tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14828443619236119542024-02-07T17:52:23.652+00:00A Taste of HungaryComments, Opinions, Memories and News
about Hungary and All Things HungarianMiles Ratcliffehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153046962609437022noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482844361923611954.post-73945254728504089822011-03-15T08:10:00.000+00:002011-03-15T08:10:07.729+00:00March 15 is Hungary's National Day. A Day to Celebrate.<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Today is March 15th</b> – one of the three major Hungarian National Days (the others being August 20th and October 23rd). So it seems appropriate to start this blog with a short video of the beautiful Hungarian National Anthem – Himnusz – which is, arguably, the most beautiful of all national anthems. If you are not familiar with it, please play it before reading any further. If you are familiar with it then, I am sure you will need no persuading to listen to it again.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cisX40UmfIY?rel=0" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
March 15th is a day of great historic importance to all Hungarians, for it was the day in 1848 when the popular Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi read his famous poem, Nemzeti Dal, to assembled crowds in Vörösmarty Square, and then all around both Pest and Buda, setting in motion the events that would lead to the Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence of 1848. The poem ranks with the Himnusz (National Anthem) and Szózat (Summons – the 'second' national anthem) as one of the three defining statements of Hungarian identity. Its opening lines convey the spirit of the times:</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Talpra magyar, hí a haza!<br />
Itt az idő, most vagy soha!<br />
Rabok legyünk vagy szabadok?</div><div style="text-align: left;">or in English</div><div style="text-align: center;">Rise up, Magyar, the country calls!<br />
It's 'now or never' what fate befalls...<br />
Shall we live as slaves or free men?</div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">while the chorus at the end of each of the eight verses leaves no doubt about the poet's views:<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">God of Hungarians,<br />
we swear unto Thee,<br />
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall<br />
no longer be!</div><div style="text-align: left;">or, more poetically</div><div style="text-align: center;">A magyarok istenére<br />
Esküszünk,<br />
Esküszünk, hogy rabok tovább<br />
Nem leszünk!</div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">Sadly the 1848 revolution against their Austrian oppressors failed, although not without many deaths during 18 months of fighting, including that of Sándor Petőfi himself. Ironically, in view of what would happen just over one hundred years later, it was not the Austrians who finally defeated the Hungarians but their Russian allies.<br />
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Today, however, is a public holiday, and throughout Budapest and the whole of Hungary public buildings will be draped in the red, white and green of the national flag and many Hungarians will be wearing a tricoloured rosette in memory of the 1848 revolution. It is a time to remember the past and to have hope for the future.<br />
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As the final words of the Himnusz say</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Bal sors akit régen tép,<br />
Hozz rá víg esztendőt<br />
Megbűnhődte már e nép<br />
A múltat s jövendőt!</div><div style="text-align: left;">or, in English</div><div style="text-align: center;">Long torn by ill fate<br />
Bring upon it a time of relief<br />
They who have suffered for all sins<br />
Of the past and of the future!<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">And so say all of us who love Hungary.<br />
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</div>Miles Ratcliffehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153046962609437022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482844361923611954.post-41039616283259516802011-02-19T14:08:00.008+00:002011-03-14T12:03:48.973+00:00Hungary in the 20th century - a personal view (part 1)Hungary and Hungarians had a very mixed - and mostly bad - 20th century. And yet it had looked as though it was going to be so different.<br />
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According to tradition, towards the end of the 9th century seven wandering tribes whose origins are lost in the mysteries of time, but were probably somewhere in the steppes of what is now Mongolia, arrived in the Carpathian Basin and liked what they saw. Led by Árpád, the chieftain of the largest of the tribes, they easily conquered the indigenous population and settled to establish what would come to be known as the Kingdom of Hungary. One thousand years later, in 1896, the country celebrated the Millennium of its foundation with an outpouring of national pride, combined with an extravagant construction programme to mark this historic event. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtklm8LAkVs8ed_h8FRIWlygtvsvZHvgRxUtmG_NZXFUpIs91JMuponRFA89UPBJLdObUGc1FaC_wEx8BLt9VGoXa-Dh_-03E21wYkEI4b8PgrpDibicbqNC6KXxDoMyLH3g9Hqg6Pakc/s1600/Parliament.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtklm8LAkVs8ed_h8FRIWlygtvsvZHvgRxUtmG_NZXFUpIs91JMuponRFA89UPBJLdObUGc1FaC_wEx8BLt9VGoXa-Dh_-03E21wYkEI4b8PgrpDibicbqNC6KXxDoMyLH3g9Hqg6Pakc/s320/Parliament.jpg" width="320" /></a>The most notable of these projects was, arguably, the beautiful Parliament building on the Pest bank of the Danube which was inaugurated in the Millennium year, although it was not completed until 1904. The top of its central dome is 96 metres high, to emphasise the importance of the years 896 and 1896 in the country's history, and even today it is the largest building in Hungary and the largest national parliament building in Europe. It is interesting to note that the top of the dome of St Stephen's Basilica, which underwent extensive renovation at the time of the Millennium, is also exactly 96 metres high. To this day no buildings higher than 96 metres are permitted in the centre of Budapest.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUhI5JWYLlUofNZiWnz2IetqUpmJPwbm3DPazqVcxBqaeCRa6drFQ-9VGbsdA17gA2d0UDuvZs4g-Rf7QAkLx6Cj_b6i5WRnvolCjvA8OEen0_csxWTya-taBb88xsOxuY4nKhLsoi35g/s1600/Heroes+Square.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUhI5JWYLlUofNZiWnz2IetqUpmJPwbm3DPazqVcxBqaeCRa6drFQ-9VGbsdA17gA2d0UDuvZs4g-Rf7QAkLx6Cj_b6i5WRnvolCjvA8OEen0_csxWTya-taBb88xsOxuY4nKhLsoi35g/s320/Heroes+Square.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Of course, a Millennium has to have a special monument, and the Millennium Monument in Hösök tere (Heroes' Square) is about as good as it gets. Its central column, 36 metres high, is surmounted by the Archangel Gabriel holding the Holy Crown of Hungary, which tradition claims was sent by Pope Sylvester II for the coronation of King István I on Christmas Day in the year 1000, while the seven Magyar tribes who arrived in the Carpathian Basin in (or around) 896 are represented around the base with Árpád, their leader, to the front. On plinths between the pillars of the surrounding collonades are statues of famous Hungarian kings and heroes, ranging from King István himself on the left to Ferenc Rákóczy and Lájos Kossuth, the leaders of the 1848 rebellion against the Hapsburgs on the extreme right. On the tops of the four pillars are further statues representing war, peace, work and welfare, and knowledge and glory.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>The Millenium Monument was, however, only the most dramatic part of an astonishing set of related projects, for running underneath the broad avenue that is Andrássy út runs the földalatti - the world's second underground railway (after London's), and the first in continental Europe. It originally ran from Vörösmarty tér to the Zoo, in the City Park,<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8PrpA7tCv87YlfW-XE9T27C0lD9GHI3VSE1vkoS7vdnsVWbxwTa3EO62j4cseB5B8IPTjrKR5kAHOkmIe5xhzrp6UTuCLeEcxTVf_bQQ2DySJQYmhmZe9a7AGnhD5o3J6cX98XJORruk/s1600/Fo%25CC%2588ldalatti+section.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8PrpA7tCv87YlfW-XE9T27C0lD9GHI3VSE1vkoS7vdnsVWbxwTa3EO62j4cseB5B8IPTjrKR5kAHOkmIe5xhzrp6UTuCLeEcxTVf_bQQ2DySJQYmhmZe9a7AGnhD5o3J6cX98XJORruk/s320/Fo%25CC%2588ldalatti+section.png" width="320" /></a></div>behind the Millennium Monument, although the Zoo station was closed when the line was later extended further into the eastern suburbs. The original section was built primarily to provide transport from the city centre to the newly extended City Park, while keeping the elegant Andrássy Avenue clear of public transport, and was built in only two years by the same "cut and cover" technique that had been used for the first lines of the London Underground, as can be seen in this contemporary painting.<br />
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Today most of the stations are still decorated in the original style, and to travel on Metro Line 1 (as the földalatti is officially known - although most Budapesters still refer to it by its original name) is to bring back an echo of those far-off times when Budapest was the most elegant city in the whole of Europe and the country was full of pride and hope for the future.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNtoBrb6QBvDoOkxLnhv-3n5i6-fbYhaJ7bU5lv1s6NgnykrABpUdTeKRqur6XUnz-sUONBBBPNAURLWc3AeBYMcFqSaI6BO1coU0_GKuCDx8MwxYI3VaJObk3uvvx1CuZx5_bRNQe32s/s1600/Fo%25CC%2588ldalatti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNtoBrb6QBvDoOkxLnhv-3n5i6-fbYhaJ7bU5lv1s6NgnykrABpUdTeKRqur6XUnz-sUONBBBPNAURLWc3AeBYMcFqSaI6BO1coU0_GKuCDx8MwxYI3VaJObk3uvvx1CuZx5_bRNQe32s/s200/Fo%25CC%2588ldalatti.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaycvk3HIBHagPA3tfIJwO6KIDX5F0plKU8LjMriF7Pm7opK5HuGbVS2Oh407OcPgLod1CtMV7ldQhu7g2d89EWeM9NRPq4YX135H-fAIaDUVRivES22aJfNDoOQAqzrFcCTlu-z5fm1M/s1600/Fo%25CC%2588ldalatti+sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaycvk3HIBHagPA3tfIJwO6KIDX5F0plKU8LjMriF7Pm7opK5HuGbVS2Oh407OcPgLod1CtMV7ldQhu7g2d89EWeM9NRPq4YX135H-fAIaDUVRivES22aJfNDoOQAqzrFcCTlu-z5fm1M/s200/Fo%25CC%2588ldalatti+sign.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>At that time the Kingdom of Hungary was the junior partner, if that is not too strong a word, in the Hapsburg-ruled Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy. Its frontiers encompassed over 325 square kilometres of territory which was occupied by almost 17 million people, almost half of whom were of non-Hungarian ethnicity, mainly Romanians, Slovaks, Croats, Serbs, Ruthenians and Germans, but with a number of Slovenes, Roma and other minorities in addition. In his <i>History of Modern Hungary</i>, <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B6rg_K._Hoensch">Jörg Hoensch</a> states that the Kingdom of Hungary at this time possessed a geographical unity without parallel in the rest of Europe, in which the national economy was a coordinated whole in which the different parts of the country were mutually dependent on each other and the capital, Budapest. After the trials of previous centuries it really must have looked as though Hungary's time had come. Who could possibly have guessed that twenty years later the historic Kingdom of Hungary would have been brutally dismembered, losing over 70% of its territory and 65% of its population?<br />
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In one sense this was all the fault of one man - a Bosnian Serb anarchist student named Gavrilo Princip. On 28th June 1914 Princip assassinated the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir apparent to the throne of Austria, and his wife Sophie while they were visiting Sarajevo. This event led, inevitably with the benefit of hindsight, to the outbreak of the First World War. Although the Hungarian Prime Minister, Count István Tisza, tried desperately to avoid his country being dragged into a punitive action against the Serbs, not least because of his fears that such a Balkan War might easily escalate, it proved impossible to defy the wishes of the major partner in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. History would prove that his fears were correct, but what no-one could have foreseen was that the country which would ultimately pay the biggest price for this war would be Hungary.<br />
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--- more to come later ---Miles Ratcliffehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153046962609437022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482844361923611954.post-76943451569802722812011-02-14T14:20:00.007+00:002011-02-14T14:27:54.840+00:00My Life-long Hungarian Love AffairProbably the first time I heard about Hungary was in 1956 when we had a debate at my school about the revolution which was in progress at the time. I vividly remember a young man, probably a couple of years older than me, proposing a new <a href="http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/children.html">Children's Crusade</a> to travel across Europe to Budapest and put an end to the fighting. Even we boys and young men did not seriously think that the might of the Soviet Army would have been deterred by a motley group of children, and like most of those present I had never heard of the Children's Crusade in any case - still less that it had ended in total disaster for all involved.<br />
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My first visit to Hungary was six years later, while I was spending part of the summer learning German in Vienna. It was a short, long-weekend, trip and was the only time that I have ever had a loaded rifle pointed at me. The border with Austria was still a heavily guarded crossing point between East and West and our coach-load of (mostly) young people had never seen anything like it before. Naturally, several of us took out our cameras to record this new experience and it was only when I saw that the guard whose photograph I was about to take had raised his rifle to point directly at me that I realised that perhaps this was not a good subject for a photograph!<br />
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Since that time I have visited Hungary nine more times for periods from a week to almost a year - the latter being the result of an invitation from the <a href="http://www.sztaki.hu/?en">Computer and Automation Institute</a> of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to spend a year carrying out my research into computer control of machine tools alongside their own experts in this field.<br />
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I shall have more to say about this in a future post, but it is fair to say that it was a memorable year for my wife and two small children, as well as for me. More than thirty years later my son and daughter still have vivid memories of that year.<br />
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I have spent more of my life in Hungary than in any country outside Britain (just more than the total time spent in over 50 visits to the United States!) and it will always have a strong place in my heart.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS14F6gjJw8tn2mRXcBQOpYSWWD0-ET7zcUIAT239jQ0sDgdoz-GR_r1sHmQ_2YchGdZIYRpKWDiPaUQIvK8kIAndIIOHi0zDVUgpXMBXuxZx4SDluXCJvChbuCT8U_pRWmMY8dBiRIbo/s1600/Me+on+Gelle%25CC%2581rthegy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS14F6gjJw8tn2mRXcBQOpYSWWD0-ET7zcUIAT239jQ0sDgdoz-GR_r1sHmQ_2YchGdZIYRpKWDiPaUQIvK8kIAndIIOHi0zDVUgpXMBXuxZx4SDluXCJvChbuCT8U_pRWmMY8dBiRIbo/s200/Me+on+Gelle%25CC%2581rthegy.jpg" width="168" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Me by the Citadella on Gellért hegy in 2010<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><i><br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">My first novel, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Budapest-Betrayal/dp/B004EPZ19C">The Budapest Betrayal</a></i>, illustrates this for, although it is mainly set in England, its key scenes take place in Hungary and its title, of course, gives a clue to the importance of Budapest in the story.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">I already have a <a href="http://www.milesinthepeak.blogspot.com/">blog</a> which covers a wide range of topics, but this blog is more focussed and will bring together both past and present, both personal and external, but with Hungary and Hungarian people, places and events being at its core. I hope that you will find it interesting.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div>Miles Ratcliffehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00153046962609437022noreply@blogger.com0