University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan Copyright By
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 67-16, 299 LENZ, Henry, 1934- THE GERMAN CULTURAL INFLUENCE IN HUNGARY BEFORE THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. The Ohio State University, Ph. D. , 1967 Education, history University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan Copyright by Henry Lenz 1S67 THE GERMAN CULTURAL INFLUENCE IN HUNGARY BEFORE THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY DISSERTATION Presented In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy In the Graduate School of The Ohio State University by Henry Lenz, B.S., M.A. ****** The Ohio State University 1967 Approved by Adviser School of Education acknowledgments I wish to acknowledge with sincere gratitude the assistance and guidance of Professor Robert B. Sutton, who, as my major adviser for my graduate program, unselfishly gave many hours of his time to help prepare this study. His advise and counsel led my research into areas not contem plated at the outset but without which this document would be incomplete. Dr. Sutton's historical skill and help deserve more credit than the acknowledgment given here can express. For viewing and excerpcing many foreign publications for my use, 1 am greatly indebted to Professor Doctor Johann Weidlein of Schorndorf, Würtemberg, Germany. His continuous interest in this study enabled me to secure many valuable publications otherwise unobtainable in this country. Dr. Weidlein's knowledge of the German cultural influence in Hungary has been a significant help in preparing this study. His aid is sincerely acknowledged. I also wish to express my special appreciation to my wife, Linda. Her help in editing and revising major portions of this work and interest in my study enabled me to make progress when seemingly I had reached an impasse. Beyond this help she gave me the moral support which I needed to bring my graduate program to a successful end. ii I also wish to thank Professor Charles Glatt who read the first draft of this manuscript. His criticisms and comments facilitated the final editing considerably and his help is sincerely acknowledged. The secretaries, who typed various portions of this study, struggling with the foreign quotes and footnotes, deserve no minor praise. Lastly, I wish to acknowledge the patience of my four little girls: Susan, Wanda, Erica and Sonya. Although they did not understand why "Daddy" had to spend hours and hours at the office or behind the desk reading and writing, they demanded little and were patient beyond what one would expect from children. iii VITA October 12, 1934 Born - Udvarl, Hungary 1952 ........... Immigrated to the United States 1957 ........... Naturalization in Columbus, Ohio 1959 ........... B.S., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1959-1961 . Teacher of German, Mansfield Public Schools, Mansfield, Ohio 1961-1962 . M.A., German Literature, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado Recipient of NDEA Academic Year Fellowship 1962-1964 . Teacher of German, Mansfield Public Schools, Mansfield, Ohio 1964-1967 . Teaching Associate, School of Education, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio iv CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................... il VITA .................................................... Iv Chapter I. INTRODUCTION .................................... 1 II. THE GERMANSIN H U N G A R Y .......................... 17 Germans in Hungary before the Hungarians The Coming of the Magyars Western Influence in the Formation of the Hungarian State III. SOUTHERN SLAVS GAIN POWER IN HUNGARY: HUNGARY TURNS AWAY FROM THE WEST 1301-1526..................................... 72 IV. THE CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN HUNGARY UP TO 1 5 2 6 ............................................103 The Cities as Cultural Island and Centers of Western Learning The Renaissance in Hungary and Humanistic Learning The Development of Education in Hungary V. CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN HUNGARY DURING THE TURKISH OCCUPATION ......................... I60 Political Developments Hungary's Culture after 1526 The Protestant Reformation and its Educational Influence The Counter-Reformation and its Education Influence V CONTENTS (CONTD.) Chapter Page VI. THE WESTERN DEVELOPMENT OP THE VARIOUS REGIONS OF HUNGARY DURING THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES ..................... 213 The Thelss Region The Transylvanian Region The Western Carpathian Region The Transdanubian Region VII CONCLUSION......................................... 278 APPENDIX ............................................... 294 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................... 300 Vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In the Carpathian Basin, the homeland of the Magyars (Hungarians), two cultures have been struggling for almost a millenium. The Magyars— who occupy the basin which forms a geographical unit and Is protected by natural mountainous boundaries on three sides toward the North, East, and South — have stood between the cultures of Byzantine Slavs and "the West for nearly a thousand years. Both of these cul tures have exerted cultural Influences over the centuries upon the Magyars and both cultures have made converts among the Magyars. Although Hungary became a western Christian Kingdom In 1001 A.D. the cultural struggle was far from being resolved by the coronation of King Stephan. The soul of the Magyar was torn apart: he knew he could not maintain his nomadic culture, but he was unsure under which of the two cultures he could maintain his Volksgelst (national Identity). The Middle Danube Basin has been hailed by historians, geographers and emperors as a basin which has all the attributes of a natural unity. The basin Indeed Is designed 1 2 by nature to form a harmonious whole. Through t^e heart of it flows the mighty Danube, linking western Europe with the East from the earliest times. The six hundred mile course of the Danube in Hungary is the focal point of the oval plain known as the Carpathian Basin. This plain is surrounded by a ring of mountains, whose valleys converge on the central plain. Of the rivers which start in the mountains only one flows northward to join the Weichsel River; all the rest— the Theiss River being the largest— join the Danube on its central course. The mountains, which in the north and east form a continu ous wall, form a natural defence for the plain. The plain is divided into two parts. The smaller western portion, which is contained in the crook of the Danube, was part of the Roman Pannonia. On the left bank of the Danube and extending to the foothills of the Tran sylvanian Alps lies the central and larger portion of the plain. This portion of the plain was a true steppe-land, a geographical continuation of the Caspian Steppes separ ated only by the Carpathian Wall. The Basin's two separate parts have had, from earliest times, distinctly different histories. The western part has been under the political domination of Western Europe from the time of Rome. By contrast, the eastern part of the 3 plain was recurrently occupied by waves of nomadic horsemen (the overspill of the great reservoir of nomadic peoples— the Steppes of the Russian Plain). Sarmatians, Scythians, Huns, Bulgars, Avars, and Turks sought refuge in the Carpathian Basin at one time or another fleeing from more powerful neighbors to the East. The Danube River was the dividing line between the East and the West, and the Westerners, even the Romans, rarely ventured across. When the Romans established a province in Transylvania(Dacia) they left the central plain of present Hungary unoccupied, for there, lurking in the darkness, were the nomads of the unfathomable East, feared even by mighty Rome. Rome's bid to control the known Western World in the period of the Pax Romana lingered on after Rome's defeat, but under a religious concept. As there was one God in heaven, there was to be one ruler on earth. This was the concept of the Roman Church and of Charlemagne. Charlemagne's campaigns extended the Prankish Empire to the Danube, but after his death.the realm collapsed. When the Magyars entered the Carpathian Basin, in 896, as had many nomads before them, they found a power vacuum. The fact that no people had mastery of the Car pathian Basin at the time of their entry need not suggest that the central Danube region had not known earlier inhabitants. The mid-Danube area has been inhabited since the Bronze Age, for the mineral wealth of Bohemia had made it a regular thoroughfare of both the East and the West. Because" of its transitory nature, the Basin often consti tuted the fringe area of several loosely confederated tribal kingdoms and empires. The geographical unity of the region, however, had not established a political unit. This task was that of the Magyars. When the Magyars entered the oval plain from the East, the political control of the land was splintered. The East- Pranks, under their king Arnulf (great-great-grandson of Charlemagne) controlled the western portion of the Basin. Arnulf lacked his great ancestor's drive and ruled by establishing a series of dependencies governed by Slavic princes. In the north of the region, the great Slavic prince Swatopluk had established a loose Slav-Confederation including Moravia, Bohemia, Poland, and Silesia. The east of the Basin was under the control of Serbians, Vlachs and the already Slavonized Bulgars. The political power vacuum thus was the result of powerful factions among chiefly Slavic princes whose territories met in what is now central Hungary. This situation permitted the Magyars to establish their grazing lands in the Carpathian Basin and simultaneously destroyed what could have become a powerful Slavic Empire. 5 The historical importance assigned to the Magyars' territorial occupation in the central Carpathian Basin lies in the fact that by their entry into the basin they separated the Slavic tribes who occupied Europe in a straight line from the Baltic to the Balkans. This fact is considered to be the historical importance of Hungary's territorial gains not only by the Hungarians but also by the Slavs. The well known Czech historian Franz Palacky wrote, in his History of Bohemia in I836: The invasion of the Magyars and their occupation in Hungary is the greatest disaster which has befallen the Slavic world.