Századok – 1997

Tanulmányok - Gergely András: A magyar ügy és a magyar diplomácia Frankfurtban1848 nyarán V/991

1018 GERGELY ANDRÁS Jean, il le transmit au 26 août à Reichsverweser pour rendre formelles les relations. De la partie allemande la délégation de député ne se réalisa pas, ainsi que la proposition d'alliance concrète de la partie hongroise envisageant l'établissement mutuel d'un contingent de secours de cent milles contre une attaque interne ou externe des Slaves ne fut pas prise en considération. Au début d'octobre la partie allemande retira l'approbation du député hongrois par la suite de l'action ferme du gouvernement de Vienne. Près du sentiment „hungarofil" constant l'intérêts aux Hongrois s'abaissait. La partie gauche de l'église Paul apportait de la critique sur la situation des nationalités en Hongrie, la partie droite se méfiait d'assister à la désorganisation de l'Empire des Habsbourgs. Le gouvernement de Vienne hésitant encore à l'été de 1848, à partir de septembre prit décidément l'initiative et parvint à avoir les mains libres de réorganiser son empire sans avoir affaiblir ses positions à Francfort. Là on établit la notion de base de „l'union personnelle" dans la constitution impériale qui envisageait des relations lâches, de caractère de l'union personnelle entre les pays allemands et non-allemands. Pourtant tout cela ne ligota qu'en principe le gouvernement viennois, car il devenait de plus en plus clair qu'il n'y avait pas de soutient remarquable derrière Francfort, ni interne ni externe. Par conséquent la Hongrie dût seul, plus ou moins isolée, assumer la guerre de l'autodéfense après l'intervention croate. László Szalay quitta Francfort pour essayer d'influencer l'opinion publique en Angleterre. HUNGARIAN DIPLOMACY AND THE HUNGARIAN CAUSE IN FRANKFURT IN THE SUMMER OF 1848 by Gergely András Summary The foreign political interests of the liberal centre of the Frankfurt National Assembly and the liberal government of Hungary coming to power in April, 1848 coincided in the spring of that year owing to the common fear of the „Slav threat", i.e., of Russian intervention and the revival of Slav movements in the two countries (those of the Czechs in German and mostly of Croats and Serbs in Hungarian territories). In May, 1848 the Hungarian government sent „government commissaries" or emissaries to bring about an alliance between the German central power just in the formation and the already existing Hungarian one. Both the Hungarian and the German liberal politicians counted on the German provinces of Austria to join the efforts at the unification of the German lands and get, so to say, dissolved in Germany allowing Hungary to become the central power of her region in alliance with Dalmatia and Galicia and to consolidate it. (For further details see A Frankfurt-Budapest szövetség kialakulása 1848 tavaszán [The Alliance of Frankfurt and Budapest in the Spring of 1848] in the 1996:5 issue of Századok by the same author.) From the spring of 1848 Hungary was represented in Frankfurt by László Szalay, who had been given credentials to be presented to the government of Archduke John formed in the summer of 1848. The credentials were presented to the Reichsverweser on August 26, establishing official relations between the two authorities. However, the Germans did not send a minister to Hungary and refused to consider also the Hungarian offer of a definite alliance involving mutual military support in case of an inner revolt or a Slav attack from abroad in the form of an army of hundred thousand soldiers. What is more, in early October they even revoked the recognition of the Hungarian minister under Austrian pressure. Although the pro-Hungarian feelings of Frankfurt remained unchanged, the interest in Hungarian politics was slackening. The left wing of St Paul's church criticized the policy towards the nationalities, while the right wing refrained from contributing to the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire. In the summer of 1848 the Vienna government was still hesitating but from September on it managed to take the initiative again and was given full power to reorganize the empire without weakening its positions in Frankfurt. Although Frankfurt included the principle of personal union into the German imperial constitution, which meant that the German and non-German territories of the empire were to be connected only by the person of a common ruler. This presented, however, only a theoretical problem to Vienna, since it was obvious that Frankfurt had no real support either at home or abroad. Hungary was forced to defend itself alone from September, 1848, following the Croat attack. László Szalay left Frankfurt for England where he hoped to influence public opinion in favour of Hungary.