Mediator and Example. the Low Countries’ Self-Perceived Role As a Guide Country in Postwar Western Europe

Shortly after the Second World War many Dutch advocates of a political and cultural “renewal” of Europe advanced the Low Countries’ countries’ role in bridging the surrounding cultures in Western Europe. From their viewpoint, the Low Countries for centuries had been a meeting place between the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic and Romanic “national characters”; between “French esprit”, “German mysticism” and “British pragmatism”. They claimed that the Low Countries always had absorbed the best elements of these cultures, which made the Low Countries the perfect mediator between the great powers in postwar Western Europe. For instance, some leaders from various Dutch political groups claimed that their conceptions of (consensus) democracy combined the best of “French” personalist philosophy and “British” “federalist” praxis. In their opinion, the political culture of the Low Countries made a good example for a future peaceful and united “Europe”.