The Hungarian nation concept in the 20th century –
Radical changes and their translation into politics

Bachelor Thesis

Judith Hamburg

Content

Author’s note: ... 3

I Introduction ... 4

II.Different concepts of nationality and the Hungarian nation concept before the 1st World War ... 7

II.The shock of Trianon- rigid adherence to St. Stephen’s realm ... 9

II.The historical narratives and the deriving revisionist argumentation line ... 11

II. The old nation concept wants its old framework back- revisionist policies during the early 1920’s ... 13

II.Revisionist propaganda ... 16

III.Prescribed silence under Communism and national reawakening during ... 19

III.The new nation concept ... 20

III.Reflection of the new nation concept in a consensus cutting across party divides ... 22

IV Conclusion ... 27

References ... 30

Annex I – Short description of Kovács-Bertrand’s “Der ungarische Revisionismus nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg“ and de Daruvar’s „Das Dramatische Schicksal Ungarns“, short note on Spohr’s „Die geistigen Grundlagen des Nationalismus in Ungarn“ ... 34

Annex II Statistics: Hungarian territory and population losses, different numbers of Hungarians living in neighbouring states ... 36

Annex III – Maps of Hungary from the interwar period ... 41

Annex IV- Revisionist posters and postcards from the inter-war period ... 45

Annex V- Hungarian national coat of arms ... 50

I Introduction

The political structure of the European continent is characterised by nation states since more than two centuries. The process of nation-building and the emergence of nationalism is characterised by most scholars as having been a different and more complicated process in the Central and Eastern European regions than in Western Europe. There exist several factors that made nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe a very peculiar issue: the maintenance of the multinational Habsburg empire during a time period when the people living on its territory already defined their belonging on the basis of nationality; the relative territorial dispersion and intermingling of these national groups; the repeated (re)drawing of borders during the first half of the 20th century; and finally more than 40 years of Communist rule during the second half of the 20th century, which was in essence opposed to nationalism due to its theoretically internationalist ideology.

The underlying essay deals with the Hungarian nation, one of the current Central and Eastern European nations that underwent the mentioned developments during the 20th century. What distinguishes the Hungarian nation from most of its neighbours in the region is the fact that following the dissolution of the Habsburg empire after the First World War, Hungary did not gain sovereignty at long last over its territories and an own nation state, but lost a considerable part of its territories and ethnic nationals. One has to qualify the last sentence concerning two aspects: strictly speaking, it was not the Habsburg but the Austro-Hungarian empire that dissolved after the First World War; and of course Hungary became a sovereign nation state, however its borders were significantly different from the borders of Transleithania , the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. This massive reduction of the country’s size and population left a deep mark on Hungarian national consciousness, and the Hungarians inevitably had to redefine their concept of the Hungarian nation. They had to redefine not only because they were ultimately freed from dominance of the Austrian monarchs after almost four centuries, but also because the question what or who constituted the Hungarian nation became obvious precisely since one third of the ethnic Hungarian population was left outside the borders of the new Hungarian state.

An analogical turning point occurred in 1989/1990, when the Communist party that governed Hungary since the end of the Second World War dissolved and democratic freedoms, most importantly in the underlying context being the freedom of speech, were introduced. The nation concept that included the Hungarian minorities beyond the border had been forbidden during Communism, and the issue underwent a massive public revival alongside democratic transition. Hence, the nation concept changed again, and was reflected in the policies of the new democratic governments.

Besides short-lived border revisions in 1938 and 1940 respectively, the country’s borders have remained the same since the Treaty of Trianon. During both of the described periods, the existence of large Hungarian minorities beyond the borders constituted and constitutes an integral part of the concept of the Hungarian nation. In the immediate period following the Trianon Treaty, the Hungarian state was simply incapable of accepting the territory and population losses. Since 1989, the location of the border seems to be accepted, while definition of the Hungarian nation without taking into account the minorities living in the neighbouring countries seems hardly possible. This is even more so because the Communist regime forbade even the talk about the Hungarian national minorities.

Thus in the Hungarian case, the issue of the national minorities outside the state is intimately connected to the concept of the Hungarian nation, while, however, there exist of course several other profound aspects that define the nation concept, such as culture and traditions or the so-called historical ‘myths’. This concept of the nation in turn influences how the Hungarian state deals with its minorities, and how it handles minority politics in the framework of its foreign politics, but also in the sphere of domestic policy and concerning ethnic minorities living on the territory of the Hungarian state. Finally, the concept of ‘Europe’ as a cultural entity as well as the potential influence of the Western European powers on Hungary and the CEE region in general, also play an important role in the image of the ‘national self’ as well as in its translation into actual politics.

Against this background, the underlying paper analyses how the concept of the nation influences and is worked out in actual minority politics. The analysis will focus on those two time periods when the Hungarian elite could lead its country relatively independently, namely the period after the First World War, and the period after the fall of the Communist party in 1989. At the same time, the focus will be on the years immediately after these two events because both events caused a major change in the perception of the Hungarian nation, hence it is highly interesting to evaluate how the governing elite translated these changes into actual politics during the first years.

First, general theories about nation and nationality concepts as well as Hungarian perception of the nation before the First World War is described in Chapter II.1. This is followed by an evaluation of the effect of the border changes following the First World War on the nation concept in Chapter II.2, and the analysis of the actual translation of these concepts in the revisionist politics of the government under Prime Minister István Bethlen in Chapter II.3 and II.4. The content and methods of revisionist propaganda is presented in Chapter II.5 in order to show how the nation concept triggered a revisionist movement. Chapter III.1 will shortly describe the issue of the minorities during the Communist period and the emergence of a new, post-communist nation concept in III.2. Chapter III.3 deals with the reflection of the new nation concept presented through the consensus among different party elites, and is followed by the overall conclusion of the paper in Chapter IV, which compares parts II and III with each other.

II.1 Different concepts of nationality and the Hungarian nation concept before the 1st World War

In order to provide a theoretical background for the discussion of the Hungarian nation concept, different concepts of nationality that dominate related discussions will be shortly introduced, followed by a short summary of the Hungarian nation concept before the 1st World War, which is essential in order to understand its nation concept developed after 1918.

One of the oldest and probably most well known concepts is the distinction between the civic and the cultural or ethnic nation. As Dunay (2000) points it out, the cultural nation “constitutes itself through ethnic ancestry” and common cultural values, while the civic nation “constitutes itself through equal individual civic rights and the practice of the democratic legitimacy of rule through the citizens”¹ (p. 16)². This concept is mainly based on the historic observation of the development of different nation states, and corresponds with contrasting the examples of France or Great Britain with Germany and Italy. In the former states, the framework of the state existed before the emergence of nationalism, while in the case of the latter, nationalism contributed to the unification of smaller political units into a modern state. The concept of the cultural nation was indeed invented by the German 19th century philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, who claimed that language and culture, rather than the state, were the essential basis of the nation (Alcock, 2000, p. 8). At the same time however, the cultural nation strives to convert its self-perception as a distinct nation “into political selfdetermination as fast as possible …”³ (Spohr, 1936, p. 11). However, it is debatable if the cultural nation seizes to be a cultural one and develops into a civic nation as soon as it realises its goal of political self-determination and establishes an own state.

Furthermore, according to the analysis of Dunay, there exist several other concepts that are based on the emphasis of the economic, geographical or/and the time factor in the development of nation states⁴ (cf. Dunay, 2000, pp. 12-16). Finally, the author also refers to the secessionist type of nation building in the CEE region, which is developed “through enmity against the existing state” (pp. 12-14, citing Hösch).

[...]

1 Author’s translation. All citations of Dunay are translated by me from German to English.

2 Dunay also points to the extension of this classical twofold division to a threefold division developed by Lepsius, who further distinguishes between “Volksnation” (People’s nation) and “Kulturnation” (cultural nation), where Volksnation refers to ethnicity while Kulturnation refers to “cultural equality” (Dunay, 2000, p. 16, citing Lepsius, 1990).

3 Author’s translation. All citations of Spohr are translated by me from German to English.

4 Dunay evaluates amongst others the models of Rokkan and Schieder. Rokkan emphasizes socio-economic factors and connects the time when nation states developed to economic development which again results in the distinction into three different geographical regions. Schieder identifies three phases of nation building on a historical time line, of which the latter one refers to Central and Eastern Europe.. These concepts are not relevant to the current analysis because they emphasize how nation states developed rather than how these concepts influenced enduring perceptions of nationality.