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University of Alberta University of Alberta Making Magyars, Creating Hungary: András Fáy, István Bezerédj and Ödön Beöthy’s Reform-Era Contributions to the Development of Hungarian Civil Society by Eva Margaret Bodnar A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Department of History and Classics © Eva Margaret Bodnar Spring 2011 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. Abstract The relationship between magyarization and Hungarian civil society during the reform era of Hungarian history (1790-1848) is the subject of this dissertation. This thesis examines the cultural and political activities of three liberal oppositional nobles: András Fáy (1786-1864), István Bezerédj (1796-1856) and Ödön Beöthy (1796-1854). These three men were chosen as the basis of this study because of their commitment to a two- pronged approach to politics: they advocated greater cultural magyarization in the multiethnic Hungarian Kingdom and campaigned to extend the protection of the Hungarian constitution to segments of the non-aristocratic portion of the Hungarian population. I argue that magyarization and civil society were closely connected: magyarization unfolded within the confines of civil society, and civil society was meant to guarantee that magyarization would leave room for cultural homogeneity. I locate the success and ambivalence of Fáy, Bezerédj and Beöthy’s efforts to shape Hungarian civil society not in the peculiar mixture of liberal and national elements that characterized their political campaigns, including their magyarization impulses, but in their social position as Magyar nobles transforming a multiethnic and socially- stratified Hungarian population. On a more subtle level, the fact that these three men based their reform efforts on grass-roots transformation and on the interconnectedness between the capital centres and the counties is also a central concern of this thesis. Acknowledgements During the writing of this thesis, I have learned that all personal achievements involve more collaboration and cooperation than we may realize at first glance. Therefore I would like to acknowledge the gratitude I owe to people and organizations that helped this thesis come into being. First of all, I would like to thank Professor Dennis Sweeney, my supervisor, who took me on in mid-programme, which he did not have to do. I am also grateful to the Professors from my department who sat on my various committees, including Professor John-Paul Himka, who was on every one. The criticism and suggestions helped me to see where I had gone wrong. I would like to thank the University of Alberta for giving me four years of funding to be a Teaching Assistant, the Wirth Endowment and the Manfred and Elisabeth Wirth Doctoral Fellowship for financial assistance. The Hungarian Scholarship Board in conjunction with the Central European University of Budapest also gave me one year of funding to do archival research in Hungary. I hope the investment of these organizations is noticeably reflected at some place in the writing. I met many librarians and archivists in Hungary who have buoyed my faith in humanity. I admire how you can work in conditions without heat in winter, without air- conditioning in forty-degree weather and with erratic pay. Thank-you to the staff of the MOL, the PML, the RL, the EOL, the OSzK, the FSzEK and the TMÖL for valuing scholarship and understanding student budget constraints. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family for supporting me emotionally through many tearful setbacks and little victories. I am especially grateful to my father, János Bodnár and my mother Mária Timár. To my grandmother, Margit Hunya, I would also like to say thank-you for putting up with me and all of my books. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Making Magyars 2 Creating Hungary 14 Chapter One: Government, the Nobility and the Governed in Early 21 Nineteenth Century Hungary Federal Institutions and Administration in Hungary The Hungarian Royal Court Chancellery 23 The Treasury 24 The Vice-Regal Council 27 The Palatine, Royal Regent of Hungary 28 Representative Institutions at National, County and City Levels 30 The Hungarian Diet The County Governmental System 34 The Royal Free Cities 41 The Nobility of Hungary: Social and Ethnic Stratifications 49 Una et eadem libertas? 50 The Governed: An Ethnographical Overview 59 Chapter Two: Fáy and the Development of the Hungarian Language 65 Biographical Sketch 68 Historiographical Portraits of Fáy 73 The Nyelvújitás (Linguistic Renewal) and the Hungarian 76 “Language Wars” Fáy and the Magyar Literary Scene: Salons and Cliques 85 The Early Nineteenth Century Hungarian Literary Environment 92 Fáy’s Messages in Bottles: Literature as Social Conscience 99 and the Hungarian Tendenzroman Committees for the Propagation of the Hungarian Language 109 Freedom of Speech at the 1832-1836 Diet and the Politics 117 of Terrorism Chapter Three: The Bee and the Beehive, the First Domestic Savings 126 Bank in Hungary and a Plan for Life Insurance The Phenomenon of the Saving Bank in Europe 128 Banking Institutions in Hungary before 1840 and Fáy’s 133 Advocacy for the Establishment of a Savings Bank in Pest The Campaign to Open the First Domestic Savings Bank of Pest 142 The Bee and the Beehive: But Whose Work is to be Valued? The 148 Activities of the First Domestic Savings Bank of Pest up to 1848 The Next Frontier in Charity?: The Domestic Hungarian Life 156 Insurance Society The 1848-1849 Revolution and its Effects on the First Domestic 163 Savings Bank of Pest and on the Insurance Institute Chapter Four: Gardens of Magyar-Speaking Children: Bezerédj 167 and the Early Childhood Education Movement in Hungary Biographical Sketch 169 Historiographical Portraits of Bezerédj 175 Influential European Theorists on Early Infant Education 179 Early Childhood Education in the Habsburg Territories 183 Hungarian Education and the Ratio educationis 186 Countess Teréz Brunszvik and the Fate of her First Centres 189 for Children Model Schools in the Country, in the Capital and in Literary 200 Worlds Tolna County’s Commitment to Infant Schooling 207 The Society for the Perpetuation of Infant Schools in Hungary 211 and the Magyarization Conflict Chapter Five: Serfs, State Taxes and Silkworms: István Bezerédj’s 217 Efforts to Alter Social Distinctions and Stimulate Economic Development through “Model” Behaviour Hungarian Serfdom in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century 221 “The Serf Would Earn a Better Deal in Time”: István Bezerédj 226 and the Urbarium at the 1832-1836 Diet Bezerédj’s Redemption Contracts as “Model” Behaviour 234 Bezerédj and the Question of Noble Taxation in the 1840s 241 Home Spun Solutions? 247 Chapter Six: The Interessengemeinschaft of Reform-Era Jews and 256 the Hungarian Oppositional Nobility: Finding Common Ground on Emancipation, Assimilation and Magyarization Biographical Sketch 258 Historiographical Portraits of Beöthy 264 Hungary, Land of Freedom and Opportunity? 267 Jewish Religious and Linguistic Affiliations in the Reform Era 274 The Reform-Era Diets and Opinion on Jewish Integration 278 The Double Barrier: Jewish Responses to the New Magyar 290 Culture Chapter Seven: Ödön Beöthy and the Campaign to Eliminate 298 Protestant Disabilities Religious Conflicts, Laws and Ethnic Affiliations 299 Religious Grievances in Bihar County and Central Efforts to 307 Alleviate Them at the 1832-1836 Diet The Hungarian Catholic Church on the Offensive as 315 Religio praedominans in Hungary A New Religious Law, A New Milestone for Equality? 323 Conclusion 328 Bibliography 333 1 Introduction …the dead Latin language could not have remained the language of administration any longer now in the XIXth century. Instead, a living language had to take the unjustly usurped place of the dead one. The only question therefore must be: which living language should be the administrative language of the independent Magyar realm? This question can most concisely be answered with another question. Ask which country is the subject of discussion, and to whom the homeland belongs? Answer: Hungary is the country, and the homeland under discussion is that of the Magyars. -Lajos Kossuth, Pest News, July 14, 1842-1 Therefore, in its own way, the opposition’s task is to aid the step-by-step development of civil society. While achieving the goals of political life, each individual member must retain intrinsic rights of humanity in as great a degree as possible for maintaining personal freedom. The sacrificed rights, in turn, must have the saving grace that they will directly serve the aims of civil society. -Political Pocketbook of the Pest Oppositional Circle, 1847-2 I have chosen to begin my discussion with these two quotations because they concisely address the central focus of this dissertation. In the pages that follow magyarization and civil society are the two political philosophies and concepts that are under scrutiny. At issue was how to transform the Hungarian Kingdom into a Magyar national state, while creating a civil society guaranteeing rights for all ethno-national groups in the new Hungary. Throughout, I examine political organization both from the perspective of “high politics”, namely political activity with the aim of state administration, and its manifestations in other forums such as literature, associations and personal petitions.
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