Mitteleuropa: A Dream Coming True?

"Some strategic thinkers in Germany have long had dreams of dominating Europe in a controversial plan called Mitteleuropa, but in military implementation it has always failed. The word Mitteleuropa is used as both a place and an idea. Geographically, it is the Germans’ general area of central Europe, and conceptually, it was a plan first presented around 1915 for German domination of the region.

Are the Germans now in a position to have by economic means the domination they never achieved militarily? A growing number of analysts are saying that the adoption of the euro as the common European currency makes this outcome inevitable. But the same economic factors that made Germany’s economy strong relative to some other EU countries are also destabilizing the EU monetarily. What lies ahead for the euro and the European Union? And what perspective does the Bible give on these rapidly developing events?"

The above paragraphs were taken from a July-August 2010 Tomorrow’s World article, "Growth of a Strongman: Germany Rises Again." Now, a year later, similar articles are appearing in major mainstream news outlets, essentially confirming what that article had anticipated.

The euro crisis is giving Germany the empire it has always dreamed of. In London, Peter Oborne, Political Editor of The Daily Telegraph, reported, "The IMF was entirely correct when it pointed out that the only conceivable salvation for the eurozone is to impose greater fiscal integration among member states… This advice was finally being taken yesterday—and it is almost impossible to overestimate the importance of the decision which European leaders seemed last night to be reaching. By authorising a huge expansion in the bail-out fund that is propping up the EU’s peripheral members (largely in order to stop the contagion spreading to Italy and Spain), the eurozone has taken the decisive step to becoming a fiscal union. So long as the settlement is accepted by national parliaments, yesterday will come to be seen as the witching hour after which Europe will cease to be, except vestigially, a collection of nation states. It will have one economic government, one currency, one foreign policy… Thanks to their membership of the eurozone, peripheral countries such as Greece and Portugal—and to an increasing extent Spain and Italy—are undergoing a process of forcible deindustrialisation. Their economic sovereignty has been obliterated… Despite the grumbling, for the Germans, the bail-outs are worth every penny, because they guarantee a cheap outlet for their manufactured goods. Yesterday’s witching hour of the European Union means that Germany has come very close to realising Bismarck’s dream of an economic empire stretching from central Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean" (July 21, 2011).

The dream of that regional empire was once known as Mitteleuropa: "Middle Europe."

The Bible describes a time when ten nations or kings come together to give their power to one very powerful king. It does not say that this king takes the power as conquests usually happen—this king is given this power. "The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast" (Revelation 17:12–13).

Daniel also prophesied about these same ten kings. "Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed…" (Daniel 2:40–44).

To learn more about the prophetic background of current European events, read our article "Resurgent Germany: A Fourth Reich?" and our booklet, The Beast of Revelation. Prophecy is moving with increasing speed in Europe!