Made in Hungary

Made in Hungary Andrew L. Simon MADE IN HUNGARY: HUNGARIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO UNIVERSAL CULTURE Copy right © 1998 by An drew L. Si mon . Appen dix: The Kings of Hun gary Copy right © 1999 by Ste phen Pálffy. All rights re served un der the Pan-American and In ter na tional Copy right Conven tions. ISBN 0-9665734-2-0 Li brary of Con gress Cat a log Card Num ber: 98-96916 Photograph by Ron Rocz: Cor o na tion Church, Bu da pest. Type faces were de signed in 1681/82 by Miklós Tótfalusi Kis for the first Hun gar ian Bi ble. 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of Amer ica. Pro duced on Corel Ventura Pub lisher software by Si mon Pub li ca tions, 1719 An glers Court, Safety Har bor, Florida 34695 Table of Contents Preface 1 Pronunciation Guide 4 Milestones of Progress 11 The Conquest 11 Christianization 13 Renaissance 15 Reformation 16 Enlightenment 20 The Age of Reform 23 Contacts with America 24 Industrialization 28 Interwar Years 30 Communism and Its Aftermath 31 The Arts 37 Folk Art 37 Architecture 43 Sculpture 46 Painting 51 Literature 63 Music 74 Theater and Cinema 98 History 123 Historiography 124 Literary History Writing 153 i The Social Sciences 161 Sociology 161 Economics 164 Anthropology and Ethnology 169 Linguistics 171 Oriental Studies 175 Philosophy 179 Psychology and Psychiatry 185 Musicology 191 Mathematical and Natural Sciences 195 Mathematics 195 Physics 204 Chemistry 220 Botany 233 Zoology 241 Engineering 246 The Early Years 246 Electrical Engineering 262 Mechanical Engineering 271 Civil Engineering 285 Water Resources Engineering 290 Geosciences 297 Geography 297 Explorers 300 Geology and Mineralogy 308 Agricultural Sciences 313 Veterinary Medicine 316 ii Medicine 319 Nobel Prize Laureates 337 Sports 339 Athletes 339 Coaches 347 Chess 349 Postscript 351 Appendix: The Kings of Hungary 355 The House of Árpád 356 From Árpád to Habsburg 364 The House of Habsburg 379 Regency and Republic 395 Bibliography 399 Index 425 iii iv Preface Carburetor, he li cop ter, ste reo ra dio, tele vi sion, elec tric trans former, dy - namo, holog ra phy, ball point pen, telephone ex change, kryp ton light bulb, au to matic ex po sure, bi nary code, vita min C, neu tron bomb, Rubik’s cube, jet pro pul sion, tor pedo, con tact lens, wa ter tur bine: they all have one thing in common. All of them are Hungar ian in ven tions. Quite im pres sive for a na tion that num bers less than 15 mil lion, about the pop u la tion of Florida. Of these, only about two-thirds live in pres ent day Hungary, the oth ers are in neigh bor ing coun tries, or vir tually all over the globe. Not only are they im me di ately rec og nized by their ex u - ber ant mu sic—Liszt, Lehár and Bartók co mes to mind—but by their scien tific at tainments. Hun gar ian scientists have won eleven Nobel Prizes in the twen ti eth cen tury. This small na tion is quite com pet i tive in the world of sports also. On the av er age, Hun gary’s ath letes were among the first eight in win ning med als in Olym pic Games, com pet ing against the world. But not only in sci ence, tech nol ogy and sports, Hun gar i ans also ex cel in arts. Men and women with some claim to Hun gar ian an ces - try were nom i nated for Os cars 136 times be tween 1929 and 1996, or an av er age of two nom i nees each year. They won the golden stat u ettes on thirty oc ca sions. Who are these Hun gar i ans—or Magyars, in their own lan guage—and why are they so suc cess ful? This is an at tempt to ex plain. Al though they live in the very cen ter of Eu rope for over 1100 years, eth - ni cally Hun gar i ans dif fer from their neigh bors. Nei ther Slav, nor Latin or Teu tonic, Hun gar i ans speak a lan guage that is linguistically closer to Jap a nese than to any Eu ro pean lan guage ex cept per haps Finn ish and Es - to nian. Al though to day a small coun try, Hun gary was an es tab lished Chris tian king dom gen er a tions be fore the Nor man Con quest. From the year 1,000 AD un til 1945 this king dom was in con tin u ous ex is tence. The country’s his tory is marked by three cat a strophic events: the Mongol On slaught in 1241, the Bat tle of Mohács, dawn ing the Turk ish oc cu pa - tion in 1526 and the Treaty of Trianon, the breakup of his toric Hun gary 1 Preface in 1918. How ever, it is not Hun gary’s his tory that will be ad dressed here, but the at tain ments of her peo ple. For those read ers who are in ter ested in a chro no log i cal re view of Hun gary’s his tory, Ste phen Pálffy’s work, The Kings of Hun gary is in cluded as an ap pen dix. The Hun garian char acter, if one may al low any such gener al iza tions, may be de scribed by such man i fes ta tions as acute in di vid u al ism, per va - sive sense of hu mor, a ten dency to show man ship and pas sion ate hos pi tal - ity. On the seamy side, among three Hun gar i ans you can ex pect five differ ent points of view. Con trary to the An glo-American be hav ior pat - tern, show ing ef fort is poor sports man ship for a Hun gar ian. “I par tied all night, never cracked the text book and aced the exam” is what a Hun gar ian stu dent would likely say, even though he might have stud ied through the night. But be hind the in do lent charm, lazy grace, char ac ter is tic to Hun - gar i ans, there is of ten a far from lazy brain. They have a pro cliv ity to out - wit their op po nents. The def i ni tion of a Hun gar ian, to quote one their world renowned sa vants, is “the per son who gets into the re volv ing door be hind you and gets out ahead of you.” Their his tory, punc tu ated by for - eign in vasions, sharpened their sur vi val skills. Connoisseurs of wine, women and song, they have been called “the Irish of Cen tral Eu rope”. A sixteenth cen tury Eng lish trav el ogue de rided Hun gar i ans about their glut tony. In Hun gary, it is prob a bly con sid ered a vir tue. Hun gar i ans are peer less when it co mes to en ter tain ing their guests. Even those, who may dis like Hun gari ans must ad mit that, somehow, what ever they are do ing, they are ob vi ously quite good at it. This book is a tes ta ment to that. In the past half a cen tury, Hun gar ian con tri bu tions to the world in clude two mon u men tal ep i sodes. On Oc to ber 23, 1956, the Hungarian Rev o lu - tion started. That was the first time in the his tory of World Com mu nism that an entire nation rose up against their Com mu nist oppres sors. On No vem ber 9, 1989, the Hungar ian govern ment decided to roll up the barbed wires, take up the mine fields, rein in the dogs and open Hungary’s bor ders to tens of thou sands of es cap ing East Ger mans. This 2 brought down the Iron Cur tain. As German Chancellor Kohl put it: “The Hun gari ans knocked out the first brick from the Wall. We will never for get it!” Hun gary’s role—with out a doubt—had been cru cial in the even tual col lapse of the So viet Un ion. The Cold War is over. Hun gary is not un der So viet dom i na tion any - more, but pro gress ing steadily to ward com plete re-integration into the Euro pean com mu nity of nations. With the on set of a new mil len nium and en ter ing the 12 th century of Hun gary’s state hood, Hun gari an s proudly look to ward their fu ture with grow ing con fi dence and an tic i pa - tion. They are ready to re gain their place in the Eu ro pean community— pre serv ing their na tional iden ti ty at the same time. I ex press my sin cere ap pre ci a tion to Fran cis S. Wag ner for al low ing the use of his 1976 book Hun gar ian Con tri bu tions to World Civ i li za tion as a source for much of the ma te rial in this book. The Hun gar ian Lex i con pub - lished by Hun gary’s Na tional Tech ni cal In for ma tion Cen ter (Bu da pest, 1992) was invalu able in collect ing and check ing the data.

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