Mihály Lieb or Mihály Munkácsy? Developing Cultural Identity in Hungary's German National Minority Schools (original) (raw)
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ETHNIC AND CLASS IDENTITY FORMATION WITHIN THE GERMANS OF HUNGARY
The National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, 2006
This report focuses on the reasons why the three largest German-speaking minority groups in Hungary, reacted so radically different to the partitioning of the Hungarian Kingdom following the end of World War One. When Hungary was partitioned, the Zipsers who were now under Czechoslovak administration wanted to become part of Hungary again, the Saxons who were part of Romania celebrated their divorce from Hungary, and the Schwabs were unhappy with being in Hungary. The Germans who were out wanted back in, others who were out were celebrating their exit, and those Germans who remained in Hungary wanted out. What explains such vastly different reactions? Why is one German group patriotic, while the other two disillusioned with the Hungarian state? How different were these German groups? In studying the different reactions of these three different German-speaking groups, this essay will evidence that a strong correlation exists between the class position of each group and the type of ethno-national identity they develop. Or in other words, class plays a profound influence in ethno-identity formation.
John C. Swanson. Tangible Belonging: Negotiating Germanness in Twentieth-Century Hungary
Hungarian studies review, 2021
It is easy in today's Hungary to live blissfully unaware of the long history of German Hungarian presence and culture in the country. The relative invisibility of German Hungarians and their past is replicated in their almost complete absence in English-language literature, except for some treatment in the context of postwar expulsions. John Swanson's award-winning study 1 not only redresses this lacuna but also constitutes a major intervention into debates on minority issues, nationalism, and identity both in theory and across other geographical contexts. In his opening lines, Swanson states that his purpose is "to question the notion that Germans are Germans. " Such easy categorizations, he argues, "ignore the temporality of historical knowledge" (ix). His subsequent use of the term in quotation marks, at least in introducing his position, parallels the rendering of the term "the Jew" by French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard and, subsequently, many others. This allows Swanson to escape "the nationalist assumption that 'Germans' and similar groups are homogenous, bounded, and clearly distinguishable from other such groups" (5). He sees them instead not as "an actual group" but rather as "a representation of arenas teeming with competing interests" (8). Groups, he notes, "are variables, not constants" (9). Swanson develops his theoretical orientation with reference to many of the leading lights of nationalism studies, relying especially on Benedict Anderson's concept of "imagined communities" and Rogers Brubaker's "triadic nexus, " and building on Tara Zahra's notion of "national indifference, " though going beyond the dichotomy the latter implies. While this resistance to definition remains in tension throughout his study, it opens up a new and productive orientation that allows his unique method to flower. That method is as much as possible ethnographic and is based to a great extent on extended in-depth interviews with subjects in Hungary and Germany who recount their family histories and details of everyday life in their youth and in family lore. Supplemented by published and unpublished local (village) histories, interwar ethnographies, church logbooks, and other local archival documents, these ethnographic sources make possible what Brubaker would call a "cognitive approach. " At the same time, Swanson
Identity Preservation and Hungarian Language Education in Diaspora Communities
Hungarian Cultural Studies, 2019
The main aim of our research is to provide an overview of what role language education plays in how Hungarians living in diaspora communities preserve their cultural identity. To this end we compared three Hungarian schools from three continents (North America, South America and Australia), selected by a sampling based on geographical location. We compared the similarities and differences between their educational methods according to factors predetermined by the research group. By reviewing the extant, but limited literature on this topic, the authors studied the present situation of Hungarians living abroad and the actual questions of identity preservation with special regard to language learning and preservation. These results present a detailed image of language education within the Hungarian diaspora. We also compared the educational methodology employed by the three schools based on different statistical data, such as the number of students, their cohort, student motivation as well as the role of partner institutions in the preservation of Hungarian identity. This study introduces the similarities and differences among institutions located far from one another. The main differences concerned the number of students and their motivation. We aim to give an overview of the current situation while discussing the challenges these communities face and possible opportunities for the continued preservation of their cultural identity.
Hungarian Studies Yearbook
The latest research conducted in the Hungarian community of the City of Zagreb has shown that the Hungarian language is slowly losing its communication functions in informal domains (family, friends, the sphere of intimacy) and is withdrawing before Croatian, i.e., that language shift is in progress. As one of the key factors affecting language shift, school is mentioned as support in families in intergenerational language transmission and language preservation in the community. Croatia has ensured an institutional framework for education in minority languages to its minorities through a series of regulatory acts. However, exercising this right is often followed by numerous difficulties. In case of the Hungarian minority, this is due to geographical dispersity. Nevertheless, during the 1990s, a Hungarian group in kindergarten, a bilingual class and nurturing language for primary- and secondary-school pupils were launched in Zagreb. In order to obtain a clearer image of how various...
This article seeks to explore the ways of interpreting the historical role of Germans and Hungarians in history textbooks used in primary and secondary schools in Slovakia in the interwar period, from 1918 until 1939. Historical narratives presented in school history textbooks contribute, alongside the family, media and public life, and rituals, to forming the way young people perceive the world around them. They are also one of the main tools for the social production of stereotypes of the Other. Fearing the Other is widespread in present-day Slovakia, and although the reason for this situation has been ascribed to the recent economic and current refugee crises, this paper argues that negative responses to the Other are also partially a by-product of the ethnocentric and etatist character of history education. This approach has its roots in nineteenth century historiography, reflecting the rise of nationalism and nation-building movements that characterized the contemporary social and political context. At that time, the purpose of national historiographies was to defend the historical right of each nation to establish and maintain its own state. Historians emphasized the "golden age of the nation" to prove the historical excellence and exclusiveness of the nation and concurrently identified enemies (the Other), who were often described as an obstacle in the development of one's own nation. This perspective in history education has been present in official schooling until the present, surviving in different social and geopolitical conditions. The tense diplomatic relations Czechoslovakia had with Germany and Hungary after the end of WWI and the Paris Peace Conference and the fact that the two nations represented the most significant ethnic minorities within the borders of Czechoslovakia meant that they also became the most notable Other in historical narratives produced by Czech and Slovak historiographies of that time. The dissolution of Austria-Hungary, the establishment of Czechoslovakia, and the reconfiguration of power and ethnic relations in the newly formed state affected different levels of public life, including the educational system. Schooling had to be reorganized so that it would fit the ideological needs of the new state. A new national master narrative had to be adopted for use in the primary and secondary history education, reinforcing the Czechoslovak aspect and reinterpreting the German and Hungarian influences on the national past. The presented research is based on the study of stereotypes – generally shared impressions, images, or thoughts existing within certain groups of people about the character of a particular group of people and their representations. Stereotypes are common social phenomena; they help us in orienting ourselves in the society in which we live, and they save our time and energy when trying to establish a mental map of the world around us. In times of conflict, however, stereotyping and labeling the Other can become especially prevalent and harmful. Stereotypes presented in textbooks are examined as politically motivated efforts to present one's nation as the exceptional one, as is discussed by social identity approach focusing on the genesis of conflict between social groups. Realistic conflict theory, which analyzes intergroup rivalry, will help in explaining stereotypes in textbooks as the outcomes of the competition between two nations. The process of creating negative stereotypes about the other nation in textbooks will be viewed in the context of periods of economic or social instability, which relates to scapegoat theory providing an explanation for the correlation between times of relative social or economic despair and prejudice towards outgroups. The article seeks to prove that the motivations behind state-produced prejudices against the members of other nations are driven by the need to present one's own group (the nation) superior to the Other, which has been a reaction to the competition between the two groups, economic frustration or social crises. The article employs
Cultural representations of minorities in Hungarian textbooks
Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 2005
This article reports research analyzing cultural representations of minorities in Hungarian elementary school textbooks currently used throughout the country. A convenient sample representing more than 75% of first and fourth grade reading books was collected from three academic and public libraries in Hungary. Using content analysis techniques, images and stories from first and fourth grade spelling, reading and literature books were analysed for the presence of ethnic or national minorities or cultural 'others.' Findings demonstrate that minorities receive almost no attention within Hungarian school textbooks, and when they are represented, it occurs in narrowly defined or stereotypical ways. We focus attention on the portrayal of Roma in the sample and compare our findings with published data indicating that Roma are the victims of prejudice and discrimination in everyday life. We argue that school textbooks be viewed as cultural objects that affect relations between the majority and minorities, rather than merely as a by-product of pre-existing social relations.
The High School Journal, 2014
This study aims to understand ways in which Hungarian high school students describe and articulate their civic identity, as members of varied civic communities. We conducted our study in Romania, an emerging democracy with an Hungarian national minority, as it provides a unique opportunity to examine the development of a democratic civic identity in increasingly transnational spaces. We situated our site school as a figured world where students and teachers constructed a place to cultivate and preserve Hungarian identity within an interdependent world. Findings suggest that the figured world of the school provided a space for students in which their Hungarian heritage is preserved and cultivated through language and tradition. Further, students expressed a sense of agency when describing their educational and professional opportunities, allowing them to envision a future built on their own terms. The implications for civic education in Romania, other emerging democracies, as well as the United States and other diverse nations, speak mainly to the notions of hybridity of ethnicity and heritage as youth begin to explore these identities in their own individual terms as well as in the official spaces of schooling.
Cultural Identity Components – Romanian Parents and German School
2016
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