Galambos Sándor: Az 1848–1849-es szabadságharc német szemmel - A Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg Megyei Levéltár Kiadványai II. Közlemények 25. (Nyíregyháza, 2001)

Summarie

SUMMARIE Our War of Independence of

1848—1849 with German Eyes The volume publishes a selection of contemporary articles of two newspapers: Wochenblatt and Öffentlicher Anzeiger of Iserlohn lying in North-Rhine-Westphalen. The articles deal with the Revolution and War of Independence of Hungary in 1848-1849. The fifty five articles include short news, reports, longer analysis and descriptions, character studies, letters from readers and accounts of travels. News were often taken over from other newspapers. The distance of almost 1000 kins and the undeveloped technics made the flow of correct information more difficult. Therefore quite a lot of false news and mistakes can be found. Reading the articles we can see that the German politicizing general public followed the events of the Hungarian War of Independence with interest and sympathy. The fight was considered to be an Eastern war of independence against Austrian and Russian despotism. The people of that time thought that Austria deserved to fall not only because it oppressed its peoples in its multinational empire but it also shattered the German unity. They reckoned the Hungarians to be the defenders of Western democracy and civilization in the Central-Eastern-European region. For the role of that palladium did they feel attracted towards us. Freedom, self-determination, democracy, culture - these notions were in the focus of the optics of Iserlohn and the events of this place were watched through these glasses.