"Central" europe is not a recent (or local) classification at all.

It's just that for about 50 years there was an overriding east/west classification which overrode the old.

Historically, eastern europe was the areas where the orthodox church had primacy (north of the black sea). Basically the european part of the Soviet Union proper excluding the baltic states.

The Wikipedia page for "Central Europe" cites both Encyclopaedia Britannica and Brockhaus Enzyklopädie as sources which include the Czech Republic in Central Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Europe

Which time zone are you in? (Not that it's indicative - Spain is hardly "Central Europe". The point is, you've almost certainly heard "Central Europe" before, in a time zone context for Switzerland)

This is an interesting point - and yes, of course I've heard it. But time zones sort of just don't matter here, as there is only one.

I think the vast majority of people here hear about the concept of time zones the first time in school (or when they go on their first vacation abroad), it's really this abstract thing that one might know exists, but rarely ever has contact with. If you'd ask people on the street how the timezone is called, I wouldn't be surprised if many wouldn't know.

Central Europe is basically Catholic Slavs. Orthodox Slavs are east European.

Not just slavs. Germanic homelands were / are also central european.

The line is where Slavic tribes existed. Some Germanic tribes are from central Europe, but Germany itself is considered west. The presence of Slavs is what differentiates West from Central and East.

> Germany itself is considered west.

Certainly not by everyone. From German Wikipedia: “Deutschland [...] ist ein Bundesstaat in Mitteleuropa.”

Translation: “Germany is a federation in Central Europe”.

> The line is where Slavic tribes existed. Some Germanic tribes are from central Europe, but Germany itself is considered west

It’s part of the western block in the Cold War geopolitical framework, which doesn’t have a Central Europe.

> The presence of Slavs is what differentiates West from Central and East.

That is plainly and egregiously false.

I had some Hungarian coworkers that similarly said they were "central european" not eastern.

It's very easy. Western Europe is more or less France, UK and Benelux, Central Europe is the areas influenced by German culture, i.e. the former German and Austrian empires, from Alsace until Transylvania. The former Russian empire comprises Eastern Europe.

I'd definitely throw Ireland in there. Possibly also Spain, Portgual (though they're quite Southern), Iceland, and Greenland (though they're quite Northern).