Quote:
Originally Posted by M.R.
as I consider rural areas to be the real backbone of nation and it's land.
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A) You are right, because of the contraselective tendencies of the cities. They attract usually the better elements of a population, but those dont reproduce on the long run as successfully as the rural population. This means that the "urban inhabitants" being usually "refreshed" or even "substituted" on the long run, even more so if the urbanisation is rising - an interesting exception were the Jews which managed better than others to survive in urban areas, which their culture and racial variants might partially predict actually.
This is a very negative and dysgenic trend and now even worse all over Europe because the countryside is "culturally urbanised" and became more Liberal-Marxist as well. So "the reservoirs" are drying out themselves. This was bad from medieval times on already, but not its drastically worsening as everybody can see.
The above mentioned was of course the great problem of all the German cities in the East, which were founded by those early occidental culture bearers, often in an area which had low population densities, a low cultural development and so on. But on the long run, the outcome was clear if the surrounding areas couldnt be Germanized...
B) Because of the above mentioned, as a Slovenian, you have to say that, because the Western culture came to you through Germans and Italians respectively, Slovenians had no larger cities on their own.
Germans functioned as a transmitter of higher occidental culture to the East - not just Germans, but also Dutch (which were at that time largely the same anyway), Wallonians, French and Italians, but primarily, if considering numbers and impact, Germans of course.
The problem of Slavs, this is my personal opinion, was that they were not really thankful but became envy of the Germans and since those had a dominant position, began to hate them in an often rather primitive way. The Germans, in a privileged position, on the other hand, began to fear the rising numbers of the Slav peasantry and their hate. They also had a strong feeling for their function and position as culture bearers and at the beginning even tried to help many "underdeveloped" nations to develop their own national culture in a rather romantic way. But again, this early romantic Nationalism of Germans, which wasnt driven by hatred at all, wasnt thanked by the others, but intensified the conflicts already present...
Poles f.e. had this envy and hate the same time, and had a similar position in the Ukrainian-Belorussian areas, since they were again, closer to the cultural centre of Europe than those were.
Also compare:
The European family, "Banana" and the Hajnal Line
In a way, Slovenians are culturally "Germanized Slavs". Beside the language, there is little which makes them that different by culture.