Eddie Adams, a Pulitzer Prize winner, a former Marine and the recipient of more than 500 national and international awards, was a photojournalist whose career spanned over 40 years, 13 wars and diverse subjects. He began his career as a staff photographer at several local newspapers, including the Philadelphia Bulletin, and joined the Associated Press in 1961. Adams' most notable and Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage was in Vietnam, where he accompanied American and Vietnamese troops in 150 operations. While known for his photojournalism, Adams' work encompasses corporate, editorial, fashion, entertainment and advertising photography. Eddie Adams died of Lou Gehrig's disease on September 20, 2004 at the age of 71 in New York.

AWF offers its deepest condolences to Mr. Adams' family and all photographers who follow Eddie's teaching of dedicating their lives to visually documenting the life as it is.

It is hard to determine when the term "Central Europe" first appeared and who had invented it. This idea challenged the balance of power after WW2 and struck a chord with Central European intellectuals who, felt betrayed by the political separation of West and East in Europe. It started to be widely recognized after revolutionary events in former communist European countries. In 1989 simply dividing Europe to the West and East no longer made sense. In the summer of 1998, the Austrian Cultural Institute in London organized the "Festival of Central European Culture" (London, 21.6. - 12.7.1998). Organizers invited artists from Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Italy. But exactly in this case we are facing serious difficulties with the term "Central Europe". Question is: are these the only countries, which fit in this term or should others be added? And if so, which ones?

Germany -- yes or no?
The respected U.S. travel publishing house, Lonely Planet, in 1997 published a book titled, "Central Europe on a Shoestring" covering the following countries: Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. It seemed perfectly fit to the "traditional German concept of OMitteleuropa", relied on economic and geopolitical dominance² as described by Emil Brix in a special issue of edition Occasions titled "Central Europe" and published for above mentioned cultural event in London (The Austrian Cultural Institute, London, 1998). Between the two world wars there had been even a tendency to characterize Germany as a holder of "Kultur" (culture) which ran opposite to the Western tendency towards " Zivilisation" (civilization). But according to Milan Kundera (The New York Review of Books, 7/1984), Central Europe is ³boxed in by the Germans on one side and the Russians on the other "where" the nations of Central Europe have used up their strength in the struggle to survive and to preserve their languages. Since they have never been entirely integrated into the consciousness of Europe, they have remained the least known and the most fragile part of the West -- hidden even further, by the curtain of their strange and scarcely accessible languages...

Kundera¹s description automatically excluded Germany from the scale of the countries covered by the term "Central Europe", (not mentioning his confusing remark about it as a Othe most fragile part of the West¹ -- in fact, he understand Central Europe as "the eastern border of the West"). But according to the precise reading of the above statement, it also excluded all German speaking countries. This point of view narrowed the scale of the countries mentioned by Lonely Planet from nine to only five. Another American publishing house, Welden Owen, published a book of pictures edited by Jan Morris and titled "Over Europe". In the chapter, "The Central Europeans", only Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary are listed. Of course, this 1992 publication did not reflect the split of Czechoslovakia, but if the author had been aware of it, he probably would have known that the Czechs don't like to include themselves among "Central Europeans". They desperately want to be recognized as an integral part of Western Europe. It goes so far that their government in the last few years sabotaged most of the activities of the so-called, "Visegrad Four", the group of the countries accidentally covered also by the previously-mentioned publication, "Over Europe". So, from the purest point of view, is Central Europe valid only for three countries -- Poland, Slovakia and Hungary?

Who else -- yes, who else -- no?
György Konrád in his essay, "The Central European Dream" (in E.Busek and G.Wilfinger (Eds.) Aufruch nach Mitteleuropa: Rekonstruktion eines versunkenen Kontinents, Vienna, 1986) estimates the population of Central Europeans to be between 100 to 200 million people. It is a very rough estimate, but it is certainly more than Poland, Slovakia and Hungary ever had. So where do all of these Central Europeans live? Emil Brix, in an already mentioned publication, tried to specify that; Central Europeans live in "parts of Europe reaching from Poland to Bosnia and Herzegovina and from Austria to the Ukraine". Thus, now we have two more candidates to the Central European club who were missing at the presentation of ³Central European Culture² in London -- Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Ukraine. Brix is well aware of the eccentric position of the Ukraine when he wrote that, ... academics in the Western Ukraine are putting stress on Central Europe traditions, because this helps to overcome the lack of European contacts acting from Soviet past. And he suggested even more when he defended the position of Austria within Central Europe. "Because of the cultural traditions, Austria is a Central European country. The same holds true for the northern parts of Italy where the challenge and magic of borders is sever present," he wrote.

The Vilenica festival is a respectable annual literary award for Central European authors. Its organizers from Slovenia included Italy as a matter of course. Furthermore, they included Germany in their scope, added all three Baltic states and currently are trying to cope with the question of whether Romania is a Central European country. After all, we are dealing with the scale ranged from just three up to not less than sixteen countries under one geopolitical and cultural term. Consequently it could include 55 million people as well as far more than 200 millions estimated by György Konrád. However, Milan Kundera was very well aware of the flexibility of the practical realization of ³The Central European Dream² when he wrote: ³Its borders are imaginary and must be drawn and redrawn with each new historical situation².

At least one solid point?
Aristotle once said: "Give me a solid point and I will move the Earth." Isn¹t this the solution to our problem? The newly discovered term "Central Europe", frequently used in media, called not only for the immediate set of its borders but furthermore its -- center. Well, frankly speaking, where is that center of Central Europe, or better yet, where in fact is the center of the Europe?

To answer these questions we first have to deal with the vague term Oheart of Europe¹.
During the years of existence of the former Czechoslovakia, Prague was constantly claimed as a heart of Europe.

Surprisingly or not, a poster at the international airport in Budapest in 1996 welcoming me to Hungary described the whole country as the heart of Europe.
However, Slovenia on the Adriatic coast, according the official bulletin of its airliner, Adria, has aspirations to bear this proud title too.

Air France, on the contrary, offers flights connecting you to any place in the world from the heart of Europe, which, of course, is France.

The same thing is said in Luxembourg and The Netherlands.

I also heard a BBC political commentary about some political turbulence in Italy, in which we must pay attention because Italy is in the Oheart of Europe.
But The Times in London published a story about Bosnia with the headline , "European heart in American hands". And Americans took it seriously because President Bill Clinton referred to Bosnia as the heart of Europe too.

Last year while visiting a Warszaw, in book store called Megastore, I found a book by Norman Davies titled "Heart of Europe -- Short History of Poland".

With a heart at so many places at the same time, it is not surprising that Europe is every moment so close to a heart attack. But this is not the end of the troubles for the issue over the center of Central Europe. Of course, in such an important issue we have also officially claimed Ocenter of Europe¹. There are three.

In Slovakia (with the support of the Slovak government), a hall, commemorating its central position of the continent, was built in a village called Krahule in the central part of the country.

However, in Ukraine, the eastern neighbor of Slovakia, in the city Rahov (south-west of the more well-known city Lvov) a pillar of stones was built showing the place where the Ocenter of Europe¹ certainly is.

It seems that Ukrainian's neighbor, Lithuania, has never heard about it, because people there have their own stone pillar. This one was erected in 1991, precisely located by the French National Geographic Institute at 25''19' latitude and 54'' 54' longitude...

These three Ocenters of Europe are creating a triangle with sides not shorter than 375 km -- 750 km -- 875 km.

Does Central Europe exist at all?
With hope for a positive answer, resigning to find it¹s precise borders and center, we come back to Kundera's definition of Central Europe and repeated by Emil Brix broadly as a "cultural landscape between Germany and Russia". Slovak scholar and diplomat Rudolf Chmel tried to impose an element of time to this definition when he once said: ³Central Europe is like a accordion. When Germans and Russians are doing well, they use to come closer and then Central Europe is vanishing. But when they are in troubles and are withdrawing to their inner borders, Central Europe is suddenly emerging². Actually, Germany still has trouble with the reunification of the Western and Eastern parts of the country, and Russia seems to have troubles with everything. But, when once in the future they will resolving their problems, should we expect that Central Europe, regardless of flexibility of this term, will vanish again? When the future of Central Europe will be finally liberated from its fatalistic past?

Written by Gustáv Murín
Translation by Bea Baloghová and Diane Seo