I. Fiction and Fact: An Introduction.- II. Mid-European Aspects of German Nationalism, 1815-1871.- Precursors of Mitteleuropa.- The Contest for German Unity in its Mid-European Setting.- The Eclipse of the Grossdeutsch Movement.- III. The Slender Threads.- The Mitteleuropa of Lagarde.- The Hapsburg Dilemma.- The Austrian-Germans Between Sadowa and Sarajevo.- Reich-German Reactions to the Austrian-German Dilemma.- IV. Germany and Middle Europe: The Economic Pattern, 1871-1914.- Unfulfilled Dreams of Mid-European Economic Integration.- The Pattern of German Investment.- The Expansion of German World Trade.- Waterways and Rails in Middle Europe, and the Movement of German Trade.- V. Mitteleuropa in the Age of William II.- The Wilhelmian Scene.- Naumann's Pre-war Emphases.- Pre-war Enthusiasm for the Near East: Paul Rohrbach and Ernst Jäckh.- Pre-war Objectives of German Diplomacy.- Mid-European Themes in the Wilhelmian Era.- VI. The Impact of Blockade.- Pre-war Intimations of Siege.- Initial Reactions to Blockade.- The Siege and the Powers.- The War Aims of the Central Powers.- VII. Mitteleuropa Emerges.- The First Evidences.- How Mitteleuropa Grew.- The Rising Flood.- The Economic Argument.- The Economic Interests.- Cross-Currents and Quandary.- VIII. The Austro-Hungarian Dilemma 174 Austrian-German Plans to Reorganize the Monarchy.- Austro-Hungarian Resistance to Mitteleuropa.- Stalemate and Perplexity.- IX. Friedrich Naumann's Mitteleuropa.- Naumann's Argument.- Reactions at Home and Abroad.- Naumann, the Entente, and the German Government.- X. 1916. The Year of Culmination.- The Greater Mid-European Illusion.- The Peak of Mitteleuropa Enthusiasm.- The Pan-Germans vs. Mitteleuropa.- Weltwirtschaft Opposes Mitteleuropa.- Mitteleuropa Refortified.- Geographyand History Adjust to Mitteleuropa.- XI. Mitteleuropa in Eclipse.- Intimations of a Totalitarian Future: The Ludendorff Dictatorship.- The German 'Discovery' of Russia.- Osteuropa Overshadows Mitteleuropa.- The Weakening of Mitteleuropa.- Mitteleuropa Stillborn.- Implications of the Eclipse.- XII. Retreat and Mutation, 1918-1945.- The Grossdeutsch Revival.- Grossdeutsch Feeling Gives Way to Gesamtdeutsch Ambition.- The New Economic Mitteleuropa.- Mitteleuropa and Nazi Ideology.- XIII. Conclusion.- XIV. Bibliographical Essay.

Books begin as ideas. The suggestion for this one came from my mentor and friend, Hajo Holborn of Yale University. To him I am indebted for a series of challenging and rewarding experiences in the study of history. This work started as a routine dissertation on a limited subject, developed into a rejection of several generally accepted notions about German history, and finally opened out upon some broader perspectives of the modern Western world. In pursuing my topic I have tried to remain consistent and true to a fundamental conviction: that ideas cannot be dissociated from the men and situations that give birth to them, or from the changing characteristics of later men and later situations that use or affect the earlier ideological heritage. Politics by slogan is an aspect of man's activity that has its obvious, serious defects. These imperfections become more menacing when they are enshrined as history by slogan in the service of whatever cause. To counteract this tendency I have tried to tie the ideas of mid European integration clearly to specific persons or situations at every stage of development. Without such anchorage ideas will billow into slogans or evaporate into loose generalizations.