A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 50. (Nyíregyháza, 2008)

Helytörténet - Varga János: Kölcsey 1938-as exhumálás a Csiszár Árpád szerepe az újratemetésben és a Hármashatár folyóiratban

Exhumation of Ferenc Kölcsey in 1938 Role played by Árpád Csiszár in the reburial and Journal Hármashatár Árpád Csiszár, the founder of the Bereg Museum, started his archaeological activity in his student years. Beside his theological studies, he regularly attended Professor Márton Roska's classes and took examinations on archaeological disciplines. In this period he met János Sőregi, director of the Déri Museum in Debrecen and accompanied him on his research trip on the bank of river Szamos. The county administration supported Árpád Csiszár

's scholarly work with an open decree. In 1937 Árpád Csiszár with his friends decided to start a local journal that wished to deal with the literature, public life, culture and rural life of region Szatmár and its environments. He looked for support to publish this literary and educational review under the title Hármashatár („triple frontier" referring to the region where Hungarian, Romanian and Czechoslovakian border met). First he wrote a letter to Andor Streicher, the sub-prefect of the county, then to the chief of the Szatmár and Bereg Newspaper Publishing Company. Finally, the journal started in 1938 and was published by the Kölcsey Society in Mátészalka. In 1938, at the 100th anniversary of death of great Hungarian poet Ferenc Kölcsey celebrations, commemorations started all over Hungary. Newspaper articles were dealing with the author of the Hungarian Anthem and his oeuvre. In August the National Kölcsey Society asked Árpád Csiszár to take part in the exhumation of the poet as a specialist in archaeology, referring to his studies and cooperation with Sőregi. He then published an article about the reburial in Szatmárcseke, in the Hármashatár. During the Kölcsey memorial year celebrations went on a large scale. The most outstanding one was arranged in the capital. Press reported on this celebration in details. Celebration in Szatmárcseke must have been postponed, because the originally planned date coincided with the programs of the World Meeting of the Hungarian Calvinists. Finally, the Szatmárcseke celebration took place on the 8th of September 1939, in the presence of prominent people. However, Árpád Csiszár was not invited. In 1939 he published a study in the Hármashatár, dealing with the cross as a symbol. In this article he made an analysis from theological-historical point of view and stated that, on the first hand, cross was an ethnic symbol, the physical-spiritual expression of the Indogermanic ethnic expansion, and not the symbol of Christianity. Naturally, the article was followed by retorsions, not only from the point of view of Árpád Csiszár

's scholarly-literary carrier and private life. They also had an impact on the further activity of the Hármashatár. Memos, photos, newspaper articles dealing with the topic, published in 1938 were collected in a notebook. However, the carefully preserved documents together with the contemporary editions of the Hármashatár were borrowed and the complete material disappeared for a long time. Documents seemed to be lost, but in 1970 they got back to their possessor. János VARGA Bereg Museum Vásárosnamény H-4800 Pf. 37. e-mail: microcog@citromail.hu