If you call a Czech, Polish or a Slovak an East European, they would get mad and emphasize that they are central Europeans. However, if you look at some maps, you would see that Germany in part of central Europe alongside Visegrad, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. In some ways, this makes sense, due to the shared history of the Hapsburgs, the HRE, Austria-Hungary etc. Do most Germans identify themselves with being Western Europeans (like French and Dutch) or Central Europeans (map of regions of Europe, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central\_Europe#/media/File:Grossgliederung\_Europas-en.svg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Europe#/media/File:Grossgliederung_Europas-en.svg) there can be some variations e.g. UK and the Baltics are sometimes considered Northern European).
3 comments
Western. I don’t know anyone who call themselves central Europeans.. It is either west or east
Central European isnt much of a concept in Germany. Its probably due to the Iron Curtain running straight through our country and for most people, anything East of it is Eastern Europe and everything West is Western Europe, including us.
I’d personally say central European, but looking at the other comments here I may be in the minority. But this is more of a geographic categorization for me. Culturally, I think Germany is more in line with western Europe.