Csengeriné Szabó Éva (szerk.): A Makói József Attila Múzeum Évkönyve 2. (Makó, 2018)

Történelem–História - Bernátsky Ferenc: Száztizenöt évesek-e a Plohn-honvédportrék?

BERNATSKY FERENC

Száztizenöt évesek-e a Plohn-honvédportrék?

Are the Soldier Portraits by Plohn really 115 years old?

One of the best-known photographers in Hódmezővásárhely was the Makó- born József Plohn (1869-1944), who, besides his ethnography-themed photographs, is also known for his portrait series of the Hódmezővásárhely’s veterans of the Revolution and War of Independence of1848-49.

For a long time, we thought that he had taken them for the invitation of the National Relic Museum in Cluj-Napoca in 1902. At that time, in honor of the centenary of Lajos Kossuth's birth and the inauguration of the statue of King Matthias, the relic museum organized a monumental exhibition of the portraits of the still living veterans of1848.

However, recent research has shown that he had already taken 84 portraits of the veteran heroes of the War of Independence from Hódmezővásárhely around 1894- 95 for an exhibition by the Relics Museum to remember the Millenium of the Founding of the State. He took another series of portraits, for the 1902 call of the Relics Museum, consisting of 72 photographs we know of. Currently, the museum holds a total of 156 soldier portraits.

In the portraits, the soldiers are mainly wearing civilian clothes, but ten soldiers were captured on film in military uniforms made in 1896 and with swords. There are two photos of Károly Csada, István Kiss, Pál Huszár, Pál Muntyán and András Szamecz. We know the names of 91 of the 151 soldiers, and we hope that we can identify as many as possible out of the sixty unknown ones.

Among the veteran heroes, one hundred and thirty-five are proudly wearing the 1848-49 Honvéd Memorial Medal, while many of them are wearing an unidentified Hungarian medal too. The mood of reconciliation with the existing political system is reflected in the fact that 13 of them pinned the medallion issued on the 50th anniversary of Franz Joseph's coronation as emperor on their chests for the photo shooting.

The collection of József Plohn's Veteran heroes of the 1848-49 War of Independence, taken in 1894-95 and 1902, is one of the largest in the country, which is an invaluable treasure of the János Tornyai Museum in Hódmezővásárhely.

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