1 This policy aimed at the revision of Hungary's peace treaty of Trianon (Paris) following World War I.

2 Count Kuno Klebelsberg in “Gróf Klebelsberg Kuno Emlékezete,” Kir. Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda (Budapest, 1938), p. 14.

3 Only at the advent of World War II, in the late thirties, belatedly realizing the necessity of mutual dependence on each other, Hungary began to take up negotiations with Yugoslavia (of the then-dissolving Little Entente) towards cultural co-operation. A number of bipartite manifestations were held further and talks continued in a friendly and promising atmosphere. Events went subsequently so far that a draft of a Hungarian-Yugoslav cultural agreement was being completed. A violent halt was, however, brought to this procedure by the assault on Yugoslavia in 1941.

4 A small and much-controlled interchange between Hungarian and Soviet science (natural science in the main) still existed during the interwar period, but the well-known political and social antagonisms of these two countries blocked any considerable development in their rare cultural contacts. (For further relations with the USSR, see the statistics on p. 65.)

5 It became Law XIII of the Year 1927, under the name, “Law on Hungarian Institutes Abroad and on Fellowships Serving the Purpose of Higher Education.”

6 The form of this supervision is discussed later in the article.

7 Save for a few bursaries founded by non-governmental funds (whose amount virtually never exceeded 10 per cent of those established by the State) the whole project was State-financed.

8 According to Hungarian practice, all conventions of a similar (international) nature had to pass the two legislative houses in order to become law and thus effective. The Hungarian-German cultural agreement met considerable parliamentary opposition, chiefly from the side of the Social Democrats. Opposition also appeared in the press and various publications.

9 The close margin of dates (only eight days) between the signature of the Hungarian-German and Hungarian-Polish cultural agreements indicates Hungarian efforts attempting to counterbalance their obligations with the Third Reich and also reassure public opinion. This component played a role, in a certain measure, in the making of the Hungarian-Italian and Hungarian-Austrian cultural conventions, too.

10 See also note 3.

11 More precisely, it was a section of the Ministry (Department) of Public Education. Originally it was the section in charge of the universities; later, due to gradually rising demands, a special division was formed under the name of “Cultural Interrelations Division.”

12 From the second half of World War II on, the Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs also started to grant chiefly part-bursaries (about twenty-five to thirty a year) under its own auspices.

13 Included in this figure are the foreign students of the special sessions (called “summer universities”) established at the University in Debrecen and the Agricultural Academy in Keszthely. Between 1927 and 1936 these two institutions, of which the former had a much greater enrollment, had a total attendance of 1,080 foreign students of whom there were: Italians, 210; Germans and Austrians, 137; Poles, 66; English-speaking peoples (English, Americans, and Irish), 28; Netherlanders, 23; Finns, 21; Estonians, 17; Belgians, 14; French, 12; Bulgars, 11; and Chinese, 6. See B. Hóman, “Müvelödéspolitika” (Budapest, 1938).

14 On bursaries see also Table II on p. 65.

15 The author's earlier attempt to describe the cultural network in question is to be found in “Hungarian Cultural Life in Warfaring and Neutral Countries,” Magyar Kulturélet a Hadviselö és Semleges Országokban (University Press, Budapest, 1940).

16 For specification see also Table I on p. 64.

17 For specification see also Table I on p. 64.

18 For specification see also Table I on p. 64.

19 For example, art exhibitions, books and periodicals, and films were exchanged.

20 Eckhardt, Sándor, Visage de la Hongrie (Paris, 1938)Google Scholar.

21 Some twelve students yearly.

22 Among them was the blueprint of a Franco-Hungarian cultural agreement drawn and accepted in principle in 1938. Only the outbreak of World War II made its further development and completion impossible.

23 This refers to the period between 1867–1914.

24 I.e., Hungary.

25 Referring to the era of Austrian oppression in Hungary between 1849–1866.

26 Hungarian public in general could make no sharp distinction between Austria and Germany. To the average Hungarian everyone speaking German was “a German.”

27 This in contrast with the previously mentioned chair in Hungarian language and literature at the Sorbonne in Paris, established in 1902.

28 Farkas, Julius, “Ungarische Kultur in Deutschland,” Ungarn, das Antlitz einer Nation, ed., Baranyai, Z. (Budapest, 1940), pp. 778–79.Google Scholar

29 From the German Volkstum.

30 From the German Ungarntum.

31 Szent-Iványi, Béla, Ungarn, das Antlitz einer Nation, ed., Baranyai, Z. (Budapest, 1940), p. 792.Google Scholar

32 Situated at 5 Dorotheenstrasse, next to the University of Berlin.

33 About 20 per cent of all Hungarian persons on bursaries abroad studied in Germany.

34 The problems of the German minorities in Hungary were regulated in separate bilateral contracts, completed only after much pressure chiefly during the war.

35 This policy of separating the two issues in question did not conflict with Hungarian policies.

36 Hungary sent about five students on a yearly fellowship program and some further four persons for shorter periods to the United Kingdom.

37 In the mid-thirties, for instance, Hungary took some preliminary steps to introduce a mutual cultural agreement with Britain, but failing a positive response, the idea was soon dropped.

38 The British Council commenced its very promising Hungarian program only in 1939. Besides other activities, it founded in that year an English chair at the University of Debrecen, Hungary.

39 Such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment, and the Institute of International Education.

40 The closing of the Hungarian Reference Library in 1941 was not a direct consequence of the war, but occurred due to internal differences concerning its management.

41 Hungary's entrance into the war occurred two years later in 1941.

42 French and particularly English-speaking aliens stranded in Hungary during the war earned their living (or earned an additional income) by teaching those languages, for which demand was increasingly great.

43 Hungary's renowned college for prospective educators.

44 World-wide French organization under semi-official auspices to further the French language and culture abroad.

45 All data concerning French évadés in wartime Hungary was obtained from: “L'Amicale des P. G. Français évadés en Hongrie,” Refuge en Hongrie (Paris, 1945).

46 The Hungarian Government, with the assistance of the Swedish Red Cross, managed, however, to send monetary aid (70,000 zloty in all) until the spring of 1944 to some twenty professors and their families in Cracow. These men and their people were faced with extreme hardships, since all universities and secondary schools were forcibly closed during the German occupation.

47 All data concerning wartime Hungarian-Polish relations were obtained from Dr. Antall József, “Lengyel Menekültek Magyarországon a Háboru alatt” (Budapest, Atheneum, 1946).

48 With a student body of some 150.

49 Apart from educational facilities ranging from free tuition to free board and equipment, every Polish refugee in Hungary regularly obtained public relief.

50 There functioned also in Switzerland a high school for Polish refugees during the war years. This otherwise excellent institution was however not entirely Polish in its character and independent like that in Balatonboglár.

51 The practice of using (or much rather abusing) cultural relations for war propaganda purposes was, incidentally, an international by-product of the last war which almost no country escaped.

52 It came into being immediately before the outbreak of World War II, after much and long-delayed German persuasion. In fact, it was an “official,” government-sponsored matter and it was almost obligatory for senior public officials to belong to its membership. But even so, its subsidies were comparatively low, its seats poor and hardly known to the public and its administrative body poorly staffed.

53 Most prominent among the latter was the Hungarian Parthenon Society founded in 1940, with a membership gathered of Hungarian intellectuals disposed against Hitler's policies. Of the more recently established ones, the most significant was the Hungarian-Turkish Society founded in 1943. Ostensibly created for furthering Hungarian-Turkish relations, in reality it acted as a cover for a gathering place of anti-Hitler intellectuals who tried to reach the outside world through neutral Turkish channels.

54 The quarterly in English was the Hungarian Quarterly, the monthly in French was the Nouvelle Revue de Hongrie.

55 The subsidies of these two societies were gradually raised by the Hungarian Government in the course of the war and collectively amounted to more than that granted to the Hungarian-German (Cultural) Society.