‘Humanity is Austria Writ Large’: Erwin Hanslik’s Concept of East Central Europe’s Reconstruction

This article discusses the concepts of the Austrian anthropogeographer Erwin Hanslik. Although this work has inspired many German-speaking geographers, its author has been largely forgotten. Hanslik’s holistic philosophy and his distance from (German) nationalism contributed to his marginalisation, despite the modernity of the media he used. His worldview was linked to the scholar’s biography and identity, based on his attachment to his home region and the Habsburg monarchy, which was treated as a natural space of a multi-ethnic community. The article analyses his wartime work in the context of the major geopolitical debates of the time. It argues that Hanslik should be seen not only as an eccentric, but as a conscious proponent of an original Austro-Hungarian vision of spatial and political transformation in East Central Europe.