Search

The paper offers an analysis of Lilla Bulyovszky’s Norwegian travelogue, published in 1866. An important context for the interpretation is the socio-historical connections of the author’s biography, particularly her conflicts concerning gender and nationality. Lilla Bulyovszky’s subversive career led to a deprivation of her social roles in two senses: the contemporary press responded to both her “anti-national” and “unfeminine” behaviour with discursive exclusion. The second part of the paper tries to identify the cultural and literary historical traditions that enabled Lilla Bulyovszky to write Norvégiából: Úti emlékek in a way that bears virtually no marks of her conflicts concerning social roles. The comparative investigation ends with the conclusion that the travelogues produced by classical authors of European literature (especially Dante), and female writers (above all, Mary Wollstonecraft and Polixéna Wesselényi) provided a tradition to build on and to continue for Lilla Bulyovszky. The confidential conversational tone of her travelogue was the result of a conscious connection to available traditions.

The only complete copy of Tamás Balásfi’s Epinicia Benedicto Nagi known today is preserved among the old books at the Batthyaneum in Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár). This work was published in Pozsony in 1616. According to current knowledge, only three copies of this small volume, consisting of about forty pages, have survived. The copy in the Hungarian National Library is missing the entire first sheet (A), including the title page and dedication, as well as two pages from the end. This small book is particularly significant for the study of Péter Pázmány’s controversial writings before his archbishopric, representing the final piece in a series of polemics (1614–1616) written against the Lutherans of Western Transdanubia. Pázmány became archbishop in 1616 and was either unable or unwilling to continue engaging in this controversy, leaving Tamás Balásfi to conclude the polemic on his behalf. At the end of this paper, I will provide a transcription of a missing part from the Budapest copy: the Latin dedication at the beginning of the book.

The variants of the song analyzed in this paper have persisted in Hungarian popular poetry (manuscript songbooks) and folklore from the 1710s to the present day. The song, composed after the fall of Ferenc Rákóczi II’s War of Independence (1703–1711), expresses the grievances of soldiers regarding public order. Despite their heroism and victories, they were not appropriately honored by their noble officers, which facilitated the Habsburgs’ ability to suppress the revolt. Nearly all variants of the song criticize the arrogant Hungarian nobility for their delusions. Later versions of the song transcend the Kuruc era, addressing soldiers’ experiences more broadly across different historical periods. It was sung by Hungarian soldiers fighting against Napoleon and other adversaries, as well as in the context of conflicts with outlaws. Starting in the mid-19th century, the rise of “Kuruc romanticism” imbued this popular song type with renewed significance, leading new written versions to be perceived by the public as “original.” The Tyukodi Song (Te vagy a legény, Tyukodi pajtás – ‘You are the guy, our pal Tyukodi’) stands as one of the most renowned examples. It can be regarded both as an authentic relic and as a counterfeit, reflecting its dual role in Hungary’s cultural memory.

The article explores the emergence and significance of the modern Hungarian art novel and novella in the 19th century, situating it within a broader transnational literary framework. The genre, often overlooked in literary histories, reflects the socio-cultural modernization of the era and the professionalization of the arts. Through the lens of seminal Hungarian works like Pál Gyulai’s The Old Actor and Júlia Apraxin’s The Diary of Ilma Szerendy, the study delves into themes of artistic autonomy, emotional depth, and the societal challenges faced by artists, particularly actors and actresses. These narratives illuminate the paradoxical nature of artistic independence – intertwined with societal expectations and market constraints – while also addressing gender dynamics in the context of artistic creation. By linking Hungarian and global literary traditions, the paper argues for a reevaluation of the 19th-century art novel/novella/short story as a critical expression of artistic and intellectual modernity, emphasizing its enduring relevance in understanding the complex identity of the modern artist.

The Italian-born ballerina, Claudina Couqui (1835–1913), performed as a guest artist in numerous cities, including two appearences to Pest during the 1860s. Her first performance in 1863 was preceded by great anticipation, and after receiving an enthusiastic reception, she returned to the National Theatre the following year. This study seeks to explore the context of Pál Gyulai’s lesser-known–and, to our knowledge, only–ballet-related dramaturgical work through the lens of the guest performances of the ballerina who had come from Vienna. The investigation is justified by the fact that Gyulai’s critical writings and theatre reviews primarily focused on dramatic productions. However, Couqui’s guest performances required the clarification of some fundamental questions: What role did ballet play among theatrical genres? Where did it stand in relation to drama and opera? And what expectations did contemporary theatre critics and dramaturgists have regarding the genre? Furthermore, what could Gyulai have known about the ballet productions in Pest at the time, and to what extent? Addressing these questions requires an examination of the reception of specific ballet productions.

In this paper, I aim to analyse Imre Kertész’s Fatelessness from the perspective of its economic systems. In Kertész’s work they form a discursive network that permeates the entire novel (Szirák 2022). It is also important to see that the circulation of symbolic and material values also plays a key role in the demarcation of the boundaries between the concentration camps and the world outside. However, in the novel’s memorable yet perplexing conclusion, this distinction turns into a speech about the relative purity and simplicity of life in the camp. In an attempt to answer the questions arising from this statement by György Köves, I will argue that understanding of the economic models and the differences between them in the worlds of the inside and the outside is essential to the interpretation of Fatelessness.

The analysis argues that the social history and meaning of landed property is far from a closed process, and makes the important point that land should be seen as an integral part of the human world, society and culture. As such, we need to map out the roles and meanings that land assumes in particular social situations. In this sense, the land is a kind of social actor, not an entity outside society, independent of it, behaving and changing in a certain sense. Thus, the study sees land as endowed with agency in relation to human society, a land that can be seen as elastic even in its physical extent, as the wrangling over restitution has shown. The first three parts of this paper will review the social meanings of land and the issue of land reform. The fourth part illustrates the evolution of these meanings through some concrete examples of Transylvanian rurality.

One of the most fascinating examples of networked art groups in 20th century art history, the Cobra art movement (1948‒1951), disrupted the logic of center-periphery relations in art through a model of cooperation between artistic hubs, in this case, Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam, as the name of the group suggests. However, Cobra soon became a model that was easy to extend to further connections and hubs, including Scandinavia and East Central Europe. Unexpected and mutual exchanges occurred within this artistic network. The article explores these exchanges through two lesser-known episodes of Cobra’s East Central European connections. Hungarian women artists like Margit Eppinger Weisz and Madeleine Kemény Szemere became involved with the activity of Cobra, and their case studies show specific models of circulating ideas.

For most of the 20th century, Hungarian literary history disregarded decadence as a thematic or stylistic marker and refused to acknowledge that it was a significant cultural driving force of the fin-de-siècle Hungarian literature. I propose to interpret decadence not as a mere stylistic, moral or temporal category, but as a cultural trope, a modernist way of perceiving the world and creating art. I hypothesize that the Hungarian reception of French and English decadence at the end of the 19th century produced a uniquely reflexive version of this phenomenon. I aim to understand how decadence integrates into and presents itself in Hungarian literature and to uncover significant works hidden by the cultural forgetfulness of Hungarian literary history.

The paper examines heavenly letters by combining folkloristic, historical, and anthropological perspectives. First, it analyses and compares variations collected by Hungarian folklorists, critically evaluating their findings. Secondly, to reframe these interpretations and explore the character and late modern uses of the letters, the paper traces the origins of this tradition, and looks at the early medieval counterparts of the letters. Based on this brief review of their original form and function, the paper offers an anthropological reading of the communicative role of the letters. My central argument is that through the mere act of copying the metonymic relationship between the letter and the divine power is metaphorically altered, and that the act of copying gradually became an expressive, rather than a technical action. As a result, the changes in their character, the various protective functions incorporated into them or associated with their possession, can be understood as part of a process in which heavenly letters shifted from being indexes to signals.

This introduction provides an overview of the eight scholarly works published in the sixth volume of the Central Europe Yearbook

This essay seeks to explain through textual analysis of speeches and writings of key antisemitic figures of the time, how German nationalists used antisemitism as a unifying force for citizens, who were disappointed with the lack of German cultural homogeneity in the wake of German unification in 1871. Taking a distinct turn from the religious prejudice suffered by many Jews in what became the German Empire, a new form of racialized antisemitism emerged and created a legacy of racialized hatred that was most commonly associated with the Third Reich.

This research paper explores the implications of naming institutions after convicted criminals against humanity, as seen through the case of the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald in Germany. It highlights the vital importance of incorporating survivor testimonials to direct the narrative and reveal the true nature of (in this case) Alfried Krupp's crimes, while questioning the acceptance of Krupp's name as a desirable brand for the Wissenschaftskolleg in Greifswald. Furthermore, the paper delves into the larger political failures in addressing these implications effectively and aims to initiate a discussion on the role of businesses in remedying the Holocaust's horrors and ensuring the appropriate recognition of Nazi crimes. Through historical discourse and survivor accounts, this paper seeks to foster a deeper understanding of the suffering caused by Alfried Krupp and the implications of continuing to honour his name. The methodology involves an examination of the historical context, survivor testimonials, and the wider societal implications of perpetuating the recognition of Nazi crimes through institutional nomenclature.

How can we spotlight the second generation of Roma & Sinti in the German speaking world? When the Roma are discussed or invited to speak, it is typically limited to their experience with the atrocities of World War Two, and so their voices become narrowly contextualized before the backdrop of a history of persecution, especially during the Holocaust. Seldom is the attention on their culture and their own history. In a shift to focus on the art, poetry and literature of the Roma, I am hoping to empower the voices within the second generation, all those born in an era disconnected from the war. I argue that these perspectives are invaluable to the discipline of German Studies and that there is much more to this group than the discrimination and pain they have faced. Although the injustices of past and present have indeed been formative in the lives of so many Roma & Sinti, it limits the scope of what we know and can learn from them. In order to approach these questions, I will analyze and discuss a memoir and poems by a Sinteza author, musician and rights activist named Dotschy Reinhardt. Born in 1975, Reinhardt has used her voice in many ways to speak about her identity and represent her culture beyond the scope of the war. In her memoir she explores the distinctions between Sinti and Roma, her ambitions, and her connection to generations of Roma artists. She tells a new story, a different story that opens up a very different perspective from the view provided by scholarship on the Roma and Sinti. In her poems, she grapples with a continued struggle to find her own voice, like so many others in her generation interested in recovering an identity which doesn’t get served to them on a silver platter. The intended outcome of my project is to rediscover that lost voice of the Roma and Sinti and make widely available what it is saying.

This paper poses the question, “how enlightened was German-speaking central Europe around 1800?” The initial idea was to explore how marginalized groups accessed the German Enlightenment. During the process of writing, it developed into a wider exploration of female Jewish identity. This revised and lengthened paper, therefore, has become a critical analysis of civil society’s perception of Jewish female participants and their unique identity in nineteenth-century Germany.

As the Soviet historical archives became accessible to Western scholars beginning in the 1980s, renewed scrutiny was placed on the imperial-colonial policies of the Russian Empire toward its borderlands. These scholars began to interrogate the policies of the imperial administration toward ethnic and national groups in the borderlands from the imperial administrative perspective. In this essay, I geographically circumnavigate the borderlands of the Russian Empire through secondary studies published since the 1980s to understand how scholars have reinterpreted these policies since gaining access to the imperial administrative perspective. I find that they began to challenge the notion that the empire had cohesive and consistently applied policies to Russify its subjects. Instead, scholars now generally argue that policies were applied on a more ad hoc basis depending on the ethnic and national contexts of individual borderlands. Consequently, the concept of ‘Russification’ (obrusenie in Russian) became opaque, difficult to define, and inadequate in capturing the range of imperial policies toward the peoples of the borderlands. Therefore, the application of the term ‘Russianization’ is now more popular among scholars in describing non-assimilatory policies. Further distinction between the two concepts, however, is required in order to understand the full range of policies enacted toward imperial ethnicities and nationalities. Therefore, I also argue in favor of two promising new frameworks in the historiography, namely, the shifting usage of the term inorodtsy (aliens) by imperial administrators over time, and the concept of national indifference. Study of the former, I contend, would highlight the “othering” of non-dominant ethnic and national minorities. The latter permits an understanding of the limits of national constructions, thereby enabling a greater understanding of processes of national construction and, therefore, imperial responses to those constructions. Both would ultimately further clarify the historiographic distinction between Russification and Russianization.

Die Wiener Sozialdemokrat:innen der Zwischenkriegszeit wollten einen neuen sozialistischen Menschen ohne Revolution entwickeln. Dieses Ziel erforderte einzigartige und kreative Mittel welschen in der Privatsphäre der Arbeiter:innen tätig waren. Ein Instrument, das die Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs (SDAPÖ) zu diesen Zwecken nutzte, war der Arbeitersport: Eine einmalige und faszinierende Mischung aus sozialistischen Werten und einem boomenden internationalen Leistungssportverrücktheit. Diese Analyse konzentriert sich zum Teil auf die Veröffentlichungen von Julius Deutsch, dem Leiter der österreichischen Arbeitersportbewegung. Deutschs beschriebene Ziele und radikale Visionen werden dann mit der tatsächlichen Manifestation des Programms verglichen: Es wird gezeigt, dass die proklamierte Radikalität der Bewegung oft hohl war. Diese Erkenntnisse werden dann in die größere Geschichte der SDAPÖ eingeordnet.

Die Berliner Techno-Szene ist seit 2024 offiziell UNESCO Kulturerbe. Es ist für einige Menschen erstaunlich, wie die Techno-Szene in Berlin es soweit geschafft hat, für die meisten ursprünglichen und heutigen Teilnehmern der Szene ist es jedoch gar kein Wunder, denn Techno gehört schon lange zur Berliner Identität. Die Techno-Szene ist ohne Zweifel ein wichtiges Phänomen.Was aber oft übersehen wird, sind die vielen unterliegenden Spannungen, die ein mythisches Vorbild für Freiheit unterstützen. Ich hatte selber viele Erfahrungen in dieser Szene, die meine Faszination im dementsprechenden Phänomen inspirierte, worüber ich in dieser Arbeit erzählen werde und mit akademischen Quellen auch entzaubern möchte.

At the turn of the twentieth century, nationalized conflicts affected all levels of politics in the Habsburg monarchy. Since the 1890s, Polish and Czech members of the Austrian Silesian provincial diet demanded equality with Austria’s German-speaking citizens, granting them the Basic Law as two of the crownlands’ recognized nationalities. With the Moravian Compromise of 1905, which attempted to solve the national conflict between Czechs and Germans and ensured national equality on a provincial level, Czechs and Poles of Silesia called for electoral and language law reforms of a similar model. Despite many years of attempts, the Silesian diet found no national compromise. This article will provide an overview of the struggle for national equality and attempts at a national compromise in Silesia from the Moravian Compromise in 1905 until the closure of the provincial diet in 1914. By analyzing the stenographic minutes of the Silesian provincial diet, this article traces the attempts at national equalization and pacification, how members of the provincial parliament debated national equalization and pacification, and aims to identify the reasons for their failure of these attempts. Reforms of the administrative language laws and school politics to resolve national conflicts never concretized, although national conflicts heavily characterized these topics. The Viennese central government rejected two electoral reform drafts for their lack of measures to solve the national conflicts; further drafts never materialized. A Silesian Compromise never became realized in part due to the unwillingness and lack of interest to find a compromise on the side of the diet’s German majority, which was easily able to outvote its Slavic minority and refused many of their demands out of fear of losing their hegemony.

Studie se zabývá problematikou historie pěstování vinné révy a vinohradnictví v česko-slovenském prostoru, zkoumá ekonomické a ekologické aspekty v jednotlivých historických obdobích – od prvních nálezů révy přes období raného středověku, kdy se víno stalo důležitým liturgickým symbolem spojeným s christianizací, až po vrcholně středověké a novověké období, kdy se vinařství stalo významným hospodářským odvětvím. Článek diskutuje metody identifikace archeobotanických nálezů révy, které byly problematické kvůli morfologickým změnám způsobeným diagenetickými procesy. Přesnost morfometrických metod se ukázala být nízká, ale ve spojení s vizuálním hodnocením nálezů mohou být efektivní způsobem, jak odlišit pěstované formy révy od divoké. Navzdory obtížím při klasifikaci nálezů jsou archeobotanické studie důležitým zdrojem informací o historii vinohradnictví a pěstování révy v regionu.

The subject of the article is two systems of acoustic vessels from the Church of St. Gall in Myšenec, which is associated with the production of the so-called Zvíkov and Písek architectural workshop, and All Saints Church in Kovářov in South Bohemia. These vessels, built into the vault, were placed with their rim facing the interior of the presbytery and their bottom in the space of the attic at the same time as the construction of the vault and were probably intended to improve the acoustics of the interior of the presbytery. In the foreign synthesising literature, examples are described of custom-made vessels as well as secondarily used household vessels, i.e. those primarily intended for food storage. The paper aims to precisely determine the primary role of the vessels found in the two studied churches by detecting the hypothetical presence of food residues in them. Samples were taken from the inner surfaces of the vessels and their analysis showed a weak signal of casein (milk) in one case and a strong signal of gliadin (grain) in the other. The multiple potential functions of the vessels embedded in the vaults are discussed in the context of Czech examples and foreign research on acoustic vessels.

The article aims to examine the relationship between the use of longhouses and adjacent fenced areas at the Linear Pottery culture (LBK) settlement in Hostivice-Sadová. The analysis focuses on house no. 1 and 15 and the rectangular fenced areas defined mainly by single posts that were excavated next to their eastern walls. The study includes representative pottery assemblages from settlement features and construction pits dated to the two subsequent phases in the middle stage of LBK. Formation processes and the proportion of decoration style were analysed in combination with radiocarbon dating. The article also addresses whether fenced areas were later used as refuse disposal spaces. The results show that the fills of the features in the fenced areas were deposited later than the house unit assemblages were formed. In both cases, there is no significant evidence of using fenced areas later for waste disposal. Additionally, the social and economic aspects of these houses are discussed as the construction, length, fenced areas, and concentration of finds indicate their important social and economic role within the settlement.

Mnoha etapový záchranný archeologický výzkum raně středověkého přemyslovského centra ve Staré Boleslavi (střední Čechy) přinesl mimo jiné zcela nové a zásadní poznatky o vývoji jádra lokality, kde byla mezi lety 1039–1046 založena první kolegiátní kapitula v Čechách. Se založením kapituly společně s bazilikou sv. Václava a posléze románským kostelem sv. Klimenta v její bezprostřední blízkosti souvisí i přesun intenzivního pohřbívání z extravilánu k těmto kostelům. V roce 2005 zachytila sonda umístěná při kostele sv. Klimenta v bezprostřední blízkosti jižní apsidy baziliky etapový vývoj tohoto pohřebiště. Sonda je jediným místem, kde lze jednoznačně oddělit pohřby mladší, než výstavba kostela sv. Klimenta (ca 1. pol. 12. století) od starší fáze pohřbívání. Až desetinásobná superpozice hrobů byla využita pro ověření interpretace vývoje lokality a její chronologie. Analýza kombinuje archeologické a historické prameny s pravděpodobnostním modelováním radiouhlíkových dat z kosterních pozůstatků. Výsledky potvrdily správnost dříve navrženého základního členění raně středověkého vývoje lokality a její chronologie, ale také upřesnily počátek i závěr pohřbívání, které radiouhlíkový model posouvá hlouběji do minulosti, než bylo původně předpokládáno. Radiouhlíková data také naznačují, že výstavba kostela sv. Klimenta spadá spíše do doby kolem pol. 12. století, než na jeho počátek.

The objective of this project is to examine and delineate regional differences within the Kingdom of Hungary (the Carpathian Basin in geographical terms) at the end of the Middle Ages. Whereas statistical data comparable to the modern period are unavailable for the Middle Ages, regional inequalities (the economic activity or inactivity of a region) can be approximated using indirect indicators. Given the relatively well-documented settlement network of the Carpathian Basin in the Late Middle Ages and the abundance of available data that can be employed as indicators (proxies), the project will utilise this methodology to construct a database for the time around 1500. The database will be processed in order to make regional differences in the late Middle Ages visible by means of various geospatial methods. Furthermore, comparisons will be made with maps of earlier and later periods, using similar methodologies. In addition, new datasets will be incorporated into the database for the eighteenth century, comprising data from Croatia north of the River Save and church censuses. The project will conclude with the production of a series of maps that will facilitate the identification of long-term processes, including changes over time, as well as their variable and stable elements. Moreover, the identification of regions within the Carpathian Basin that are permanently developed (active) or underdeveloped (inactive) may provide new perspectives for the formulation of regional development strategies in the present.

Under the auspices of the Universitas, the common self-governing body of the Transylvanian Saxon towns and seats, the guilds’ statutes were revised between 1539 and 1582: obsolete rules were abolished, and new ones were introduced where they had not existed before. According to the literature, this process marked a turning point in the relationship between the municipal authorities and the guilds, insofar as the town councils intervened in the guilds’ internal affairs, particularly in their powers to judge misconduct and disciplinary offences. But even before the new regulations, the guilds’ powers were limited to settling disputes between members at a lower instance, and even when they formed unions for common defence or drew up common statutes, they enjoyed no greater autonomy. The paper provides an overview of the activities of the guild courts, with case studies. It seeks to show the powers the guilds had in disciplinary matters and how these changed with the growing power of local government and the use of public authority. It argues that the authorities’ intervention in the guilds’ powers was not so much a restriction as a clarification of their entitlements, while ensuring that arising cases were appropriately dealt with, and that normative regulation played an important role in this process, defining the various facts and circumstances and transferring offences such as bodily harm, counterfeiting, and fraud to ordinary courts. At the same time, the guilds retained their power to deal with minor disputes between craftsmen, insults, and moral offences; under the pressure of the Reformation and the spread of Protestant morality, their disciplinary powers were greatly extended.

This paper addresses the following question: What is the spatial pattern of the spread of the most significant consumer cooperatives in Hungary in the first quarter of a century following their establishment in 1898? Spatial pattern is employed as an indicator in order to ascertain the spatial developmental differences. My hypothesis is that organising and operating a cooperative is an indicator of community activity with the objective of attaining a superior quality of life. Although the Hangya Consumption Cooperative in Hungary received considerable support from landlords and later the state, the study indicates that local cultural patterns of organisation and the strength of traditional economic districts are significant. Concurrently, the analysis demonstrates that it is possible to delineate the role of social welfare in the establishment and functioning of local consumer organisations. On the other hand, the Hangya’s operations served to disseminate anti-Semitic ideologies. The macro-regional analysis aims to contribute to the broader investigation of peasant farm development, grassroots modernisation, and the discourse on territorial inequality.

This study examines the role and impact of migration on the formation and composition of the elite in the newly established Principality of Transylvania between 1556 and 1586, utilizing a prosopographical database compiled through extensive archival research. The new state was open to nobles fleeing the Ottoman conquest, as well as to those dissatisfied with Habsburg policies, offering peace, political prospects, and opportunities for career advancement in both government and military roles. Consequently, nearly 60 percent of the elite were newcomers, two-thirds of whom were migrant nobles, while one-third rose through social mobility. Characterized by smaller wealth, limited networks, and a tendency toward greater agility and risk-taking, the new elite were highly vulnerable. Their integration was hindered by the old elite’s reluctance to form dynastic ties. Only about 30 percent of the new families that entered the elite managed to maintain their positions long-term, across multiple generations, while a strikingly high number experienced only one or two generations of elite status. The analysis underscores the precarious nature of elite integration in early modern Transylvania and the complex dynamics of social mobility within a newly established state.

The cooperative system that emerged in Eastern Europe in the nineteenth century was very different from the much earlier processes in Western Europe. In Eastern Europe, including Hungary, the establishment and management of cooperatives was under the control of large capitalists and the state, and was closely linked to nation-building efforts. From the second half of the nineteenth century, the cottage industry movement developed with economic, nation-building, and folk-art preservation objectives. The institutional system of cottage industry included associations, alliances, central governing bodies, and cooperatives. In Hungarian academic research, cooperatives and the cottage industry movement are not linked, although both their aims and their organizations were closely related. This study reveals that the movement was integrated into the cooperative institutional system in several ways, and that the centralizing measures, that were increasingly evident in the cottage industry during the first half of the twentieth century, went hand in hand with the cooperative movement. Exploring these links is essential to understanding folk art, applied folk art, and the cottage industry cooperative system that developed from the 1950s onwards.

Martin Somogyi, a Hungarian orphan and nobleman spent nearly forty years in the service of the Habsburg dynasty, most of that time in Brussels, the capital of the Spanish Netherlands. Via the Dietrichstein and Cardona families, from his childhood he received extraordinary patronage and was a close confidant of several family members, while providing constant courtly services to them and to Albert and Isabella, archdukes and governors of the Spanish Netherlands. Ha became baron and estate owner in both Flanders and Moravia, and from Brussels he repeatedly went on diplomatic missions to Central Europe. Having spent thirty years as vice-captain of the governors’ personal guards, his patrons including Archduke Albert requested a Spanish Order of Cavalry for him, but with no effect. By the 1620s, Somogyi’s career reached its peak and his dissatisfaction was growing. Therefore, he requested from Dietrichstein his return to Central Europe, but again with no success. He died without male offspring, and his descendants still live in Belgium. Somogyi is also known for having sent to Central Europe one of the first issues of the second part of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quijote de la Mancha.

Helena Potocka offers a wonderful case study because she was a perfect representative of the high European aristocracy under French influence. Educated in a Parisian religious house, she had the culture of the young girls of the nobility of Versailles. Her matrimonial alliance with the son of the Prince de Ligne poses the problem of matrimonial strategies. Helena was both a free and rebellious spirit who believed in her ability to build her happiness with the side she chose. This is why she left Charles de Ligne; she thought she had discovered her soul mate with Vincent Potocki, but in reality, it must have been a lifelong quest. The Potocki couple are then torn between the financial resources of distant Ukraine, where the immense properties that finance them are located, and Parisian social life. Potocki’s very particular family situation triggered incessant mobility throughout his life, but this mobility had very varied motivations and was one of the main characteristics of the high European aristocracy, which had the financial means to travel to all parts of Europe. The international circulations of the aristocracy produced, within this social group, a growing cosmopolitanism: in fact, the aristocrats of the various nations of Europe rubbed shoulders and mixed more and more in the various spaces of sociability that were theirs. This worldly cosmopolitanism led to the progressive diffusion within this elite of common modes of consumption, behavior, and thought—in short, an aristocratic European Habitus.

Jean-Louis de Rabutin’s memoirs are considered a rather particular text which presents an interesting topic from the point of view of the history of noble emigration in the modern era. This author was a French nobleman who entered the imperial service in 1683 and then he participated in almost all military campaigns against the Turks and against Prince Francis II Rákóczi. His memoirs, which recount his military campaigns, were published twice by Prince Charles-Joseph de Ligne. The initial project of Prince de Ligne was the glorification of the imperial generals by publishing their memoirs. During his own emigration, in 1795, the Prince republished the memoirs of Jean-Louis de Rabutin, supplemented by his own remarks and comments referring to his own experiences. Through this mirror game, he constituted a new connection between the Count of Rabutin and himself, which permitted him to reflect his own thoughts through the publication of Rabutin’s memoirs, thus contributing to repairing the errors of the past associated with the imperial army.

Cooperatives, which abound in theoretical constructions, can be defined as associations of people who unite for a specific purpose and try to satisfy their economic needs through a democratically operated, jointly owned enterprise. However, it is an established fact that, by the end of the nineteenth century, industrial revolution and capitalism had brought many economic and social problems and manifold grave social challenges. This led to the further organizational development of self-help which, in turn, was an effective tool for shaping ethnic communities in the great trend of modernization and embourgeoisement. Self-help associations had a long tradition in the Habsburg Monarchy, including the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary, already from the first half of the nineteenth century. However, especially in the last third of the nineteenth century, the development and consolidation of cooperative networks in this Central European region went hand in hand with ethnically based cooperative self-organization controlled from above by the agrarian elites. Cooperative centres were established, which performed not only economic and social, but also national policy-related tasks, at the same time gradually monopolizing some producer-supplier areas. Certain interpretations view cooperatives as important tools of small-state economic nationalism, relegating their economic goals to the background. Focusing on the period between 1898 and 1918, this study deals with the process and stages of development in the Hungarian cooperative system in Upper Hungary, whose solid foundations were laid from the late nineteenth century onwards. Relying on archival sources, it discusses the strategies of the two most significant cooperative centres, the Országos Központi Hitelszövetkezet (National Central Credit Cooperative) and Hangya (’Ant’). In the early twentieth century, these Hungarian attempts at integration coincided with the increasingly pronounced decentralization ideas of the Slovak cooperative elite.

In the forty-two volumes of Voyageur François, ou la Connaissance de l’Ancien et du Nouveau Monde (1765–1795), Abbé Delaporte devoted a few pages to Hungary. Through fictitious letters, the polygrapher produced a compilation that provides a glimpse of what a French nobleman wishing to discover Hungary might know. This is what we propose to analyse, by considering his historical approach, which reveals his biases, by examining the picture he paints of Hungary’s towns and countryside, and then by focusing on his presentation of Hungarian customs (peoples, languages, religion, etc.).

This article examines the singular destiny of Horace Saint-Paul, a young British nobleman who served in the Imperial Army during the Seven Years’ War. While the entry of foreign nobles into the service of another nation is not surprising in the modern era, the case of Saint-Paul is particularly interesting to study because of his lightning ascension through the ranks. He managed to rise to a senior position in the general staff without any military experience. His entry into the service of an army that was part of a coalition opposed to his homeland also raises questions about the complex relationship between patriotism and cosmopolitanism in the mid-eighteenth century. His example clearly illustrates the great adaptability of the nobility in the Age of Enlightenment, for whom the context of war provided significant opportunities to move around Europe.