Tanulmány
Miklós Wesselényi’s Kindergarten Establishments
One of the lesser known segments of Miklós Wesselényi’s wide range of activities was his work regarding kindergartens. Like several other public figures of the Reform Era, he was a member of the Association for Establishing Kindergartens in Hungary. He intended to found a kindergarten in every settlement on his lands and took part in establishing and sponsoring several kindergartens in Transylvania. The baron, who was away from Zsibó to recover in Gräfenberg from 1839, was aided in these tasks by his steward, Benjámin Kelemen, and his lawyer, Károly Kiss. Present study uses the baron’s letters and journal, as well as literature concerning the history of pedagogy to collect data about Wesselényi’s founding of kindergartens, and use this data to present the process of the successful establishment and operation of such an institution, or in other cases the failure of this endeavour.
Attitudes Towards Religion in Anti-Clerical Pamphlets During the Time of Dualism (From 1867 to 1895)
The study examines the attitudes towards religion in anti-clerical pamphlets published in the last third of the 19th century, which was also a period of Hungarian church policy debates. In other words, it describes how criticism of the Church related to the criticism of religion. The overwhelming majority of publicists praised the sociocultural significance and supernatural elements of religion. Nevertheless, miracles and mysteries were targeted constantly, as the authors stood up for the idea of rational religion that exists without dogmas. In the pamphlets we can observe the effects of the rational and deistic tradition of Enlightenment philosophy of the 18th century. In most cases the authors clearly distanced themselves from atheism. The accusation that the Church itself was ultimately responsible for the denial of religion was often formulated. In this point of view priests filled the formal faith with irrational and superstitious elements, thereby poisoning religion. Therefore, the topos of priestly imposture regularly appeared in these arguments. The liberal interpretation of Christianity, according to which Jesus once proclaimed the ideas of liberty and equality, was also used to good effect in anti-clerical discourse. The atheistic-materialistic approach became more and more widespread in the early 20th century among anti-clericals in Hungary. Although this viewpoint already existed at this point, it was still a marginal phenomenon.
Hungarian Gypsy Musicians’ Journal 1908-1910. Self-organisation, lobbying and social life of gypsy musicians at the turn of the century
The National Royal Hungarian Statistics Office recorded 274,940 Gypsy residents in Hungary, living mainly in Gypsy settlements on the margins of society. The number was based on the 1893 “Gypsy census”. This same survey reported the number of Gypsy musicians to be 16,784; their social situation was the most favourable. The Gypsy musicians often lived in towns and dispersed among the non-Gypsy populace, in fact it was not uncommon for them to have accumulated significant financial and social capital. It was in part due to the favourable social status of the defining personalities among the Gypsy musicians that made it possible for them to create an association and to start a journal. The first Gypsy musician organisation was founded in Budapest, in 1908, under the name Hungarian Gypsy Musicians’ Association. The association launched the Hungarian Gypsy Musicians’ Journal that same year. The editorial board of the Gypsy musicians’ periodical imagined a very colourful publication, one seeking to satisfy the interests of the Gypsy musicians. The journal covered a wide range of topics. Over time more and more topical columns were born in addition to a sheet music supplement. Of premier importance were accounts of the work and plans of the association, in addition to domestic and international employment opportunities. Song composition and musical competitions were announced, and reports on their progress and results were published. Poems, literary reviews, or passages from soon to be published novels appeared in the columns of the journal; the topics were mainly related to Gypsy musicality. The editors devoted a separate column just to horse racing, and one to biographies of famous first violinists. On the last pages of the issues one could find concise news of Gypsy musical society, as well as advertisements from cobblers, dentists, and instrument makers.
The Editor of a Satirical Magazine on Trial
Out of the several satirical magazines of the era across the political spectrum only the extreme- left, pro-independence Ludas Matyi had been the subject of two consecutive libel suits. Present study aims to examine in what way the editor of the magazine crossed the line, what caught the attention of the press office of the Prime Minister’s Office and resulted in a lawsuit. Besides documentation concerning libel suits contents of the magazine are also showcased, and the specifics of the lawsuits against Ludas Matyi are compared to libel suits against satirical magazines before the Austro-Hungarian Compromise. In the first suit the editor, Károly Mészáros was charged with offenses against religious ethics, and the jurors decided on a significant penalty. The author of the fictive letter resulting in the second lawsuit accused the Ministry of War of financial abuses. The editor was given an even harsher penalty this time. On a third occasion the charge was breach of peace, once again due to the concerns of the Imperial and Royal Minister of War. One of the two poems in question reviled the imperial flag, while the other praised Lajos Kossuth. However, the prosecutor did not find the charges to be substantiated and advised against filing a libel suit. It can be seen in all three cases that the lawsuits were not necessarily initiated by the Hungarian government: it is likely that the first accusation was made by religious actors, while the other two lawsuits were initiated by the Minister of War, therefore these were not domestic political in nature, unlike the libel suits before the Compromise.
Miserly and Squandering Gentries? The Story of a Noble Family from Somogy County in the 19th Century
The decline of the middle strata of nobility was a significant social process in the 19th century according to historians. The causes of this included the distrainment of their estates, the accumulation of debt by the nobility, and their subsequent migration to administrative fields. This social group was referred to as gentries. This paper presents the opportunities this group of nobility had to avoid losing social status through the history and inner conflict (an 1861 inheritance dispute) of a noble family. One of these options was adopting state-ofthe- art management practices, keeping the administration of their estates in one hand, and even acquiring new properties. However, besides the pragmatic nobles, there was another the type of gentries who left their lands and adopted a freelancing lifestyle. They were more akin to modern intellectuals than to land-owning nobles. The middle ground between these two career paths and attitudes was the younger son’s gentry lifestyle and rational management style. I’m aiming to use the family and court documents to call attention to a dichotomy in mentality between generations: the father took on characteristics of the old-fashioned, “miserly” attitude, while the son was the “squandering” person in this conflict. This contraposition was made possible by the statements made during the dispute and the argumentation techniques used in these statements. However, it is important to consider that these different lifestyles can also be discussed in juxtaposition, as the mixing of these lifestyles was not uncommon during this period.
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