At the beginning of December 1851 countless thousands of New Yorkers eagerly awaited the imminent arrival of Lajos Kossuth, Hungary’s leader in the struggle against the ruling Hapsburg dynasty during the revolutionary years of 1848-49. Americans followed the conflict with interest and sympathy. When the movement failed, Kossuth, along with thousands of other patriots, fled to the neighboring Ottoman Empire. On September 10, 1851 Kossuth and some fifty of his companions boarded the warship Mississippi, dispatched by the Fillmore administration. Kossuth disembarked at Gibraltar to pay a quick visit to England. The Mississippi entered New York harbor on November 11 while Kossuth arrived on December 5 aboard the steamer Humboldt. His triumphant entry and official welcome took place on the following day.

Kossuth’s enormous popularity wasn’t lost on local businessmen. They knew that any link of their products and/or services to Kossuth, however tenuous, would boost sales and revenues. None was more aware of the power of aggressive publicity than John N. Genin, the city’s leading hatter. The year before Kossuth’s visit Genin scored a remarkable marketing coup when Jenny Lind, the world-renowned Swedish Nightingale, made her American debut. Kossuth’s arrival presented a similar golden opportunity.

Genin’s storehouse was bursting with a new style of hat – low-crowned, soft, and made of felt – which he hoped would be the next trend-setter among American men. What better way to advertise this hat by having Kossuth, the hero of millions, wear it? Sticking an ostrich feather in the band of the hat, he christened it the Kossuth hat. He then presented the headwear to Kossuth and his entourage as they were about to make their entry into the city. Because Genin was a staunch supporter of the Hungarian cause and since the hat had a pleasing appearance and was comfortable, Kossuth and his companions agreed to wear it.

The hat immediately became a rage. Men – young and old, rich and poor, distinguished and humble – rushed to buy it, newspaper enumerated and extolled its appealing characteristics, and even serious supporters of Kossuth felt obligated to comment on it.

Kossuth’s departure in July 1852 did not diminish the penchant for the hat. Indeed, American men would continue to favor the hat, with and without feathers, for another fifty years or so; an astounding feat considering the vagaries of fashion.

The presentation will discuss the life and career of John N. Genin, his relationship to Kossuth and the other Hungarian exiles, and the reasons advanced by various parties for the longevity of the Kossuth hat. There are a number of discrepancies in the literature regarding certain details about the hat and its endorsement by Kossuth – these will be reviewed and resolved utilizing the most reliable evidence available.

While analyzing the crises of the 20th century and their effects on the Hungarian society, I became aware of a stereotypic characteristic of the Hungarian society, namely: passivity. The reason behind this could be that “We can never decide our own destiny”, since our revolutions failed and we got the circumstances shaping our lives ready, just as we did with our paternalistic leaders. As Loránt Hegedüs Minister of Finance 1920/21 was nearly fifty years old when he witnessed the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the First World War, the Bourgeois Democratic Revolution, the Hungarian Soviet Republic and the collapse of the world economy in 1929, he followed a different behavioral pattern, or rather, a different coping strategy. From his writings and economic plans, a different world view and set of values stand out. Because of these special personal characteristics he was able to effectively react and respond to the challenges of that time. The significance of his plans for the economic and financial reconstruction was recognized by American economists as well and the Columbia University requested his help to overcome the postwar financial challenges in the USA. The originality of Hegedüs’s work is originated in the fact that when he considered the crises as challenges, he mostly focused on the possible solutions instead of the failures while realized the importance of taking up responsibility and adaptation in solving the problem.

In 1924 Hungary ratified and codified the 1912 Hague International Opium Convention, which was the first international drug control treaty. However, the new law that regulated and criminalized the use of narcotics in Hungary was not the result of internal debate and had no real domestic political will behind it. On the contrary, it was the result of external demands. Article 230 of the post- WW I Trianon Treaty required Hungary to join the Hague Convention. What was the contemporary Hungarian attitude towards drugs and drug users? How did it change in the aftermath of the law? In order to answer these questions, the following study examines how the contemporary media, artists and intellectuals, and various organizations—both governmental and non-governmental— discussed and represented the issue of narcotics. By examining the changing landscape of narcotics from the 1876 Hungarian law that regulated the utility of opiates in healthcare to the 1936 Convention for the Suppression of the Illicit Traffic in Dangerous Drugs in Geneva, which essentially aimed to criminalize all activities related to non-scientific or non-medical uses of narcotics, my study hopes to contribute to the decentering of the history of drugs and drug prevention.

Imre Waldbauer was a distinguished violinist-musician-teacher. He was born in Hungary in 1892 and lived and taught there until 1945, when he came to the United States. From that time he taught at the School of Music at the University of Iowa until his death in 1952. Waldbauer attained his greatest stature as a performer in his position as first violinist with the internationally famous Waldbauer-Kerpely String Quartet which existed from 1910 to 1945. He was closely associated with such composers as Bartok. Kodaly and Dohnanyi and premiered their works at a time when their music was generally treated with indifference and hostility.
The main thrust of this presentation will be about Waldbauer’s teaching of violin, viola and chamber music based on my 1977 dissertation for the Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. In order to obtain information about his teaching, I made inquiries of his former students and colleagues from both Hungary and North America. The main instrument of inquiry was a detailed questionnaire which I devised. Altogether, forty persons out of the sixty-two contacted responded to these questions.
Details of his teaching include descriptions of his analytical manner of teaching, his attitude toward teaching children, his interest in and philosophy of the so-called “vocal method,” and his major influence upon his students. Probably the most distinctive feature was his emphasis on the physiological aspects of playing the violin, including right and left hand techniques on muscle functions and tone production.

About the turn of the 17th–18th century, after the Ottoman wars Hungary’s territory became reunified. The rare populousness of the middle region and the undeveloped industry offered great opportunities to the migrants.
In the middle of the 18th century the fellows, who did not get a place in the local guilds, migrated to the middle regions of the country in order to find a job and living. We can follow based on several examples of migration from the Northern parts to the Southern regions and a running from the Western to the Eastern settlements at the same time. So we can define some main routes: fellows march from Buda in the direction to Szeged and Pécs, meanwhile they come to Buda and Pest from Pozsony. Altough the migration from Austria, especially from Vienna with its over 60 000 craftsmen to Pozsony and the counties Vas and Moson is less important, but considerable.
The migration in the Northern part of Hungary shows very interesting directions, whereas the fellows moved earlier to Krakow and Lemberg they run now south- and westwards. Compared with the catchment area of Buda we can set out, that the migration through Pest-Buda to the Southern regions ran its course without any inhibitions, while Kassa that held almost every Northern guilds under its influence aimed to put off the migration or it tried to keep the migration in its own catchment area.
We need to the analysis of the migration processes because of the special capabilities of the guild-resources (quantity, quality and type of the documents, variegation of the document keeping institutions etc.) particular methods. To this end a new guild-database is presented which can be a brilliant help beyond its other useful functions also to the migration-examinations because of its international compatibility even in international projects. The examples mentioned in the presentation are already the results of the research carried out with the help of this data-base.

The paper attempts to contribute with original information to the history of second generation American Hungarians in the post war period: how was their readjustment returning from WWII. How did they recover, how did they start or restart their life? How did the identity of this generation develop? Could they utilize America’s effort made for this generation, the G.I. Bill or any other veteran benefits: health care, studies, housing, etc.? Was there any influence of the US post war prosperity recognizable in their life? Did all those changes have any local or American Hungarian character?
For comparison the New Brunswick situation with the general post war American scene, the research findings of American Studies were utilized. The analysis of the New Brunswick case is based on a survey and post war Hungarian American contemporary sources. At the time of the research in 2013 hardly any members of the WWII veteran generation were accessible already. However their siblings and contemporary witnesses gave interesting interviews with important information. Although this survey brought valuable information, further research is necessary to make the picture complete. Despite the lack of detailed information regarding the second generation American Hungarians in the 40s and 50s especially from the view of the WWII veteran generation, we believe the details presented here can help to make the picture complete and be important for future research as well.

On January 1, 2012, Hungary’s basic laws replaced the previous constitution. The text of the new
constitution was published by the government in a souvenir edition which includes facsimiles of commissioned contemporary paintings depicting scenes from Hungary’s thousand-year history. The painting entitled “Trianon” was done by Tibor Kiss an associate professor of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. His painting depicts in the forefront one of the Allied leaders, the French Premier Georges Clemenceau, and Count Albert Apponyi, who was the head of the delegation that received the preliminary terms of the harsh treaty from the victors. From the mirror behind them are reflections of the three ghost responsible for Trianon. These, as the painter described it in an interview published in early February 2012, are “Charles IV, who appointed the practically half-idiot aristocrat, Mihály Károlyi as prime minister….[In turn] On March 20,1919, when the Vix Ultimatum arrived which drew the border of our country at the Tisza River, Károlyi’s first act was to name Béla Kun as his successor….” Kun on the painting holds a hand grenade between his fingers and the painter identifies Kun as the man “responsible for the collapse.” The description of the artist is falsified history where only the date of the Vix ultimatum is correct. The painting itself is not art, but crass propaganda which is now included in the fancy volume containing the basic laws of Hungary.

The painting and Kiss’s words demonstrate the fact that the vicious attacks on Károlyi, which started with the counterrevolutionary Horthy regime in 1920, that also confiscated the property of the “wealthiest Hungarian”—still continue almost one hundred years later. The removal of Károlyi’s statute from Kossuth Square by the Parliament, the renaming of Károlyi Mihály Street, and Kiss’s painting are the latest symbols, reminding the historian that one regime after the other used Károlyi--alive or dead--as a scapegoat to distract the Hungarian population from the real issues. This presentation will provide an overview of the scapegoating of Károlyi since 1920 to the present.

My presentation serves a double purpose. Firstly, I would like to present a volume that truly meets a long-felt need, providing data to both Hungarians from Transylvania and to those from the mother-country and other parts of the world about the decades of communism in Romania and the Hungarian minority’s destiny and the atrocities committed against them in this era of horrors. As a Hungarian from Transylvania—living and working there—Vincze’s volume represents for me a veritable and reliable source of information and knowledge that allows me a clearer view through a deeper understanding of our past, our present condition and future aspirations. At the same time, I firmly believe that this chronological history offers a comprehensive perspective to all Hungarians upon the fate of those of us who—by a “whim” of history—were separated from the mother-country; it contributes to getting to know each other better, and thus fosters understanding and builds bridges.
Secondly, I would also like to talk about the pitfalls that lurk in the attempt of transposing such a historical work into another language. I had the honor and the opportunity to translate Vincze’s Chronology into English, a process that often proved to be a struggle but was always edifying and intellectually highly engaging. I also argue that it constituted the building of a further symbolical bridge: during my travels I have often encountered people who seemed baffled by my emphasizing the fact that I am a Hungarian who comes from Romania. I even met indignation when I refused to identify myself by my citizenship. I do hope that this book will contribute to building those bridges of understanding and acceptance.

In my 2014 presentation at the AHEA annual conference at Gainesville, Florida, I presented an inclusive and generational typology of Israeli writers of Hungarian origin, starting from the early twentieth century up to the present, and then focused on the prose works of a few of the 1.5 and second-generation writers among them. My readings in those works showed that they are governed by recurring concerns, or literary themes, such as: the memory or post-memory of the Holocaust, Hungarian-to-Hebrew language and translations peculiarities, preoccupation with the family's past or remote relatives, journeys back and forth between Israel and Central Europe, letters and other embedded texts, and fascination with home objects, dishes, and recipes representing the family's Hungarian past. In my 2015 presentation, I wish to focus on the works and worlds of 1.5 and second-generation poets and explore, first, the presence of the above listed concerns or themes and then examine issues of identity and of the relationships of these poets -- mostly second-generation women -- and their parents, most often their mothers. Thus I wish to trace these poets' Hungarian-Jewish past, Israeli literary figure, moral legacy, and role of transmitting and explicating their past Hungarian worlds to contemporary Israeli audiences.

Following the regime change in 1989/1990 and the withdrawal of Soviet troops, one of Hungary's main foreign policy objectives was Western integration. This entailed seeking membership of NATO, a goal that was widely supported across the political spectrum during the 1990s. This goal was finally achieved in 1999, together with the Czech Republic and Poland.
The Hungarian society was not so convinced of the necessity of joining the alliance; indeed, many people had argued for neutrality. Since a referendum on accession had been called, a major campaign was conducted to increase the transatlantic commitment. In the first half of my presentation, I would like to describe the campaign that took place in the political sphere and in the media, encompassing television, advertisements, and events. Then I will analyse how the image of NATO has changed in the Hungarian public, based on the existing literature, as well as on primary sources related to the topic (public opinion polls, statements). The lecture will address the following questions:
• How can we explain the low level of support for NATO membership in the 1990s? Can we consider the campaign successful?
• Which parties did not support the membership? Can we detect differences of opinion within the parties on this issue? What were the arguments and counterarguments presented during the parliamentary debates on accession?
• What were the main lessons of the referendum, and which long-term implications can we observe?

Hungarians have always been fascinated with storytelling through the art of film, the country has consistently produced generations of talented filmmakers. The first films were produced in Hungary around the turn-of-the-century and, from that point onwards, cinemas began to be built all over Budapest. By 1914, there were over 110 permanent cinemas, more than in many other major European capitals.
Each successive Hungarian government has tried to politicize, to regimentalize the film industry, in fact to mold the film industry to do the regime’s bidding. The inter-war government of Miklos Horthy tried to mold the film industry as well.
This paper will examine how the theatre and film community (both Christian and Jewish) were affected by the implementation of the Jewish laws. It will be examining the human cost of the losses within the film and theatre arts community through the prism of historical events and reactions: of the Jewish and Christian theatre and film community, of self-help organizations established to aid the unemployed, within the business of film itself, of government and institutional actions and reactions. This paper will examine the impact of the Jewish laws through examining the “micro” history of how Jewish and Christian actors, actresses, producers, directors and those involved in the film and theatre community were affected by these laws.

Over the last hundred and fifty years, Hungarian memory politics has oscillated between the poles of martyrdom and victimhood, between cultivation of revolutionary traditions and the rituals of national mourning. As part of the nation-building process, national historiography and the politics of history everywhere often provide well-developed narrations to justify current commemoration practices. Is Hungary unique in this respect? Did it lose its European orientation, as the great Hungarian poet Endre Ady asked in 1913? Through an analysis of current debates about the major events of twentieth-century Hungarian history and its representations in social memory, my talk will describe this pendulum effect of Hungarian memory politics. It will also explore the transformation of the “culture of defeat” into the culture of victimhood from the First World War to the post-Communist period in a European comparative perspective.

This presentation will examine what happened after 1945 within the world of stage and screen in Hungary. Who was left alive? How did individual actors/actresses situate themselves? How did the politics of retribution unfold in the reorganization of the field of theatre and film in Hungary? Who never worked again? What happened to the film community when Communism became firmly entrenched in Hungary?
This chapter will examine the inner workings of one such certification committee, the Magyar Szinészek Szabad Szakszervezete Igazoló Bizottság (Hungarian Actors Free Union Certification Committee), the union that was established to examine the details of the activities of actors, actresses and technical workers in the theatre and film world and to determine whether they would be certified to work again. For actors and actresses, to obtain certification was a matter of primary importance. This paper will examine the inner workings of the certification committee through the historical lens of the post war era and the methodology and decisions of the examiners. It will also look at the language utilized in their interviews, and why certain individuals were certified quickly and with very little administrative process, while others received several months or years or lifetime ban from acting in film and/or stage again.

My proposed paper aims to present the textual and publishing history of Miksa Fenyő’s wartime diary Az elsodort ország ( A Country Adrift). Fenyő, a founding editor of Nyugat and manager and contributor to the periodical for its whole lifespan, suffered persecution after the German occupation of Hungary in 1944: both for his earlier condemnation of Nazi Germany and also for his Jewishness. Whilst sheltered by friends and also by complete strangers in Budapest in 1944-45, he kept a detailed journal of his daily experiences, political views, musings about history and his hopes for the post-war future. Fenyő survived the war, did not emigrate until 1948, and saw through the first publication of his complete diary in 1946 by the Révay . The memoir did not see a second edition until 1986, when Magvető brought out again, under the epithet javított (improved) edition, whilst, in 2014, Park Publishers brought it out again, reverting to the original, 1946 version, which is also the basis of its first English translation, to be published by Helena History Press, US in 2015. The present paper intends to provide a close examination of the first, 1946 edition in comparison with the 1986 edition, which, defying the adjective ’improved,’ was in reality abridged and bowdlerised. The differences between the two texts offer meanig ful insights into political sensitivities and taboos of the Kádár regime.

István Barankovics, the leader of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) was forced into emigration in 1949. After a short stay in Austria, he arrived in the United States in 1951, where he lived until his death in 1974. Barankovics was an engaged Catholic journalist, theorist, and politician of Hungarian Christian democracy who could boast of an outstanding role in both interwar Hungarian history and the so-called coalition era of 1945-1948. He took part not only in the formation of Hungary’s Christian democratic party, but due to the DPP’s paramount success in the 1947 parliamentary elections he also led the Christian democratic MPs’ faction. As such, he was one of the leaders of those democratic parties that served as last bastions against the Communist takeover. Nevertheless, his political and intellectual role did not end with his emigration. After his resettlement, he immediately got involved in emigre politics. He actively participated in the work of democratic émigré Hungarian organizations. In my proposed presentation, I will introduce and analyze Barankovics’ writings and his activity as an emigre politician. To do so, I use historical sources that can be consulted in the Butler Library at Columbia University, New York, where some of his essays, studies and parts of his orrespondence are available. This material were supplemented by items of his bequest, which his widow desposited in Rome in the Historical Archives of the Piarist Order, within the papers of Barankovics’ friend and supporter, P. Vince Tomek, SchP.

On average, 67 thousand students in Hungarian higher education institutions receive their degrees each year. The total number of students can be divided into three categories: born Hungarian citizens, Hungarian students with dual citizenship, and finally the group of non-Hungarian (international) students. The number and proportion of these groups went through significant changes during the period under review. The number of students born in Hungary decreased, however the number of members of the latter two clusters had multiplied and their proportion increased. This study – based on data provided by the Office of Higher Education Information Systems of the Office of Education – provides an overview of the overall graduated student population over the past seven years in the Hungarian higher education and the main reasons for the change in its composition, particularly for the proportional changes of international and dual nationality students. During my work, I considered the geographical location of the selected institutions, as well as the training area and levels of training, as criteria for the research.

Of late there has been an important debate in the Hungarian Reformed churches regarding the display of the donated Kalotaszeg embroidery following the restoration work in two of the most iconic in the region Văleni/Magyarvalkó and the market town, centre of Kalotaszeg, Huedin/Bánffyhunyad. This issue of display/non display of peasant, national, traditional, hand sewn donations carries considerable emotional attachment and rather unlocks the issue of heritage today as a whole. Firstly the historical background to the embroidery donations, which commemorate life events in a religious context, will be outlined before focusing on the discussion which began before the renovations were finished and the decisions taken in 2021 not to display the peasant sewing donations when the churches reopened. The public response, virtually on Facebook, has spread to local and online newspaper articles. Conservators, ethnographers, ministers and local sewing culture researchers have all taken part. The debate touches women’s issues, identity, respect, tradition, religion, and heritage. The search for solutions is on. The hope is to turn the negative into a positive and further underline the importance of crafts specific to the region.

The Hungarian history of literature and within it the term for the period of so-called modernity has generated several debates in the last three decades. The Hungarian literary periodization, on the one hand, has tried to find starting points in international literature; on the other hand, it has attempted to describe 20th-21st-century Hungarian literary fiction by such scientific neologisms as, for example, György Tverdota’s term of ‘tradition-preserving modernity’ (hagyományőrző modernség. The aim of my paper is, after briefly outlining the stakes of the debate developed so far and getting to the historical root of the terminological question, to find a way out of the difficulties of periodization of literature and other arts. In order to achieve this, broadening the starting point taken from Hungarian literary studies in concentric circles, I will first review comparative literature, then other branches of the art of the age, and finally, with the help of considerations across disciplinaries, I will look outside humanities. According to my thesis, the changes started in the middle of the 19th century in both Hungarian and international literature have been strongly interrelated with other aspects of culture and civilization. A common term for these changes is necessary because of the aspect of periodization and possible due to the existing common traits; however, it cannot be ‘modernity’. This is why, considering a long 20th century, due to the emphasis on relations and relativity, I suggest introducing the notion of ‘relationism’.

As the shadows of war, fascism and genocide became pitch-dark over Hungary 70 years ago, Radnóti and Márai both turned to a prophetic voice in their poetry. Radnóti’s Eclogues, begun in the late 1930’s, fuse Virgilian classicism, modern colloquialism, and the spirit of Biblical prophecy. The prophetic voice reaches its apogee in the Eighth Eclogue where the prophet Nahum speaks. Márai, in his “Book of Verses” – much of it written simultaneously with Radnóti’s final “Bor Notebook” – finds a similar breadth of expression. Márai’s rage at Hungary’s betrayal of its moral and cultural heritage reaches similar levels of biblical thunder. Radnóti’s late poetry and “The Book of Verses” present complementary poetic images of the times. The two authors had different perspectives – Radnóti, a victim of the Holocaust and Márai, a Gentile survivor (who also saved his Jewish wife) – but their humanity and morality were alike. Radnóti is deservedly known worldwide as a great poet of the twentieth century and chronicler of the Holocaust. Márai, best known for his prose, deserves recognition for a fine body of verse, even if it does not reach the very highest rank. Similarities and contrasts between their poetry will be discussed, using recently published translations of Radnóti and Márai.

Transylvania is often directly associated with Dracula, but most people do not know that this region is also famous for its ethnic diversity: Hungarians, Romanians, Germans and Roma have been living there together for centuries, mostly in peace. Nowadays Hungarians represent a minority of 33 percent of the region, and their culture contributes largely to the diversity of the region. According to statistics, their number has been in a continuous decline, which is why many consider this minority endangered. Is this picture of extinction real, or is there still hope for the revitalization of the Hungarian community in Romania? This is the question that I am looking to answer in my presentation.