中世紀德意志人東向移民拓殖行動對德意志及中東歐歷史的形塑

Shaping Germany and East-Central Europe: The Impact of Medieval German Eastern Migration and Colonization

自二十世紀七、八〇年代以後，德意志人東向移民拓殖史才普遍被歐美歷史學界歸類為中古歐洲的全面性疆域開發活動之一環。在過去，基於十九世紀近代民族主義浪潮的風起雲湧，以及二十世紀上半葉德國兩度的東侵行動，使得該事件淪為德意志及各支斯拉夫民族間充作政治鬥爭的工具，致令其難以擺脫民族主義敵對情結的糾葛。隨著東西冷戰形勢緩和，包括德意志及斯拉夫各國在內的歐美各國學者，致力於彰顯該事件本貌及針對其本質內涵而進行解析後，大抵得出中古德人東移拓殖史對爾後的德意志及中東歐地區的歷史發展，產生不可輕估的影響。這一過程不僅恒久改變了德意志及中東歐各地的政治、經濟及社會面貌，甚至將所謂西方文明，亦即拉丁—歐洲文明圈決定性地向東擴展至中東歐及東歐大陸之上，直到今日，也在該區仍持續上演的東西歐文明圈認同價值觀的衝突中，扮演著無可忽略的潛在性因子。本文將以中古時期德意志人東向移民拓殖史對德意志及中東歐歷史的深遠影響為題，對之進行深入分析，觀察其如何改變爾後德意志及中東歐地區政治、經濟、社會的發展，從而形塑日後數百年中歐的歷史面貌，以及對東歐地區造成的衝擊。

Only from the 1970s and 1980s onward did German eastern migration and colonization come to be widely understood in European and American historiography as part of the broader process of medieval territorial expansion and development. Before then, the rise of nineteenth-century nationalism and Germany’s two eastward expansions in the first half of the twentieth century had turned this historical phenomenon into a politically charged issue between Germans and various Slavic peoples, leaving it deeply entangled in antagonistic nationalist interpretations. As Cold War tensions eased, scholars from German-speaking, Slavic origin, as well as European and American academic communities began to reexamine the subject, reconstructing its historical contours and reassessing its long-term significance. Recent scholarship has shown that medieval German eastern migration and colonization profoundly shaped the later development of Germany and East-Central Europe. It transformed political, economic, and social structures across the region and contributed to the eastward expansion of the Latin-European cultural sphere into East-Central and Eastern Europe. The continuing tensions over cultural orientation, identity, and values in this region suggest that this process remains important for understanding its deeper historical structures. This article examines the impact of medieval German eastern migration and colonization on Germany and East-Central Europe. It analyzes how this process reshaped political, economic, and social development, contributed to the formation of Central Europe’s historical landscape, and produced long-term consequences for Eastern Europe.