Darkó Jenő – Erdősi Péter (szerk.): Történeti tanulmányok - Studia Comitatensia 32. (Szentendre, 2011)

Kovács Annamária: Egy kiállítás margójára. József Attila emlékkiállítás a Dunakanyarban

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Abstracts

liberty, belonged to the followers of the Reformed faith. The pastor of the Protestant church, Reverend József Takács, had an important political and social role in the town during the decades before World War I. The author, who analyzed several questions of the society of Cegléd in her previous essays, examines the varieties of the relationship between the pastor and the local society in this text, translated into Hungarian from her essay originally published in Japanese language in Japan in 2004.

KATALIN FORRÓ

Coffee houses in Vác (1867—1918)

The spread of coffee houses took place during the second half of the nineteenth century in the towns of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. In the small town of Vác, coffee houses were centred around the main square, at the busiest junction points. By 1888, there were six of them: this number, relatively high by local standards, reflects the progress of middle-class life standards in the town. Cafés became an organic part of the town’s life and their owners were honoured members of urban society. Some of them operated their coffee houses only for a short time, but there were dynasties or families of coffee house owners as well, and widows usually continued running the business. Since owners did their best to make their venues popular, coffee houses got gradually enlarged and decorated. There was background music and sometimes evening shows were added to the programme. Besides short reports and advertisements published in the local press, owners used a particular method of marketing: they advertised their venues on train timetables published season by season in order to call the attention of visitors coming into town. The most important coffee houses, EMKE and Műcsarnok, were represented on postcards. The illustrations of the essay show a selection of this visual material.

SÁNDOR GYURA

Craftsmen and merchants in Cegléd: their economic conditions during the interwar period. A study based on primary sources and the local press

The industry and trade of Cegléd between the World Wars consisted mainly in the work of small craftsmen and merchants. Their livelihood considerably depended on the general economic conditions of the town, and the level of trade was limited by the closeness of Budapest, the Hungarian capital. The structure of the properties

and incomes of these entrepreneurs is rather difficult to analyze in detail because of the lack of archival sources. However, the lists of the greatest taxpayers of the town indicate the economic and social position of craftsmen and merchants belonging to the urban elites. The so- called credit information reports issued by the Hungarian National Bank reveal the property structure of some representatives of the social layer in question. Craftsmen, merchants and the families involved both in craft and trade were characterized by different property structures. If craftsmen and merchants demanding credit had no cover in real estate, they could get credit from the state, but it could be covered by only a small amount of capital. Small entrepreneurs had serious problems because of taxes, contributions and wage costs which were very high as compared with their incomes. Competition was harsh. Members of the trade association often complained against peddlers, unlicensed craftsmen and the workshops maintained by public-utility and local government companies. Competition involved the issue of Sunday work too. The advent of the Hangya (“Ant”) Co-operative, a nationwide organization, hurt the leather-workers’interests. The craftsmen’s main rivals were large-scale industry and especially cartels. They tried to counteract the high costs of primary materials by establishing their own co-operatives, and popularized their products with events like the „Hungarian Week” or the „Days of Cegléd”-with small success. In wartime economy, the restrictions of primary materials made the conditions of craftsmen and merchants even more difficult.

BALÁZS ABLONCZY

“Virtute vinces”. The history of the French secondary school in Gödöllő (1938-1948)

The plan of founding a lycée for Hungarian students was drawn up in 1934 in the context of French cultural expansion in interwar Central Europe and met approval from the Francophile segments of Hungarian elites. After a four-year long negotiation between the French and the Hungarian state on issues such as funding and pedagogical control, the new institute was opened in 1938 as the French-language section of the secondary school for boys led by the Premonstratensian Order in Gödöllő (Pest County). The Hungarian ministry of culture promised financial support and accepted the principle of employing a number of French native speakers as teachers. In the years to follow, tensions emerged between the Premonstratensians and Hungarian cultural authorities: the former intended to enlarge the institute’s sphere of action and possibly to set up