Gerle János: Palaces of Money - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)

office became the order of the day. According to the prominence of the building to be, and in line with the dualistic principles of the age, eight eminent architects from Hungary and Austria each were invited to enter the competition. The illustrious list includes the names of almost as many architects as would make up two football teams; the Austrian side boasted the names of Ludwig Baumann, Fellner and Helmer, Karl König, Franz von Krauss, Ludvig Richter, Friedrich Schachner and Otto Wagner, while Ignác Alpár, Lipót Baumhorn, József Hubert, Korb and Giergl, Albert Kőrössy, Ödön Lechner, Artur Meinig and Ernő Schannen were on the Hungarian “team”.

The jury’s unanimous decision ended the “game” with a Hungarian victory. The first prize was awarded to Ignác Alpár, the second was won by the renowned Viennese theatre designers Fellner and Helmer (their buildings in Budapest include the former People’s Theatre, which was called the National Theatre at the time of its demolition, Somossy’s Music Hall or today’s Operetta Theatre and the Vígszínház). The third prize went to Albert Kőrössy, an architect close to Ödön Lechner’s circle, while the fourth was awarded to Karl König. The result was indeed celebrated by the Hungarian press as a national victory.

The success is not only complete because a Hungarian architect won the first prize together with the commission, but also and especially because every Hungarian entry is remarkable and far surpasses the works of the Austrian competitors. (Magyar Hírlap)

The two greatest creative architects of all the competitors were Otto Wagner and Ödön Lechner. Along with many other entries, the competitive design entered by the latter has been lost, so we have to fall back on contemporary news coverage for information about it. And yet it is worth comparing the two designs. Here is what Budapesti Hírlap said:

The work of the famous Art Nouveau architect Otto Wagner is quite fanciful. It resembles a huge dove- cote-it is elongated, and narrow with all the windows crammed one after the other. If this is what modern architecture means, then we have a long way to go until we can cherish modernity.

In any case, Wagner prepared the plans of the Vienna Postal Savings Bank in the same style, and that building

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