Baják László Ihász István: The Hungarian National Museum History Exhibition Guide 4 - The short century of survival (1900-1990) (Budapest, 2008)
Room 17. The Hungary of Trianon from the Election of the Regent to the Last Year of Peace (1920-1938). László Baják
As a result of the state education programme illiteracy dropped from 15% to 10%, and in the longer run to 4% by the end of the period. Klebelsberg also did much in the interests of restructuring higher education and academic life. In Budapest he created the College of Physical Education and a sports swimming-pool on Margaret Island, following the design of Alfréd Hajós, so that we are justified in also regarding him as Hungary's first Minister of Sport. There was definitely a connection between these activities and the sensation Hungary made when it won ten gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games, putting it in third place in the national listings. Klebelsberg resited the universities salvaged from Pozsony (today Bratislava, Slovakia) and Kolozsvár (today Cluj-Napoca, Romania) in Pécs and Szeged. Szeged has other reasons for being grateful to Klebelsberg, for it was there that the impressive group of buildings was constructed to house the Csanádi Bishopric and Theological College which had fled from Temesvár (today Timisoara, Romania). The theatrical environment of the Dóm square made it apt for putting on open air productions. Kuno Klebelsberg invited to the university Albert Szent-Györgyi, who among other things won the Nobel Prize in 1937 for discovering Vitamin C. But among the several Hungarian Nobel Prizewinners Szent-Györgyi practically counted as an exception, for he alone was actually living in Hungary when the award was given. The economy of the country, with both its territories and tolerance hacked away and diminished could employ far fewer academics and technical innovators that it had been able in its earlier condition. The bulk of the important Hungarian inventions were created or produced abroad, among them Kálmán Kandó's first electric train, György Jendrassik's gas turbine, Dénes Mihály's picture transmitter, John von Neumann's computer or C. Peter Goldmark's colour television. A number of creative spirits and artists, from Alexander Korda to László Moholy Nagy, also lived abroad. The Observatory on Sváb-Hegy, Budapest and the Biological Research Centre can also thank their existence to the Minister of Culture. Attachment by Hungary to international cultural and intellectual life served to establish Hungarian institutes abroad, in Vienna, Berlin, Zurich and Paris. In Klebelsberg's own words, "We must also ensure... that a sufficient number of men, and particularly specialists, wholly meet European standards in every operative sphere...so that we may find support in strengths of the first order." Thanks to the National Scholarship Council, around 150 students annually received the opportunity to study abroad. The authority of Kuno Klebelsberg is clearly shown in that besides sorting out economic problems, he was able to have more revenue turned to education and culture in Hungary than either the Monarchy or the successor states. In motivating the decision to make him an honorary citizen of the town of Kecskemét, the minister's merits were expressed thus: "With the expressed deepest respect to the greatest Hungarian statesman, His Excellency Dr. Count Kuno Klebelsberg of Thumburg, Hungarian Royal Minister for Religion and Public Education, Member of Parliament, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, possessor of numerous Hungarian and foreign orders: for setting in order the condition of the country's public culture, for spreading the good name of
