Dénes Iván Zoltán: Szekfü Gyula magántanári képesítésének ügye 1914-1916 - Fejezetek az Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem történetéből 2. (Budapest, 1976)

The case of Gyula Szekfü's recognition as honorary lecturer (privat-docent) 1914–1916

- 72 those who conform to the Habsburg power and those who are consistently opposed to it, because partial approval of an agreement and setting up the opponent as an example are incompatible with each other, Szekfü, however, reconciles in a very effective way the conflicting facts by setting up the conformists as examples and estimating the less positively judged adversaries and in this way he is able to resolve the inherent contradiction, though within the false circle built on an antidemocratic basis. Both points of view oversimplified historical reality. In connection with this political scandal Szekfü and his conservative supporters also created false mechanisns against the attackers who had suffered imaginary or real injuries. The clear-sighted critics perceived this when they protested against Szekfü*s calumniation, but they also drew his attention to the one-sidedness of his views. The main reasons for the simplified viewpoints can be traced back to the antidemocratic conditions which caused repressed passions to accumulate. The recognition was postponed for three years, but was finally concluded in a lawful way. Yet this lawfulness itself produced these exterior distortions. This is the most striking in the official requirement which combines scholarship with sentimental /ideological/ motives.

Translated by É, Stephanides