Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)

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ment over this matter, of which we are all the more reassured since the Prime Minister recently held out a positive prospect of lightening the financial burdens of the capital. As concerns cultural questions, I declare my firm and ineradicable belief, present in all my activities up to this moment, and which accompanies me to the mayor’s chair, that the future happiness and existence of the capital, and indeed of the entire nation, depends in the possibilities of moulding and educating, with the tools of Hungarian national culture, the broad mass of the people to a strong public spirit and intensive, well-organized economic activities. At a time when the fate of the country and the capital will soon in fact be placed in the hands of the people through the extension of democratic rights is it not to the para­mount interest of Hungarian society, and the capital, that the people should as soon as possible attain that degree of civilization which enables them to judge public purposes cor­rectly and exert a proper influence on the conduct of public affairs? I am confident that with the support of the honourable General Assembly we shall in future increasingly bene­fit from the sacrifices our capital has made in the promotion of popular culture. Such extensive, persistent and intense cultural work is the surest basis and the surest instrument for the creation of a great and powerful Budapest with a happy population, and of an economically and politically independent Hungary. Pesti Levéltár [Archives of the City of Budapest ], Közgyűlési jegyzőkönyv [ Minutes of the General AssemblyJ, June 19th 1906. XIII Excerpts from the Ministerial Preamble to Act XXIX of 1908 1908 ___Most flagrant is the undesirable situation revealed by the housing conditions of our capital. It is common knowledge that a major housing shortage has developed in Budapest in recent years. Apart from any other economic reason, the swift and indeed abnormal rise in rents must be ascribed to this fact in the first place. It is enough to point out that while rents went up by 14 million crowns in Budapest in the last three years, the number of tene­ments and of flats in general increased at an insignificant rate during the same period, because building came to an almost complete stop. And the explanation of the fact that the money spent on rent is in most cases out of proportion to the incomes earned by the citizens of the capital, may certainly also be ascribed to this fact. But the housing shortage, connected with the considerable increase in the population of the capital and the dispro­portionate rise in rents, has led to another anomaly: namely overcrowding in flats. It is only too natural that these grave consequences of expensive and unsatisfactory flats, have most affected precisely that social class whose limited financial situation afforded them no protection. Some part of our workers, whose better earnings made the additional costs of travel bearable, have taken refuge in neighbouring villages, where increasing demands have also led to an excessive increase in rents; and the other, I should say larger, part has been forced to endure all the consequences of this shortage. Cellars, garrets, stables and all sorts of unthinkable holes put together for housing animals have become shelters for hu­mans; beds intended for one provide the night’s rest for four or five, one room often serves 97

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