Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1980 (8. évfolyam, 23-26. szám)

1980 / 25. szám

assortment of political messages a politician of the author’s stature would and did announce. (He is prime minister, and has been the chairman of the National Council of the Hungarian People’s Front since 1954.) Not containing documentation in terms of references, the volume may be of interest to social scientists only as a compendium of statements reflecting on policies and their implementation as expressed by a politician of high office.

Koehler, Eve Eckert. SEVEN SUSANNAHS; Daughters of the Danube. The Danube Swabian Societies of the United States and Canada, 6060 N. 118th Street, Milwaukee, Wl 53225, 1977. 86 pages, maps, biblio, illus. N. p. paper

Much too little has been written in English about the ethnic and religious minorities in post-World War I Hungary. Losing 2/3 of its territory, Hungary also lost most of its nationalities in 1920 and became ethnically more homogeneous. Nevertheless, sizable minorities remained and their relationship to the majority and their life forms deserve the attention of the social sciences. Germans constituted one of the most numerous minority before and after 1920. How do they live now? What happened to those who returned to Germany or settled in North America? These are logical questions for which there are no, or only sketchy, answers. While organizations of Germans expelled from the Danube countries have been rather active in telling their story in Germany and in German (such series as the Donauschwäbische Beitrage published dozens of essays, monographs, and documentaries) nothing of the sort appeared in the English language. This book is a first, describing the history of the Danube Swabians during the past 250 years, their journey from Germany along the 1,800 miles of the Danube River, their settlement in the Danubian countries, contribution to the host cultures, and finally their tragic uprooting, deportation, and liquidation that dispersed and diminished their ranks. The structure of the presentation is rather unorthodox inasmuch as it incorporates personal and family accounts, an unusual typography, poetry, music, cartoons, photos, maps of movements and settlements, and a bibliography of English, German, and French sources.

The author, who was born at PaVi, Tolna County, came to Canada with her parents in 1927, and is now a staff member of the School of Social Welfare at the U. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

de Zayas, Alfred M. NEMESIS AT POTSDAM; THE ANGLOAMERICANS AND THE EXPULSION OF THE GERMANS.

Background, Execution, Consequences. Routlege & Kegan Paul, 9 Park Street, Boston, MA 02108,1979. Second, revised edition with foreword by Robert Murphy. 268 pages, illus, biblio. $7.95 paper.

This is a new edition of a book that describes the expulsion of 15 million Germans from most parts of Eastern Europe, a process which has received scant attention by Western scholars, and which 2 million persons have not survived. The forced transplantation of this mass of humanity has radically changed the demographic and economic map of Europe, because these millions were crowded into the greatly reduced area of present-day Germany (11 million into West Germany, and 3.5 million into East Germany), a divided country with an area smaller than California, and with a population density of 600 persons per square mile. It is astonishing that 34 years after the event so little is known in the English speaking world about this tragic event. The author attempts to remedy this situation by discussing the flight preceding the expulsion, the actual transfer and its

NO. 25, AUTUMN, 1980, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER

consequences, against the historical precedents and principles of population transfers. He pays special attention to the role and attitudes of the Western Allies and to the various meetings in which relevant decisions were made. “What can the Western democracies do today?” he asks, “Obviously, they cannot undo the damage inflicted at Potsdam, but they can and should at least acknowledge the mistakes committed there and reflect upon the causes of those failures which so completely negated the principles of the Atlantic Charter, for which the war had been fought."

The author is affiliated with the U. of Göttingen.

Kriza, Ildikó. HUNGARIAN FOLK BALLADS. Duquesne U. Tamburitzans Institute of Folk Arts, 1801 Boulevard of the Allies, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, 1980. 47 pages, musical notes, biblio. $4.00 paper (mimeo).

The ballad is a short, narrative poem relating one (occasionally two) dramatic events. The folk ballad, dating back to the 12th century was created by anonymous authors; the literary ballad dates back to the end of the 18th century. Popular definition of the ballad in Hungary was “ancient song,” “a song telling a story,” or “a long song.” These were passed along orally from one generation to the next, and altered in form if not in content from one place to another and from one age to the next. The subject matter of the ballad usually concerns human conflicts, a dramatic story told through a dialogue. Its actors are frustrated lovers, folk heroes, family members. These characteristics are fairly international, but the poetic form has a strong bearing upon the local variants. This booklet is not a scholarly treatise, but rather a general orientation on the subject with Hungarian illustrations in text and music, duly translated into English.

The author is a member of the Ethnographic Research Group of the HAS. During 1979-80she was visiting lecturer at the Duquesne U. Tamburitzans Institute of Folk Art.

Macartney, Carlile A. THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA; The Later Phase 1790-1918. Edinburgh U. Press, 22 George Square, Edinburgh, Great Britain EH8 9LF, 1978. 306 pages, maps. £7.50 cloth; £4.50 paper.

The late author leads the reader from the historical turningpoint of 1790, when Joseph II died, through the turbulent 130 years which ended in the dismemberment of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918. Joseph II strengthened absolutism and centralization of power in the monarchy, then revoked most of the measures which he imposed on Hungary before he died. Three weeks later, the Holy Crown was returned to Hungarian soil as the long and dramatic struggle for sovereignty continued. The author systematically and carefully unfolds the events which led to glory and demise of the Habsburgs, the intellectual and political forces and their protagonists, who were at work supporting cohesion within the monarchy as against those who were willing to sacrifice the system for their partisan and nationalist objectives. It was the irony of his story that Hungary could achieve full sovereignty only at the cost of virtual destruction of historical Hungary itself.

The author, who was research fellow at All Souls College from 1936 to 1965, and Montagu Burton professor of international relations between 1951 and 1957, has written intensively on the history of the Carpathian Basin. This book is actually an abridged and revised version of his The Hapsburg Empire 1790-1918. (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 91 Clapham High Street, London SW4 9TA).

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