the Renaissance.
To this belonged also the adoption of the works of Aristotle, Plato,
Ptolemy, Strabo, Plotin, and other ancient philosophers and
historiographers. Connected with this was the revival and gradual
dissemination of the view of Man as an individual – which,
following from that, is to be granted particular universal individual
rights.
The concept of the restoration of a Christian Empire at least
covering the Latin world, in legitimate succession to the Roman
Empire. This idea influenced in many forms the history of EastCentral Europe until the 19th century, and was present and effective
in the Holy Roman Empire until 1806.
2.2 Human geographic outlines from a Eurasian point of view
Usually little attention is paid to another prerequisite for the gradual
formation of the basic elements of today’s civil society thought patterns and
structures. Geographically, Central and Eastern Europe are situated in an
advantageous location with regard to the periodic conflicts between agrarian
and nomadic cultures. Unlike in the settled cultures in China, Iran,
Mesopotamia, North Africa and North India, by far less energy had to be
used in these often-disastrous conflicts. Instead, here was a chance to form
long-lasting, political communities, often in confined areas. The rivalry
existing among them had a renewing effect in the long term regarding
intellectual, social, and technological innovations. Large empires, formed by
military-oriented elite (such as the Mamluk Empire in Egypt and Syria),
which could have blocked the development of necessary elements of civil
society, did not arise in Central and Eastern Europe during the High and Late
Middle Ages.
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Meinolf Arens and Daniel Bein
3. The significance of the Christianization of societies by the
Latin Church
All of the regions dealt with here were shaped by the complete
Christianization of their populations by the Roman Church, which had a
standardizing effect on the prevailing social structures. Even today, this can
be verified by moral codes as well as cultural and mental orientations. Only
in indirect evidence (such as music and language) as well as some
unconsciously handed down notions have pre-Christian elements been
preserved. These traces of the cultures of Teutons, Slavs, Finno-Ugrians and
others – mostly tribal communities/associations with different intensities of
rule and ethnic composition – can be found occasionally up to the 18th
century and still today in more rudimentary form.
The supranational way the Roman Church – unlike the ChristianOrthodox world – saw itself turned out to be key as long ago as the Early
Middle Ages. For example, the persistently claimed papal supremacy
(Primat) over the temporal powers ultimately opened real possibilities to
influence spheres of temporal power. The travel of King Henry IV to
Canossa in 1077 serves as an example of the rivalry between ecclesiastical
and temporal power arising from this. Another feature is the frequently
aggressive sense of mission of the occidental church, which has manifested
itself in, for example, the Crusades, the conversion by sword or the
persecution of heretics. The existence of pagan groups (Saxons 8th century,
Elbslavs 10th-12th century, Lithuanians 13th-15th century, Bohemians 10th
century, Hungarians 11th and 13th-14th century) has always been fought
until their complete elimination.
By contrast, within the realms and principalities of Christian-Orthodox
character, the emancipation of the church from the temporal power did not
succeed despite a number of attempts. Here, a specific state church system
evolved. The Byzantine-Eastern Church variant on Christianity, which
developed its characteristic features between the 6th and 14th centuries,
differed therefore clearly from the Latin Church. This had lasting impacts on
the shape of states and societies.
4. The function of the city
In the areas dealt with in this chapter, during the Middle Ages arose (often on
top of the ruins of ancient civilizations) a dense network of cities that were
complex and with many parts in their internal constitution and structure.
Among these are the townscapes around the Upper Rhine, in Franconia,
The Origins of Civil Society Structures in Central and Eastern Europe
5
Tyrol and Styria, in Upper Austria, Silesia, the Hanseatic area, parts of
Bohemia and Moravia, as well as in historic Hungary. Sometimes groups of
towns come together in so-called Städtebünde, like the Hanse or the alliance
of towns in the Zips in upper Hungary, to defend their political and economic
interests against the often nobility-dominated principalities and kingdoms.
With some breaks because of the European crisis of the 17th century, they
shaped the economy, way of life and thinking of these cultural areas up to the
modern age.
This process was far less intense in most parts of East and Central
Poland, Galicia, Central Hungary, or in the northeast German provinces
Brandenburg, Pomerania and Mecklenburg. In many of these places there
was a period of stagnation in the development of cities and the formation of a
civil society, which could have spread to the rural milieu, too. Rather, since
the 16th century, the system of forced manor economy and the absolutist
state structures of the early modern age, supported by the nobility and the
bureaucracy, were characteristic.
The process of condensing the townscapes varied significantly. Military
conflicts, shifts of sales routes, epidemics, and regional slumps often caused
development fluctuations. In the growing number of townscapes of Central
and Eastern Europe since the High Middle Ages (11th century) a period of
slow development of burgher ways of life and thinking began. Despite all the
local variations, this process finally led to a quite uniform way of life and
thinking.
In the Late Middle Ages, town associations such as the Hanse generated
– apart from far-reaching economic strength – also political power. In the
Polish/Lithuanian, Hungarian, Mecklenburgian and other societies of the
17th century ruled by the nobility, the model of city-dweller that developed
in the Middle Ages had almost disappeared or had been marginalized.
Further east, in regions that had just for a short time belonged to the
Latin-shaped Central-Eastern Europe, another form of town developed, just
as in regions, where inhabitants of occidental character were living only in
small numbers (Bukovina, Halicz/Galicia, Pokutia, White-Ruthenia,
Moldova). These towns barely had autonomy in economic matters and
municipal administration, the central characteristic of the towns in the West.
All in all, the institution of the town was of more secondary importance in
the eastern cultural area. The specific Central and East-Central European
townscape of Western character evolving since the 11th century turned out to
be the more innovative and more attractive model for large sections of
society.
Another important difference from the towns in Western and Central
Europe was the ethnic composition of the town area. In the West uniform
structures predominated. Characteristic of East European towns, however, is
the ethnic, linguistic and denominational difference between town and
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surrounding countryside. Up to now, this fact has led to relatively sharp
town/country contrasts (the most recent example is the attempted destruction
of Dubrovnik by the rural Serbian population of the surrounding
countryside).
5. Corporate structures (corporatist state) as early form of
institutionalized separation of powers
The Old Empire and the East-Central European realms Poland/Lithuania and
Hungary were decisively marked by the corporate system. It arose in the
Early Middle Ages as a necessary form of development of an informed
opinion and agreement, and was further institutionalized and set down in law
in the Late Middle Ages. Examples are for the Old Empire the Golden Bull
(1356), for Poland/Lithuania the Pacta Conventa (1573) and the Articuli
Henriciani (1574), and for Hungary the Golden Bulls of 1222 and 1351 as
well as the Tripartium Werböczis of the year 1514. With respect to the
privileged estates (nobility, clergy, often also representatives of the towns),
the power of the monarch at times clearly had been limited. In the course of
the early modern age, this idea led to the concept of republics of the nobility
without monarchical leadership [for example, the political conceptions of the
Upper-Austrian nobleman Georg Erasmus von Tschernembl (died 1626)].
A number of military conflicts between kings/court societies and the
estates in the Late Middle Ages and the early modern age had different ends
with different consequences. While in Bohemia (after 1620), Prussia and
various other territories of the Old Empire, absolutist systems could be
installed, in other territories as well as in Hungary (Peace of Szatmár), a
balance between sovereign and estates was achieved. In Poland, Livland and
other territories of the Empire, the estates even succeeded in breaking the
power of the sovereign decisively and acquiring the rule of state and society
permanently.
Early parliamentarian forms on a corporate basis were the model for
parliamentary systems and procedures in the 19th and 20th centuries. The
authorization of resistance against a monarch and his office bearers or
courtiers who did not abide by the law, guaranteed explicitly by
representatives of the Crown and drawn up in writing, was widespread in
Central and East-Central Europe from the 13th to the 18th centuries. This
right of resistance was known in principle since antiquity. This fact can
explain the vehement resistance of the early parliamentarian, corporate
systems of consensus against the top-down, bureaucratic state. In Bohemia,
for example, Jan Hus’ religious and social reform ideas ignited a broad
movement (Hussites), which could not be defeated by force. Until today, it
The Origins of Civil Society Structures in Central and Eastern Europe
7
serves as an implicit authorization for Czechs to revolt against their own and
foreign authority.
In Poland/Lithuania, the nobility – circa one-tenth of the whole
population – slowly undermined the power of the crown during the 17th and
18th centuries through a long process in changing the Verfassung (1652 first
Liberum Veto in the parliament). The Polish-Lithuanian republic of nobles
was the first state in Europe that in 1791 organized a modern Verfassung –
based on democratic principles and the division of power.
The East-Central European realms of Poland/Lithuania and Hungary
emerged during the High and Late Middle Ages, the Habsburg Monarchy
(with the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Austrian Hereditary Lands as the
heartland) during the 16th century, and last of all the Kingdom of Prussia
during the 18th century. These regimes strongly influenced the whole area
politically, intellectually and culturally. In the case of Germany, for example,
the complex, federal nature of the Old Empire, which was founded on the
basis of a balance of power and interests, had a lasting impact on the burgher
mentality. Even the totalitarian, centralist ideologies of the 20th century
could not crush it permanently.
In the course of the 15th/16th century, the circumstances of the peasant
population worsened. Their legal status and economic situation were
undermined by the rapidly spreading manor economy of the nobility. This
was especially true for Poland/Lithuania, Livland and Kurland, and large
parts of Hungary, as well as for the northeastern territories of the Old
Empire. The system of the so-called Second Bondage resulted, with some
regional differences, in a stagnation of the societal development process in
comparison with Central and Western Europe.
6. Renaissance, Humanism, Reformation,
Denominationalization and the achievement of the
principle of denominational tolerance
The invention of the letterpress with movable characters in the middle of the
15th century constitutes an important turning point, in particular for the rapid
spread of reformist ideas, the exchange of scientific discoveries, and the
circulation of political proposals.
Among these reformist trends, the Protestant Reformation and the
process of denominationalization decisively influenced Central and EastCentral European societies. At the time, the solutions to many of the conflicts
over balance were affected. For example, in the Principality of Transylvania
of the16th/17th century (by the resolutions of the Transylvanian Diets of
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Meinolf Arens and Daniel Bein
Torda 1568 and Medgyes 1571) or in Poland in the 16th century, farreaching religious tolerance was granted – a unique circumstance for the
Europe of this time. Furthermore, as in the West, the many military conflicts
that took place (Austrian Hereditary Lands, Bohemia, Palatinate, and
Hungary) also had an integrating effect over the long term. Here the
fruitlessness of the denominational conflicts within the Old Empire as well as
in Hungary had a marked effect. Only in Poland, Bohemia and the Austrian
Hereditary Lands did the almost complete suppression of the Protestant
Church – but not of Orthodoxy – succeed. Measures taken by the Catholic
Church toward this aim in the early modern age caused the emergence of
some Greek-Catholic Church sections united with Rome in Poland/Lithuania
and Hungary.
Members of radical reformist and chiliastic denominations, such as
Hutterers, communities of Bohemian Brothers or Unitarians [Jan Amos
Comenius (died 1670), Ferenc Dávidis (died 1579)], asserted themselves
over a long period in several smaller regions of eastern Central Europe. In
Transylvania, for example, the Unitarians developed very far-reaching ideas
of religious tolerance within a virtually pantheistic notion of God, valid even
until present times.
Europe-wide, only the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia achieved a relatively
stable juxtaposition of the respective locally tolerated denomination. By the
15th century the Renaissance and Humanism had reached the Old Empire,
Bohemia, Hungary and the Polish/Lithuanian Union State. These strongly
influenced the cultural and political perspective of the burgher and noble
corporate society. For example, the use of Latin as the court language by all
persons within the Polish and Hungarian noble societies was obligatory up to
the 19th century. However, the political and economic crises of East-Central
Europe between the late 16th and the early 18th centuries hampered the
adoption of scientific innovations. The above-mentioned system of Second
Bondage led to the extensive devastation of the evolved town-cultures and a
general pauperization of broad social classes. In the course of time, some of
the affected regions (above all, large parts of historic Poland) succeeded in
compensating again the gap of development to regions situated more in the
West resulting from this (especially in the societal field).
7. Scientification, deprivation of mystique demystification
and Enlightenment – the processes of secularization of
state and society
Central and East-Central Europe participated in the wave of establishment of
The Origins of Civil Society Structures in Central and Eastern Europe
9
universities and schools during the High and Late Middle Ages. Starting with
scholasticism, a far-reaching change of the conception of the world was
established. The continuous critical questioning of handed-down and newly
won knowledge changed mentalities and thought patterns. The idea of
individual uniqueness and the possibility of development of every person
spread among the municipal and noble elite in Central and East-Central
Europe. Man was seen as an autonomous being with the possibility of free
choice. Towards the end of the 18th century at the latest (despite regional
differences in intensity and time period), through this the old European
Occidental world was relieved.
For a long time, the Enlightenment was supported by a few
heterogeneous groups from the court-bureaucratic milieu, the military
apparatus and the universities. Starting in the late 17th century,
Enlightenment ideas very slowly began to influence the life of broader
classes of the population. However, these ideas originally were aimed in a
totally different direction. Over all, the technocratic considerations were
completely oriented to the efficiency of the state. Societies had to adapt to the
state’s needs.
Secularization and demystification of the world by “scientification” were
virtually by-products of these measures for more efficiency. In the 17th-19th
centuries, the absolutist state (Prussia, Hesse-Kassel, Bavaria, in the
Habsburg monarchy especially Bohemia), despite tenacious persistence and
regionally successful counter-movements, incorporated more and more
inhabitants of Central and East-Central Europe. Over the long term, the
forms of identity handed down from the Middle Ages were destroyed.
Taking their place were the newly developed, secular identity forms of
socialist and nationalist provenance, but also the society model founded on
an evolved civil basis, from which the present civil society could be derived.
The principle of the denominationally neutral state, which was developed as
early as the 18th century, had an enormous effect on the emergence of
pluralistic societies. Therefore, the 18th century can be classified as the last
epoch of the predominantly pre-nationally and denominationally marked oldEuropean societies. As a result, extremely divergent currents, both of which
have an effect on the present, developed at the same time.
8. Conclusion
As shown in this chapter, the far-reaching dominance of the nobility of the
Second Bondage system and the absolutist state systems of bureaucratic
character were typical between the 16th and 19th centuries in Central and
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East-Central Europe. In the 17th century, the denominational tolerance that
was legally established or assured by the monarch or corporate assemblies in
the 16th century in some states (Hungary, Principality of Transylvania,
Poland/Lithuania, Austrian Hereditary Lands such as Lower Austria) were
either almost completely removed in favor of one predominant denomination
(Poland/Lithuania, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Styria, Bohemia) or were
heavily restrained (Transylvania, Hungary). The nobility played a decisive
role in this development. Consequently, apart from very few exceptions, a
tradition of ideas of religious tolerance could not be developed. Political
opposition against absolutist systems by noble societies generally sought the
preservation of economic and legal privileges and is almost never to be
understood as an emancipation movement of the society as a whole.1 In
Eastern Europe, in particular, the nobility obstructed the development of the
cities and rigidly held to bondage.
Only as a result of enlightened bureaucratic absolutism (van Swieten,
Joseph II, Leopold II in the Habsburg monarchy, Frederic II the Great in
Prussia and – with reservations – Catherine II the Great in Russia) was the
principle of general religious freedom introduced and carried through
permanently. With the help of a nobility directly (re)included in this system
often by force in the 17th century, but soon integrated by the office-bound
participating in this system of rule, the absolutist systems of Europe – with
France as the forerunner – aimed at the cultural, intellectual and
denominational homogenization of the subjects. In a way, these were the
precursors of the totalitarian social systems of nationalist and socialist
provenance that emerged beginning in the late 19th century. Despite all local
and temporal differences, the duty of mission resulted in the enduring ideas
of crusade, mission, and mission by sword and through this a specific
Christian-occidental sense of mission. These ideas had also some influence
on the denominational wars in the region since the 16th century and are very
important for understanding the violent clashes of the major secular
ideologies of the 20th century.
As explained, the particular lines of tradition formed themselves not only
on the level of state structures condensed and evaluated in a very different
way. A highly complex picture of culture, history and ways of life within the
investigated period result.
Characteristic for the Occidental history of ideas and ideologies in
religious or “secular” guise up to the present time is an enormous yearning
for homogenization in almost all areas of life. In addition, since the High
1
Exceptions include, for example, Georg Erasmus von Tschernembl who died 1626 in Upper
Austria and Ferenc II Rákoczi who died 1735 in Hungary/Transylvania.
The Origins of Civil Society Structures in Central and Eastern Europe
11
Middle Ages there has been a strongly pronounced and often also militant
sense of mission. The idea still in effect of the total, uniformly structured
state dominated by an ethnically, socially and religiously homogeneous
population is an obstacle to the demands of the representatives of the “civil
society.” In this respect, the representatives of the “civil society” should
review their ideas of the “ideal” society again and again.
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