150 years ago/November 17, 1873

The Birth of a Metropolis

This year the 150th anniversary of the birth of Budapest, the capital of Hungary, is celebrated. The unification of Buda, Óbuda (part of today District III), Pest and the Margaret Island – according to the Act XXXVI of 1872 – was a process which lasted for about a year. The official end was a ceremonial general meeting of the newly elected representatives and officials on November 17, 1873, and this date was accepted as the “birthday” of the city. After the unification, the city developed fast, however, the history of the 20th century left its footprints on it. After the Second World War there was a bigger expansion, and today Budapest has twenty-three districts.

The first, well-documented settlement in the area belonged to the Roman Empire. After subjugating the local celt population in the 1st century AD, military and civil settlements were built as part of the limes, later as the capital of Pannonia Inferior. The name of the town was Aquincum, and its most prosperous time was around the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Even Emperor Marcus Aurelius spent some time here. However, as the Roman control was weakening, the settlements were abandoned, and the ruins were used in the next centuries by the different peoples who occupied the region for a while, Huns, different German tribes, and the Avars. Today, you still can see many of this ruins – which mostly located in today District III –, and for me the most interesting part is the Florián Square where you can see them standing free between ten-storey blocks of flats, next to a modern interchange, bus and tram stops, the market, a mall, and a fast food restaurant.

After the Roman Empire there wasn’t anyone who could occupied the territory for longer time. The centre of the empire of Attila the Hun was in the Carpathian Basin – some tradition says that the name “Buda” has a Hun origin –, but after his death it collapsed, and different German tribes took over the power. They were followed by the Avars who had their state for about 250 years. Around 900 the Magyar/Hungarian tribes arrived, and gradually captured the Carpathian Basin. This process is remembered as “honfoglalás” (“taking of the homeland”) in the Hungarian tradition.

The importance of the region of today Budapest was recognised by the newcomers, and, according to the tradition, the leader of the Hungarian tribes, Árpád had chosen this area as headquarters. The name of the Csepel Island (and Csepel is the name of today District XXI, which located on the island) is connected to the first Hungarians in the region. However, it took a time until Buda – and Pest – became the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom. It has serious competitors like Székesfehérvár, were the kings were crowned for centuries, Esztergom, the central of the Christianity in Hungary or Pozsony (today Bratislava, capital of Slovakia), which served as a capital of the Hungarian Kingdom from the 16th century to 1848.

During the Mongol invasion – 1241-1242, “tatárjárás” in the Hungarian tradition – both Óbuda and Pest was scorched. After his return, King Béla IV (1235-1270) built a castle in Buda, and the town became an important commercial centre soon. During the reign of Matthias (Corvin) I (1458-1490) it was developed significantly, because he planned to establish a renaissance royal court here. Pest became an important market town for this time as well. However, only 50 years after the death of Matthias I, Buda and Pest, as well as a big part of the Hungarian Kingdom, fell into the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

The reconquest of Buda by an all-European Christian army in 1686 was an important step to expel the Ottomans from the Hungarian Kingdom and showed the first signs of the decline of the Ottoman Empire (which lasted two more centuries). However, the siege devastated Buda and Pest again. And, after the Ottoman Empire, the Hungarian Kingdom became a part of the Habsburg Empire, and Hungarians fought two unsuccessful war of independence (1703-1711, 1848-1849) against them.

During the Habsburg period the reign of Empress Maria Theresa – Queen of the Hungarian Kingdom 1740-1780 – did much for the development of Buda, moved important institutions there, and the Buda Castle was reconstructed. The unification of Buda and Pest was mentioned first in the so called reformkor – Hungarian Reform Era –, when the Hungarian leaders – mostly members of the nobility –, influenced by the new ideas of nationalism and liberalism, started to urge the modernization of the Hungarian Kingdom, inside or outside the Austrian Empire. One of the first step was a permanent bridge between Buda and Pest. The Széchenyi lánchíd (Lánchíd, Széchenyi Chain Bridge) was built according to the plans of the English William Tierney Clark. The construction was supervised by the Scottish Adam Clark, after whom a square was named which leads to the bridge at its end in Buda. (The bridge was renovated recently, and, because of the political confrontation between the Mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, who surprisingly defeated István Tarlós – backed by the government – in 2019, the “nationalist” Hungarian government didn’t contribute to the expenses of the renovation.)

Pest and Buda had an important role in the Hungarian Revolution and Independence War. The demonstration, organized by the revolutionary youth on March 15, 1848, had a remarkable contribution to the success of the political struggle lead by Lajos Kossuth. However, because the military situation, the Hungarian government had to leave Buda and Pest, and moved to Debrecen at the beginning of 1849. Few months later, the conclusion of the successful Spring Campaign of the Hungarian army – often referred as “dicsőséges tavaszi hadjárat” i. e. Glorious Spring Campaign – was the siege and capture of Buda May 4-21, 1849. Despite the success, the situation soon became hopeless for the Hungarians, when the Russian Empire intervened on the side of the Habsburgs. For this reason, the decree of Prime Minister Bertalan Szemere – on June 24, 1849 – about the unification of Buda, Pest and Óbuda didn’t go into effect.

After the Revolution and War of Independence of 1848-1849, the Habsburgs first tried to break the Hungarian opposition by force, however, after losing their territories in Italy and the failure of 1866 they had to find a different way to secure the region. They found partners in the Hungarian political leaders, and in 1867 the so called “kiegyezés” (Austro-Hungarian Compromise) opened a new chapter of development within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, often referred as “Boldog békeidők” (“Happy Times of Peace”). The unification happened in this era, and the new capital, Budapest developed fast, as well as its population was growing significantly. In this period the Országház (Hungarian Parliament Building), the Opera (Hungarian State Opera House), the first underground in the Continental Europe, the “Nagykörút” (Grand Boulevard) and many other building and road was built which give the character of today Budapest. In this period were the Celebrations of the Millenium, the 1000th anniversary of the "honfoglalás".

The ”Happy Times of Peace”, however, ended and it was followed by a conflict never seen before. The First World War and its aftermath had changed Hungary forever. The tragedy and the consequences of the defeat, the revolution and the Treaty of Trianon caused not healing wounds to the Hungarian nation. Also, many refugees came from the neighbouring countries, who had to be accommodated, mainly in Budapest. A legacy of this era as well that some political forces tried and tries to divide the “cosmopolitan” Budapest and the traditional Hungarian countryside – sometimes very successfully, unfortunately. One of the most interesting part of Budapest, the “Wekerletelep” (Wekerle estate), which is a part of District XIX today, was finished in this period.

The era between the two world wars, usually referred as “Horthy-korszak” (the Horthy Era), named after the Regent of the Hungarian Kingdom, Miklós Horthy. After the First World War, Hungary remained a kingdom, but without a king. The last Habsburg, Károly IV (King of the Hungarian Kingdom 1916-1918) tried to reclaim the throne, but he was stopped in the Battle of Budaörs (October 23-24, 1921), near to Budapest, and the Habsburgs were dethroned. The governments of the era had achievement in recovering from the shock of the First World War and the Treaty of Trianon – and the Great Depression in the1930’s –, but two menacing features lead to another tragedy: the revisionism and the growing antisemitism. The revisionism, the refusal of the Treaty of Trianon drove Hungary in the German alliance in the 1930’s. The growing hatred towards the Jewish community was a prelude to the Hungarian Holocaust which caused the disappearance of the Jewish communities of the Hungarian countryside. The Jewish people had an important role in the development at the end of the 19th century, and even in the development of Budapest, however, some people didn’t like that some Jewish entrepreneur gained significant wealth, and that the Jewish people were highly represented in the white collar jobs. The first antisemitic law was the so called numerus clausus. At the end of the 1930’s and during the Second World War new antisemitic laws were made, and many decrees, particularly in 1944-1945. Emblematic building of the Hungarian Jewish community is the Dohány Street Synagogue in the District VII.

The Second World War, probably, was more devastating for Hungary and Budapest. The military losses, the disaster of the Hungarian Second Army at the Don, the air raids of the Allies from 1944, the Holocaust, the military operations on Hungarian territory from the autumn of 1944 to April 1945, the reign of the Arrow Cross Party (from October 15-16, 1944), the Siege of Budapest, the atrocities against the civil population by the militants of the Arrow Cross Party and the Red Army caused much suffering.

Until 1944 the war was relatively distant and didn’t really disturb the daily life. However, when the Eastern Front approached to the borders of Hungary, and after the German occupation of Hungary (March 18-19, 1944), and the starting of the regular air raids, the war became more and more reality. The ghettoization and mass deportation – the first deportation happened in the summer 1941 – of the Jewish community from April 16, 1944 was one of the most shameful event of the Hungarian history. The Jewish community of Budapest only escaped, because Regent Miklós Horthy, after the pressure of foreign diplomats and illustrious Hungarian people, decided to stop the deportation. However, they suffered the often cruel and inhuman “munkaszolgálat” (“labour service”), the death marches in the autumn of 1944. The decree about the Budapest Ghetto was issued on November 29, 1944, the members of the Jewish community had to move in at the beginning of December. It was liberated by the Soviet troops on January 17-18, 1945. A memorial, “Cipők a Duna-parton” (“Shoes on the Danube Bank”) was erected to the Jewish people massacred during this period by, mainly, Arrow Cross Party militants. We also have to mention the rescuing and self-rescuing activities, by Raoul Wallenberg, Giorgio Perlasca, Carl Lutz and others.

The Siege of Budapest has different starting dates. The city was encircled on December 25, 1944. The military operations finished in Pest January 17-18, 1945, and the siege ended on February 13, 1945. The destruction was enormous, the bridges were blown up, the often door-to-door combat didn’t spare many houses, not to mention the artilleries and the air raids. It took years to recover from the ruins, and much longer time to recover from the horror and atrocities suffered during and after the siege.

While the German occupation and the war finished in April 1945, the following years the Soviet occupation consolidated in Hungary, and lasted until the change of regime in and around 1989. In 1956 – 23 October-4 November, 1956 – the Hungarian people tried to get rid of the Soviet occupation, but it didn’t get support from abroad, and, at last was unsuccessful. The important events mainly happened in Budapest, and the resistance lasted here the longest. After the retaliation the leaders of the so called “Kádár-korszak” (“Kádár Era”, named after János Kádár, the Secretary General of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party) tried to make a deal with the Hungarian population by securing a relatively good standard of living for the acceptance of the regime in turn.  Hungary became the “legvidámabb barakk” (“the Happiest Barrack”) of Eastern Bloc. After the Second World War many people from the countryside migrated to Budapest, and it caused a problem, that about one fifth or more of the Hungarian population lives in or around the capital. During 1988-1990, after the collapsing of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, a change of regime happened in Hungary, with a weak democratic system, but after the landslide victory of the Fidesz and Viktor Orbán in 2010, they launched an attack against the democratic institutions, building a dictatorial power dubbed it “illiberal democracy”. One of the strongest opposition against his system is in the capital, which they revenged by cutting the incomes of Budapest and permanently attacking the mayor in their overwhelming propaganda.

(Mayor Gergely Karácsony about the 150th birthday of Budapest)