Forrai Ibolya szerk.: Egy pesti polgár Európában - Negyvennyolcas idők 3. (A Néprajzi Múzeum forráskiadványai 6; Budapest, 2000)

A CITIZEN OF PEST IN EUROPE (Summary)

record of what he saw. He would have liked to continue his travels in Germany and then France (even obtaining a visa for this country), and had thoughts of going on to England and perhaps even America, but he had to return home because young journeymen had become undesirable persons. The outbreak of the Hungarian revolution aroused his deepest sympathy; he felt its course to be honourable and its goals worthy. He sincerely hoped that Hungary's fate would take a turn for the better. He copied into his diary a verse by Gustav Grimm, a German poet living in Pest, who sang of the sympathy felt by the German people for the Hungarian revolution. This verse survived on a leaflet dated March 15, 1848, indicating that although it later fell into oblivion, it must have circulated in the streets of Pest at the same time as Petofi's famous National Song. The text of the Marseillaise can also be seen copied onto a separate sheet inserted into the diary. The diarist faithfully follows the events of the war of liberation and the entries reflect the pain he felt at its defeat. Years later he still preserved these sentiments. He continued writing the diary in 1850. This book gives the reader an insight into two years in the life of the educated young glass-master who had valuable intellectual and social connections and was building his professional career abroad. The second volume of the diaries has been lost. The third volume written in 1854 records his marriage and how the young man successfully launched on his career found a happy and secure family life. Alter a long silence Heinrich Giergl resumed his diary in 1863 recording his business problems and of how he was torn between the desires to be a "good family member" and a successful entrepreneur. The diary ends in 1865, and the family regards the existing diaries as its greatest treasures. The writings oi Heinrich Giergl give a many-sided picture of the career of a tradesman who raised his skills to the level of applied art and cultivated his trade on a high level even by European standards. His way of life was that of a citizen of German origin who had become iirmly established in Hungary, looking on the new country as his own and identifying with its aspirations and interests. He had ties to many points in Europe through his intellectual and practical contacts and whether as a relative, business partner or employee, he was capable of acting as a self-assured and cultivated man aware of his own interests and able to have himself accepted. As an eminent member of this characteristic social group, his life and activity contributed to establishing values of European culture in Hungary and to shaping a favourable image of Hungary abroad.