GOOD HEALTH IS THE BEST DOWRY: MARRIAGE COUNSELING, PREMARITAL EXAMINATIONS, SEX EDUCATION IN HUNGARY 1920-1952 Gábor Szegedi A DISSERTATION in History Presented to the Faculties of the Central European University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Budapest, Hungary CEU eTD Collection 2014 Supervisors of Dissertation: István Rév; Karl Hall Copyright in the text of this dissertation rests with the author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained by the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author. I hereby declare that this dissertation contains no materials accepted for any other degrees in any other institutions and no materials previously written and/or published by another person unless otherwise noted. CEU eTD Collection Abstract This study deals with the topic of marriage counseling in Hungary from the early 1920s to the early 1950s. Marriage counseling is used as an umbrella term for a wide range of practices including medical, legal or sexual counseling for individuals and couples, before and during marriage. The focus of this project is on premarital counseling and on preparation for marriage in general, which includes the production of sexual knowledge through sex education materials. Marriage counseling thus, at least as it was primarily understood in mid-20th century Hungary, becomes primarily a health issue and a preparation of young adults for proper marriage in a biological sense. I examine the 1941 Hungarian Marriage Law in detail and treat both the policies it implemented and the discourses that led to it as a Foucauldian, biopolitical attempt at sexual normalization. In this framework marriage counseling is both a “secularized confessional” and an attempt by power to induce self-normalization through a “discoursive ferment”. The study points to the anti-miscegenation clause in the Marriage Law and treats race defilement cases as further attempts at defining the borderlines of “respectable” sexuality, which resulted in a broad understanding both of “race protection” and of “marital health” in contemporary Hungary. I put forth that while anti-Semitism and state racism was discredited, marriage counseling had a long afterlife after 1945 and not only because it remained in force until 1952 and that it returned in a CEU eTD Collection different form for 15 years in 1973 but also because it was part of a “state socialist”, authoritarian turn in Hungarian biopolitics and it was the first important, mass VD screening procedure implemented in 20th century Hungary. - 2 - Acknowledgments It is a difficult task to express my gratitude to all the people who have contributed to the preparation of this dissertation, professionally or otherwise. I will make an attempt. First and foremost I would like to thank my parents for their enduring love and support. I would like to dedicate this dissertation to them, as well as to my ever-youthful grandmother whose stories have always been an inspiration and to my late grandfather whose sense of humor never waned. I would also like to mention my brother Balázs and my cousin András as sources of inspiration. I would like to thank my supervisors István Rév and Karl Hall who have put trust in me along the way, have provided me with the necessary orientation but have also allowed me the freedom I needed to find an entertaining subject and to be able to enjoy the research and the writing process. I would also like to thank Lutz Sauerteig for providing me with excellent guidance during my semester abroad in Durham. I would like to say a special thanks to those who have read shorter or longer bits of the texts I have written and helped me with critical comments and encouragement: Jan Bröker, Emese Lafferton, Jamila Martin, Anna Mazanik, Karolina Mroziewicz, Mirela Pascaru, Leyla Safta-Zecheria, Barna Szamosi, Judit Takács and Anita Winkler. CEU eTD Collection Thank you to all others, who have helped me professionally, in various ways: Erik Ingebrigtsen, Balázs Ablonczy, Andrea Pető, Judit Forrai, Anita Kurimay, Katalin Stráner, Ferenc Erős, Melinda Kovai, Zsuzsa Bokor, Rainer Alisch. I would also like to express gratitude to my supervisors at the Australian Embassy in Budapest: Alex Brooking, John Griffin, Cary Humphries and Heidi Markmann. I wouldn't have - 3 - been able to pursue my studies without their flexibility and empathy. A thank you to my ex- colleagues at the Embassy, amongst others, for all the lunch discussions. During the years of research I have received much appreciated financial support from the Central European University in the form of the dissertation write-up grant and two research grants. My work would not have been possible without the institutional support provided by CEU and especially the History Department. I would also like to say thank you the “people of the PhD lab” who have made the end phase a whole lot more fun than anticipated. And finally thank you to all my friends who have been there in the last 4.5 years to help me through the more difficult phases of this process. CEU eTD Collection - 4 - Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... - 2 - Acknowledgments....................................................................................................................... - 3 - Contents ...................................................................................................................................... - 5 - List of Tables .............................................................................................................................. - 7 - List of Illustrations ...................................................................................................................... - 8 - List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................................. - 9 - Introduction ............................................................................................................................... - 11 - Chapter 1: The Politics of VD Care and Marriage Counseling ............................................... - 30 - 1.1 VD and marriage counseling before 1920 ...................................................................... - 33 - 1.1.1. Teleia Egyesület – the first anti-VD association..................................................... - 33 - 1.1.2. Pre-WWI National organizations ............................................................................ - 35 - 1.1.3. Nemzetvédő Szövetség a Nemibajok Ellen ............................................................ - 40 - 1.2. Politics of Health in the interwar and early postwar period........................................... - 43 - 1.2.1. Teleia in the interwar era ........................................................................................ - 43 - 1.2.2. The Antivenereal Committee .................................................................................. - 54 - 1.2.3. Public health reform and VD .................................................................................. - 67 - Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ - 81 - Chapter 2: Counseling and advice: Voluntary marriage counseling and public debates on marital health and VD ........................................................................................................................... - 86 - Introduction ........................................................................................................................... - 87 - 2.1. The Discursive field of marriage counseling ................................................................. - 92 - 2.2. Voluntary marriage counseling in the international context ........................................ - 112 - 2.3. Voluntary Marriage Counseling Centers in Hungary .................................................. - 128 - CEU eTD Collection 2.3.1. Teleia's Counseling Station ................................................................................... - 129 - 2.3.2. Újpest – Marriage Counseling Center of the Országos Szociálpolitikai Intézet .. - 132 - 2.3.3. Marriage counseling in the Health Protection Institutes (EVI) and the OKI rural Health Houses ................................................................................................................. - 140 - 2.3.4. Social Democratic / Communist Sexual Counseling ............................................ - 143 - 2.3.5. Marriage Counseling at the Családvédő Országos Egyesület ............................. - 146 - 2.3.6. Magyar Családvédelmi Szövetség.................................................................... - 151 - - 5 - Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... - 159 - Chapter 3: Coercion, obligation, marriage bans: Mandatory premarital testing and the coercive measures of the Lex Veneris ................................................................................................... - 163 - Introduction ........................................................................................................................