Tanulmányok
Pál Felsőbüki Nagy
In this study I try to find the answer, how can it be, that the greatest figures in the era of reforms in Hungary – for example István Széchenyi, Lajos Kossuth, Ferenc Kölcsey – regarded a person, who almost disappeared from the memory of the wide public opinions, as their political mentor? This person was Pál Felsőbüki Nagy (1777–1857), who represented the Sopron County as an envoy in five national assembly (1807, 1825–1827, 1830, 1832–1836, 1839–1840). To answer this question first I have to examine the political atmosphere in which Felsőbüki Nagy started to play a role in public life and than I have to try to summarize his way of political thinking. Considering that every politician must have ideas, what and how he intends to do, I think the famous envoy of Sopron County also had to answer fundamental questions. So I took a set of questions from the book of István Schlett („The history of the political thinking in Hungary”). After answering these questions (What is the problem, what is the threat? What is the cause of problems and threats? What is the solution of these problems, i.e. what is the destination? How can the politicians solve the problems?) it will be possible to draw a balance and determine the real importance of Pál Felsőbüki Nagy.
Local patriotism and scientific local history writing Károly Tagányi’s work as a local historian
The historian Károly Tagányi (1858–1924) already at the beginning of his university studies extensively collected material about the history of his birthplace, Nyitra County. During the search for sources he always found further tasks to be solved. In this case, too, his intention to be exhaustive induced comprehensive researches on the history of public administration, later on the history of settlements, legal and social history. He sharply criticized the monograph programme of the Hungarian Historical Society, and also, he composed a new draft on the methodology of writing the history of counties (Vélemény a megyei monographiák tervrajza ügyében. [Opinion in re the Design of County Monographs] Századok, 1894 (vol. 28) no. 4, 365.). In the end it was not Tagányi who wrote the history of Nyitra County, and although lacking a monograph, his researches on the history of counties were completed in several directions. The research of the history of public administration and institutions at the county level became his lifelong programme: he wrote his inaugural dissertation for the Academy about the origin of county autonomy. His summary written in 1913 about the origin of the counties has remained definitive up to present days, and his inaugural lecture delivered as the ordinary member of the Academy, entitled A nemesség helyzete Szent István alkotmányában [The status of the nobility in Saint Stephen’s Constitution], and of which only fragments survived, was connected with this theme. Through his research Károly Tagányi basically created a distinct framework for doing research on local history and local etimology; due to his personality and style, his work was subject to heated arguments, in which his methodology and patriotism were also questioned.
The catholic press movement during the „Bethlen consolidation”
The Catholic Church, in reply to the challenges of modernity, attempted to use the tools of the press in order to defend its own interests. The paper follows the adaptation process to the consolidation under Prime Minister István Bethlen (1921– 1931) made by the Hungarian Catholic press movement. It investigates the conditions of the Catholic Central Press Company (CPC), the editing work and the self-definition of the organs, the expectations of the Catholic community and the episcopacy towards the press. It presents the reasons of the crisis of the press movement and takes into consideration the measures made by Church authorities to consolidate the CPS’s conditions.
From 1922 onwards, the papers of the CPC served the interest of the Christian National Economic Party. Therefore, integralist Catholics demanded politically independent newspapers that could have been able to address broader strata of Catholic believers. The episcopacy did not regard the question of press a vital one during the first period of the consolidation. Nevertheless, from 1926 onwards, the high clergy was forced to subsidize the CPC on a regular basis. The press movement and the CPC played an important role in forming the Catholic denominational identity, despite the fact that ’general Christianity’ endangered their aims. Catholic clericals and professionals often emphasized the threats of ’general Christianity’. The CPC which was dependent on the governments’s financial aid, however, supported the idea of ’denominational peace’.
’We were together…’ hungarians in Salzburg, 1956–1990
This research paper delves into the history of the so-called 1956 ‘new’ refugees (Neuflüchtlinge) of the Hungarian community of Salzburg until the regime change in 1990. The influx of refugees started on November 4th, 1956. On this day, approximately 6000 people arrived in Austria. They had mainly political reasons to emigrate: they feared retribution, repression and restoration of dictatorship. However, some people emigrated due to economical reasons. The first refugees – two officers and 48 border guards – arrived in Salzburg on November 8th, 1956. The majority of the incoming Hungarians were placed at a camp in Siezenheim, near Salzburg. We found more descriptions of this camp during our research done in Salzburg and Budapest. In the history of the Hungarian community of Salzburg, further emigration is an important element. The overwhelming majority of 4000–5000 Hungarian refugees considered Salzburg a ‘transit home’, because Austria could host such a large number of people just for a certain period of time. Emigration files say that most of them emigrated further to Australia. According to the statistics of state and church administration, we can say it for certain that by 1960 the number of Hungarian refugees had dropped to some 500. From the 1960s to the present day, Hungarians living in Salzburg have preserved their Hungarian identity in associations.
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