Modernisation and New Central and Eastern Europe 1918-1939. The political map of Europe formed after 1918 did not have historical precedents. The emergence of the “New” Central and Eastern Europe meant the introduction of separate modernization programmes and
the creation of independent, modern identities in the individual countries of the region. Modernization was linked both to the foundations of an independent political entity and to the economic reforms and to changes in the field of culture. The specificity of the region, however, was that
modernity, though built up in dialogue with leading centers in Western Europe and the United States, had its specifi c character stemming from the dominant cultural model as well as the economic and social realities. Instead of taking on the ready-made models of modernity, the original
concepts of modernization reforms had been worked out, based on both democratic nationalism and the attempt to reconcile modernity with traditional values. Visual arts, architecture and design have occupied a prominent place in the "new society", shaping public and private space,
educating the "new man" and providing him with "modern life" patterns.
The interwar modernizations in Central and Eastern Europe have shown how diff erent mechanisms of the modern epoch can be used to shape the new, unknown reality. It was another "golden age" of the European history, when hopes for a new world were built on the basis of technological progress and new cultural patterns. During the interwar period, there was intense debate about the role of culture in the process of modernization, and artists and architects have been given unknown opportunities to create experimental works, believing that their activity will shape the new reality and new man in the conditions of acquired or
regained freedom.
keywords in English:
architecture and art of modernism, interwar modernization, history of Central and Eastern Europe