Meskó Csaba: Thermal Baths - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1999)

A steam bath was usually priced at 12 dénár, and the tip due to the bath attendants was fixed at 2 krajcár; the customer was, of course, at liberty to round this sum up. For a house call, the bath master was paid according to mutual agreement. Although working as a bath master was neuer a lucrative occupation, some of them did manage to make a fortune. According to chamber records, the Sopron bath master János Pessel for instance left his heirs as much as five hundred thousand florins. [...]

In the ancient registers of Hungarian towns, one often comes across the names of bath masters. It is of some linguistic interest that bath masters were often referred to as vizmár. In the registers of Komárom, such entries can be found as Stephanus Vizmár balneator, ... Adám Hány uizmár alias bath master, etc. ”

From the beginning of the twentieth century, with the development of baths, the employment of competent staffs became a major issue. The increasing popularity of Budapest’s baths with foreign visitors necessitated that well- trained, polyglot masseurs and bath attendants be employed. The first training course was started by Professor Gyula Benczúr at the request of the Health Resort Committee, which placed the course under the interior minister’s supervision. In decree No. 138.975/1933, the interior minister recognised the launching of the course and designated ex officio a commissioned examiner to administer the final examinations. The first year, involving forty participants, was opened on 14 November 1935. In the same year, the National Association of Hungarian Baths Employees and Swimming Instructors started a six-month extension training course for 150 participants. A collection of the course lectures was issued in book form entitled A Handbook of Baths Operators, a publication which was subsidised by the Budapest Medical and Resort Centre Committee. The book discusses anatomy and physiology, massage, bathing, personal and environmental hygiene, cosmetics and dermatology, first aid and a number of practical issues including the hygiene of bathing departments or the correct behaviour with customers. Credit for setting up the first officially recognised masseur training course is also due to the same committee.

Between 1935 and 1996, the thematic content and length of the bath master/masseur training courses remained fundamentally unaltered, aside from the 1972 in13