German propaganda for a peaceful Europe that wants to make St. Stephan the center of which, produced in 1920 Vienna, Austria... ?

Yeah this makes sense.

The author calls Austria a German state just like Bavaria.

Austria is basically the German-speaking part of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was even briefly called the "Republic of German-Austria" after the empire's dissolution in 1918: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_German-Austria

Because Austria was a German state. We are talking 1920, mind. A national Austrian identity separate from the wider German one did not develop until after the second world war.

Austria was an independent empire which was only dissolved in 1918. It existed before the unification of Germany.

Germany wasn't a country before 1871. However, Germany existed as a cultural region. Austria was always considered to be a part of Germany, even the leading part. When Germany united, there were two options, the small-Germany (kleindeutsche) and large-Germany (großdeutsche) solution, the latter including either the whole Austrian empire or just the German-speaking parts in the unified country. The reason why this did not come to pass was that Bismarck and the Prussian rulers (Hohenzollern) wanted to control Germany, not share the rule with the competing Habsburh family, the rulers of Austria-Hungary.

Let's not forget that WWI ended two years before and was started from Vienna, Austria. Making it a center of new Europe has a certain stink to it.

Is that German propaganda? Sankt Stephan is at the center of the realm, Berlin is drawn just as just another province. Sankt Stephan would be the center of Vienna, correct me if I am wrong. Someone was trying to make the Habsburg empire great again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stephen%27s_Cathedral,_Vie...

A lot of people (especially across the waters) have no idea where Switzerland is on a map, nor that they speak German (Same with Austria).

I'm going to guess that might have to do with GP's assumptions…

Because it is not German propaganda from a century ago. It is a peace plan from a century ago, that imagined a world in which the Second World War never need have happened.

Well, I never head of that plan before, but if it is a peace plan, it is one that gives thought to the ethnicity of occupation troops. When you have occupation troops, you not always have peace, last time I checked.

Peace plan that wipes out entire nations and cultures?

Huh, how peaceful.

I'll take that as a sarcastic response and that you doubt that reducing the influence of nations would promote peace.

Tribalism (Nationalism) is the cause or justification for most wars, no? Us against Them. Whether it's Nations or Religions or Races. I think tribalism is so deeply rooted in most of our cultures, that ideas that challenge it are hard to process for most people. I think there's a lot of value in challenging assumptions. This specific proposal has a whole host of problems with it, but there is still merit in the idea of dealing with the cultural forces of nationalism.

Nationalism is drawing borders around preexistent tribalism to keep it contained.

It is exactly violations of those borders which got us wars in Europe. Sometimes for the sake of colonization, sometimes for the sake of unification, sometimes for the sake of ill-conceived peace, and almost always a bad idea in the end.

I'm not even that much optimistic about the future of the EU, to be honest.

> Tribalism (Nationalism) is the cause or justification for most wars, no?

No. It may be a banner under which a specific group is united, but it is never a cause.

The urge to take over resources that someone else controls is.

I think it's fair to say that the root of most/much war is greed in one form or the other.

But it doesn't work without being able to convince other people that they'll benefit from joining that cause, based on being members of your group/nation. Those wars are justified typically by generating a shared sense of fear and/or hate for the other side. If people's ties or shared identity to that group were weaker, it would be harder for people to buy into that propaganda.

I find this interesting, because without some unifying forces I don't think our modern society would be able to function well. I'm just not sure Geography and national identity/culture are the best way to unify people. Can't say that I have any better alternatives though, other than thinking that if our personal identities were less tied to our national identity, the world might be a little friendlier place.

Persuading masses, that there's some higher good worth pursuing is how all ideologies work (including religion).

For creating a us/them group, any shared/diving trait can be used. It can be tribal, religion, or it can be class (bourgeoisie vs workers), or ahem intersectional.

How is that propaganda? Looks like a honest (and maybe naive) project.

States, or cantons, in the shape of narrow pie-wedges, with borders cutting straight across rivers and mountains, are obviously impossible to administer.

For a lively introduction to the failure at Versailles, I can recommend John Maynard Keynes' Notes on the Peace.

I also first thought it looked like a German-centric idea of a "united" Europe after most of it had been joined to Germany. But I think it's probably actually a highbrow vision of (Central) Europe amalgamated into a union where the supposed peace comes from the amalgamation rather than from subversion.

The radial "kantons" in the map, for example, have been denoted as having a military presence of various ethnic groups, not just Germanic, and the various ethnic groups maintaining a military presence are all over the place and alternating over each neighbouring sector/"kanton".

I also don't really think a German propaganda map would include things such as present southern Italy being assigned as part of Greece when Greece was actually neutral or Allied during World War 1 (and invaded by Nazi Germany in WW2, in case you'd think the map was from Nazi Germany age.)

Edit: The metadata also says it's from 1920, as the title indicates

Edit 2: Most people outside of the British/US world probably also wouldn't even know it's a particular day there. Have a good one, though.