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.or centuries, the Hungarians wandered across thesteppes of Eastern Europe before they came to theCarpathian Basin, the site of the former Avar empire,

which was to become their homeland .ollowing theHungarian Conquest in 896 under Prince rpd, theHungarians rapidly left behind their nomadiclifestyle, dominated by animal herding, for thecultivation of land When the defeat at Augsburg in955 at the hands of Otto the Great (later Holy RomanEmperor) forced them to abandon their westernforays, the Hungarians this time on the initiative ofGrand Prince Gza began to turn towards the nationsand culture of Western Christendom In 973, Gza,

whom Western chroniclers referred to as king (rex),sent a high-ranking delegation to the German Estatesat Quedlinburg; invited to his court St Adalbert, the

bishop of Prague, who was later killed by paganPrussiansmembers of a western Slavic tribeon theBaltic coast; made a contribution to the founding ofthe Benedictine monastery in Pannonhalma, namedafter Saint Martin Gza had himself christened, whileat the same time maintaining existing pagan rites

His son Vajk, who received thename of Stephen (Istvn) inChristendom, was brought up tobe a Christian monarch, and Gi-

zella, sister of Henry II, the Kingof Bavaria, was chosen as hisbride-to-be. Stephen had himselfcrowned in 1000 with insignia ofroyalty granted by Pope SylvesterII, and completed the state-building process started by hisfather. Stephen founded tenepiscopates and several monas-teries, had churches built, set upthe administration of royalcounties, crushed those tribal

leaders who were seeking tomaintain paganism and opposedEuropeanisation, but also de-fended his country from attacksfrom the west. Stephen led hispeople to become a nation ofChristian Europe and createdthe Kingdom of Hungary: hissuccessor, King Ladislas (Lszl),made him together with the

MINISTRY O. .OREIGN A..AIRS O. THE REPUBLIC O. HUNGARY wwwkumhu

One Thousand Years of Hungarian Culture

Mihly Munkcsy: The Hungarian Conquest


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Estonians, and a number ofsmaller nations which today liveon the territory of Russia, in theregion of the Urals and along theVolga River. In terms of ethnicorigins, however, the Hunga-rians are linked partly with theTurkic nations of Asia Minor: for

example, their primary melodiesand decorative arts are Turkic inorigin. Under the strong influenceof Western culture, and havingadapted to the spirit and values ofChristian civilisation, the culturalheritage which the Hungariansbrought with them from the Eastlived on only at the deep struc-tural level of culture, primarily inthe Hungarian language itself,which is linked with Eastern

cultures not only in terms of theorigins of its basic vocabulary andgrammar, but also its mytholo-gical poetry.

Having said that, the Hun-garian people developed intoa Western nation in the fullestsense, a process which wascompleted by the highly educat-ed and strong-handed successorsof Saint Stephen: Saint Ladislas,Coloman the Possessor of Books

(Knyves Klmn), Bla III, andBla IV. Monarchs of the AnjouDynasty Charles Robert (KrolyRbert) and Louis the Great(Nagy Lajos), who was also thePolish King and as such ruledover an enormous empire played a similar role, and what ismore, are credited for makingmedieval Hungary into an inter-national power.

Historical Hungary, which was

once embraced by the CarpathianMountains, was the borderlineand last bastion of Westerncivilisation: in the south it wasbordered by the Byzantine empi-re representing Eastern Christia-nity, and later the MohammedanTurkish empire which grew upon its ruins, while in the east laythe Mongol khanates, and laterthe Russian empire. At this time,Hungary was a highly influential

bastion of Western Christianity:the dynasty established by rpd,the chieftain who spearheaded

early-deceased crown prince Im-re and Bishop Gellrt, who diedas a martyr in the pagan uprisingof 1046 saints of the ChristianChurch.

The birth of Hungarian na-tional culture and literature,comprising both oral traditionand the earliest examples ofwritten culture, is obscured bythe shadows of antiquity. A large

number of historical legendshas come down to us about theorigin, wanderings, and con-quests of the Hungarians. Thebeginnings of Hungarian writtenliterature also probably go backto an earlier date than survivingdocuments would suggest,because Hungarian church andcourt culture looks back on ahistory of nearly a thousandyears. rom the time Saint Ste-

phen, the first Hungarian King,and his people joined WesternChristianity, the number ofscribes in monasteries, chapters,and royal chancelleries increasedsteadily (as was customary inMedieval Europe, they usedprimarily Latin, rather than thevernacular). At the same time,examples of ancient pagan runescarved in stone (for instance, insome Transylvanian churches)

have also survived. Hungariantexts in Latin script also appearedvery early on. ollowing a

number of sporadic examples,the first piece of Hungarian prose the uneral Oration, a Hunga-rian translation of a funeralsermon in Latin dates from themid-twelfth century. The firstpiece of Hungarian poetry, datingfrom nearly a century later, is theLamentations of Mary, alsowritten on the basis of a Latinoriginal. These were followed by

a number of Bible translations,legends about the lives of Hunga-rian saints, sermons, and otherreligious texts. The language ofsecular writings, such as his-toriography and charters, con-tinued to be Latin for a long time.

The Hungarians created theirown national culture at the cross-roads of two major cultures: theyoriginated in the East, andoriginally derived their traditions

from the archaic culture of theEurasian steppes, while the trueChristian devotion and acutepolitical awareness of the firstHungarian kings led to theadoption of Western culture: onlya century after their settlement inthe Carpathian Basin the Hun-Hungarians established them-selves among the nations of theWestern world.

Hungarian belongs to the

inno-Ugric family of languages,and relations of the Hungarianpeople include the inns, the

The Benedictine Abbey in Pannonhalma


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the Hungarian Conquest, gavemore saints to the Church thanany other Catholic dynasty;Hungarian knights and kingsparticipated in the Crusades tothe Holy Land, and to a certainextent the country played the roleof missionary and cultural me-

diator in relation to the east andthe south.The Hungarian kingdom was

important as a defensive bastionof Western Christendom duringthe Middle Ages, and indeed thecountrys eastern and southernborders marked the borders ofthe Western world. This is well

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illustrated by the fact that Hunga-ry marked the boundary forRomanesque and Gothic churcharchitecture: the Saint Martin Ca-thedral in Bratislava, the Cathed-ral of Saint Elisabeth in Kosice,the Church of Our Lady in Buda,the Saint Michael church in Cluj,

and the Black Church in Brasov,continue to mark the easternedge of Western civilisation to-day. Medieval Hungarian archi-tecture, painting, and sculpturewere largely brought into beingon the initiative of the Church,with the heavy involvement ofmonastic orders, such as the

Benedictines and Cistercians. Onthe other hand, the monarchyalso commissioned some magni-ficent architecture, landmarks ofwhich have survived first of all inEsztergom, Szkesfehrvr, andBuda.

Despite making clear overall

progress, the medieval Hunga-rian state from time to time facedperiods of serious decline, mostlyas a result of the repeateddestruction of previous achieve-ments by hostile powers attack-ing Hungary from the east. In themiddle of the thirteenth century,for example, the Mongol (Tatar)tribes flooding the eastern partsof Europe which in 1241defeated the army of King Bla IV

at the Battle of Muhi laid Hun-gary waste, as a result of whichthe king himself had to flee. Onhis return he had to carry outvirtually a Second ounding ofthe Homeland (honalapts). Inthe fifteenth century, however, anew and more dangerous enemythan ever before appeared atHungarys borders: the Otto-manTurkish Empire, with itsgreat military might, was expan-

ding rapidly at this time. Thisexpansion was successfully curb-ed for a number of decades bythe great Hungarian soldier JnosHunyadi, who in 1456 at Nndor-fehrvr (today: Belgrade) dealtan unprecedented defeat to aTurkish army. His victory, whichultimately saved Christian Europefrom Turkish expansion for alonger period of time, made itpossible for his son, Matthias,

after his elevation to the Hun-garian throne, to have to contendwith only smaller-scale warswith the Turks, as a consequenceof which he could concentratehis forces on building an empirein the West, and standing firmagainst the Ottoman Empire.

The Hungarian kingdom, firm-ly embedded in Western civilisa-tion, rested on secure economicfoundations: in the Middle Ages

the country was a European cen-tre of precious metal mining, andthe revenues of the HungarianThe library of King Matthias had 2500 Corvinas (codices)


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interpretation of historical events for example, the memoirs ofPrince erenc Rkczi II give usan insight into the inner strugglesof that monumental humanbeing, while Kelemen Mikes, areformer of Hungarian prose,enjoyed the hospitality of thePrinces court and later accom-

panied his master into exile inTurkey.When the Turkish wars and

independence struggles dieddown, eighteenth-century Hun-gary enjoyed decades of rela-tively peaceful development. orthis, great credit should be givento Queen Maria Theresa, whosetolerant policies and love of thepeople made her the first memberof the Habsburg Dynasty to find

her way into the hearts ofHungarians. The country wasonce again rebuilt from a state ofdevastation: Hungarys skylinewas for a long time defined by theBaroque architectural ensemblesbuilt during this period. Palaces,cathedrals, libraries, and schoolswere built, and this was soonfollowed by the revival of literaryculture. Young Hungarian guards-men at the Viennese Court were

the first to become acquaintedwith the ideas of the rench andGerman Enlightenments, and

they were to become the drivingforce behind the development ofbelles lettres and academicliterature written in Hungarian.Although Hungary was a king-dom with its own state ad-ministration and self-govern-ment, as a part of the HabsburgEmpire it did not have full

independence.The son of the highly popularQueen, Joseph II, sought toestablish a centralised monarchy,and although he introducedvaluable reforms in the social andreligious spheres, he brushedaside Hungarian endeavours tocultivate their own language andculture. His successor went on tocancel even the reforms startedby Joseph II. Therefore, the

republican movement which wasbrought into being in Hungaryunder the influence of the renchEnlightenment and the Revo-lution in Paris in 1789 sought tointroduce very radical changes without success and it ended inthe execution or imprisonment ofits leaders.

As a consequence, literarycircles became the repository ofnational independence and social

transformation, based on theideas of West European Enligh-tenment and liberalism. After be-

ing burdened with the heritage of150 years of Turkish occupation,Hungarian culture once againreturned to the current of Westerncultural development. The sameideas were professed by erencKazinczy, once a prisoner, whosaw his mission as reforming the

Hungarian language into a mo-dern tongue; Mihly Csokonai Vi-tz, who died young andintroduced the Rococo sentimentinto Hungarian poetry; and Dni-el Berzsenyi, whose classicistpoetical forms were a reflectionof the Romantic world-viewdominated by visions and phi-losophy.

The first half of the nineteenthcentury was a golden age in terms

of both Hungarian history andHungarian literature. The parlia-mentary sessions of those de-cades laid down the groundworkfor social change: the eman-cipation of the serfs and thedevelopment of the civil societybegan; the Hungarian languagewas made the language of stateadministration; and Hungarianculture was able to catch up onceagain with the culture of Western

nations. The work which wasdone during the so-called Re-form Age to build up the countryeconomically and politically wasspearheaded by Count Istvn Sz-chenyi, a man of broad vision andwell educated in Western culture he was also an excellent diarist whose thinking was stronglyinfluenced by the British model.His selfless organising work ledto the creation of the Hungarian

Academy of Science, the const-ruction of the Chain Bridge con-necting Pest with Buda, thebeginning of the construction ofHungarys railway network, andthe regulation of the flow of theDanube and Tisza rivers.

In the field of Hungarianliterature, writers in the style ofNational Romanticism recalledthe countrys heroic past, pro-fessed the ideal of freedom, and

widened the Hungarian vision toinclude European horizons. Theheroes of this age included e-

Library of the Reformed College in Srospatak


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fundamental transformation: civilsociety grew stronger; industryand trade developed rapidly; therailway network increased insize; and the institutions ofparliamentary constitutionalitybegan to be put in place. At thesame time, Hungary also had to

face a number of difficult prob-lems. Nearly half of Hungaryspopulation consisted of non-Hungarian ethnic minorities Germans, Romanians, Slova-kians, Serbs, and Ruthenians nations which were calling forrights of autonomy which theHungarian government wasunwilling to grant. At the sametime, the country was in need ofurgent social reforms: the system

of large feudal estates (latifundia)was still in existence, while largemasses of poor peasantry, wellorganised industrial workers,and civic and intellectual socialgroups were growing in strengthand calling for radical changes.However, conservative Hun-garian governments consistentlyblocked all attempts at reform.The pessimistic poems of GyulaReviczky and Jnos Vajda, and

the ironic novels of Klmn Mik-szth provide a vivid account ofthis period, characterised by bothincreasing wealth and conflicts.

The ideals of free develop-ment, compromise betweennationalities, and democratictransformation had to be takenup once again by intellectuals.The circle of writers centredaround the periodical Nyugat inthe early twentieth century

advocated national and culturalrevival, a movement which gavefresh impetus to the traditionallyWestern orientation of Hungarianliterature and gave birth toleading trends in the intellectualand artistic spheres at the turn ofthe century. The mythical poetryof Endre Ady, the work of Mi-hly Babits, dedicated to highmoral ideals, Dezs KosztolnyisEuropean outlook, rpd Tths

cult of beauty, and Gyula Juhszslyric poetry fraught with innerconflicts, all gave voice to a

modernity which was bothHungarian and European at thesame time, as did ZsigmondMriczs realistic novels and thedream world of Gyula Krdy,whose approach to time was justas innovative as any of hisprominent West European con-

freres.Hungarian composers andartists also played their part in thisspiritual revival, including BlaBartk and Zoltn Kodly, whointroduced the traditions ofHungarian archaic and folk musicinto modern musical culture, andJzsef Rippl-Rnai, TivadarCsontvry Kosztka, and LajosGulcsy, who created originalHungarian works based on the

international ideals of Imp-ressionism, Symbolism, and ArtNouveau. This Hungarian schoolof painting formed an integralpart of the history of Europeanarts, and Budapest was the mostimportant centre of Art Nouveaualongside Vienna.

The spiritual revival whichtook place in Hungary in the earlytwentieth century virtually mar-ked the beginning of a new Re-

form Age. Yet these reform planswere interrupted before theycould come to fruition, by the

outbreak of the irst World War,in which the Hungarian people,along with the other nations ofthe Austro-Hungarian Monarchy,fought and lost on the side ofImperial Germany. Losing thiswar prevented the modernisationof the Austro-Hungarian Empire

and its transformation into afederation. It also causedhistorical Hungary to fall apart.After the turbulence caused bythe democratic changes in theautumn of 1918, which steeredHungary towards the develop-ment of a civil society althoughthis was restricted mostly to Buda-pest came the communist coupdtat of 1919, orchestrated byBla Kun, and then the white

counterrevolution, led by AdmiralMikls Horthy. The newlyindependent Hungary wasthereafter reduced to only one-third of its former historicalterritory by the peace treaty signedat the Palace of Trianon, nearParis. In this way, Hungary lostover half of its former population,as every third ethnic Hungariancame under the administration ofthe government of another country,

and thus became a minority.The Hungarian economy was

badly hit by the damage caused

Building of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences


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modernisation Hungarian politicswas dominated by the grievancescaused by Trianon and byterritorial revisionism.

In an unfavourable historicalsetting it was once again the turnof literature to advance the idealsof social reform and Europeanprogress. The circle of theperiodical Nyugat Mihly Ba-bits, Dezs Kosztolnyi, rigyes

in this way, and the politicalsystem introduced under theregency of Mikls Horthy did lit-tle to promote social moderni-sation on the contrary, itmaintained the privileges ofthe traditional dominant socialgroups. Even so, by the 1930ssome economic and culturalmodernisation was unfolding, thelatter being linked to the diligent

Minister of Culture, Count KunKlebelsberg. However, the Hun-garian political elite and theHungarian people could notreconcile themselves to theinjustices imposed by the TrianonPeace Treaty, and reacted withbitterness also to the oppressionnow suffered by the three millionHungarians who had becomeminorities. In place of social

Zoltn Kodly Bla Bartk Zoltn Kocsis

The Budapest .estival Orchestra


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Karinthy, Miln st, JenTersnszky-Jzsi and the newgeneration of writers coming upalongside them Lrinc Szab,Sndor Mrai, Sndor Weres,Mikls Radnti, and Transylva-nian writers Kroly Ks, SndorRemnyik, Lajos prily, Jen

Dsida, and Zoltn Jkely raisedtheir voices against the barbarismof the period and representedEuropean humanism against bothextreme rightist and extremeleftist movements. The outstan-ding figure of the Hungarianavantgarde, Lajos Kassk,passionately demanded change,while Sndor Sk, who acted inthe spirit of Catholicism,defended the universal values of

Christianity. The literary left At-tila Jzsef, Lajos Nagy, and TiborDry sought a new harmonyof humanity in a community-oriented social order. One ofthe most powerful intellectualschools of the period was pop-ulism, committed to the interestsof the peasantry: Gyula Illys,Lszl Nmeth, Jnos Kodolnyi,Istvn Snka, and ron Tamsi(working in Transylvania, now

annexed to Romania) linked theideals of agrarian democracy andnational revival with the poeticsof a modernised literary realism.

Hoping for redress in respectof the grievances incurred as aresult of the Trianon Treaty, Hun-gary was slowly moving towardsan alliance with Germany andItaly, and with their assistancewas indeed able to regain controlover some of its lost territories:

the Hungarian populated sectionof the elvidk in 1938, Krptal-ja in 1939, Northern Transylvaniaand Szkelyfld in 1940, and theBcska in 1941. However, thesedevelopments inevitably tiedHungary to the Axis powers, andso in 1941 Hungary became abelligerent. In the winter of194243 its army was mostlydestroyed in the fighting alongthe Don River. Neither the self-

sacrificing Count Pl Teleki, norMikls Kllay after him, whopursued a very clear-headed and

Mari Trcsik and Imre Sos, the two protagonists of Zoltn .bry's film,the Merry-Go-Round

Klaus Maria Brandauer in Istvn Szab's film, the Mephisto, which won the Oscar award


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and erenc Snta; the dramatistIstvn rkny; and later thewriters who laid the foundationsof postmodern Hungariannarrative, Pter Esterhzy and P-ter Ndas. Talented writersdepicted the lives, hardships, andhopes of Hungarians forced to

live as minorities, including thenovelist and dramatist AndrsSt, and the poets SndorKnydi and Domokos Szilgyi.

Hungarian literature has alwayspromoted the continuity ofnational existence: even duringthe decades of dictatorship, itpromoted European culturalvalues, and it also played aleading role in the democratictransformation process whichstarted in the late 1980s.

rom the mid-1980s indepen-

dent and opposition intellectuals literary figures, reform econ-omists, members of the samiz-

dat-publishing democratic oppo-sition became more active andorganised into movements. As aresult of the general decline of theSoviet empire, a process ofpolitical change and democraticreform started in the late 1980s.This resulted in the revival of

such traditional political partiesas the Smallholders Party and theChristian Democratic Party.However, it was the new political

formations which proved reallyeffective in generating masssupport: the Hungarian De-mocratic orum, the Alliance ofree Democrats, the Alliance ofYoung Democrats, and theHungarian Socialist Party, createdafter the dissolution of theHungarian Socialist WorkersParty, the communist state party.

After multi-party elections in1990, a centreright governmentwas formed under Jzsef Antall,

with rpd Gncz as President,(Gncz was followed by erencMdl as President from 2000). In1994, political power went to thecentreleft under Gyula Horn;in 1998 another centrerightgovernment was formed, thistime under Viktor Orbn and the

so-called Young Democrats;while in 2002 it was again thecentre-left parties who won theelections, with Pter Medgyessyforming the government in theirrepresentation. All this demon-strates a process of politicalpower rotation. The democraticinstitutions underpinning the ruleof law were developed, in 1999Hungary became a member ofNATO, and in 2004 it acceded to

the European Union.The situation of the Hungarianminorities living in neighbouringcountries has also changedsignificantly. 1.82.0 millionHungarians live in Romania historically Transylvania, thePartium, and the Banat , 600,000in Slovakia, 200,000 in Krptalja(Sub-Carpathia, in Ukraine), and300,000 in Voivodina (Hungar-ianVajdasg) in Serbia, making a

total of some 3 million Hungar-ians. Having been liberated fromthe oppressive policies of therespective communist regimes,these national minorities are nowtrying to establish their ownpolitical and cultural institutions.Political organisations have beenformed in all regions with aHungarian population, and in anumber of instances they havereturned members to the national

parliament and even participatedin government. Many Hungarianschools, church organisations,and cultural institutions havebeen set up. Having said that,such organisations still encounterdifficulties as a result of gov-ernment attempts at centrali-sation.

The position of Hungarian emi-grants in the Western hemi-sphere, traditionally imbued with

a sense of national mission, hasalso changed: nowadays, Hun-garians living abroad have unre-


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Hungarian literature that, in 2002,Imre Kertsz received the NobelPrize in Literature for his noveltitled ateless. There is alsocontinuous interest in the Westernworld concerning Hungarianmasters of literature in the 20th

century, first of all relating to theworks of Dezs Kosztolnyi, Zsig-mond Mricz, Gyula Krdy andAntal Szerb. Sndor Mrais novels,

with their unique character, arehaving quite a renaissance innumerous countries.

rom among Hungarian con-temporary composers, GyrgyKurtg, Gyrgy Ligeti, and PterEtvs are the best known abroad.Hungarian pianists like Zoltn Ko-csis, Andrs Schiff, Dezs Rnki,and Gergely Bognyi are alwayswelcome in great concert hallsthroughout the world.

Hungarian movie directors ofinternational renown includecharacters like Istvn Szab, Mik-ls Jancs, Kroly Makk, PterGothr and Bla Tarr.

Since 1 May 2004, Hungary is amember of the European Union.She did not join the community ofthe developed European coun-tries empty-handed. One of theconstituent elements of hervariable dower is Hungarian

culture, which besides showingindividual colours, is the mediumof universal values.

stricted access to their homelandand its institutions.

In the 1990s and following themillennium, Hungarian culturehas intensified its presenceabroad, and its representativeshave had nice internationalsuccess. Hungarian participation

at World Exhibition 1992 in Sevi-lla was especially memorable. In1999, Hungary was the Guest ofHonour at the rankfurt Bookair of international renown. Inrecent years, festivals presentingthe whole of Hungarian culturehave been organised in Belgium,rance, Italy, and Great Britain,throughout these countries. Thenext place of presentation isRussia.

rom among todays Hun-garian writers Gyrgy Konrd,Pter Esterhzy, Pter Ndas,Lszl Krasznahorkai, Lajos PartiNagy and Magda Szab have

attained remarkable popularity inthe German, rench, Italian, andEnglish language areas. It was anacknowledgement of universal

Sndor Mrai souvenirs

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