Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)

Last Journey Home, “… But For Good” (1988)

LAST JOURNEY HOME, „...BUT FOR GOOD" (1988)

1988

were advised to go through Paris. Our motorcyclists secured the ride with incredible dexterity, so we passed through the city of Paris in 17 minutes (!), then had lunch at a restaurant in Chalons sur

Marne,

where we were greeted with 16 Hungarian flags. Afterwards we passed through the famous World War I battlefields, Verdun and Metz to finally arrive in Strasbourg.

On this day, we covered the distance of 859 kilometres in about 9 hours without a hitch.

The coffin was properly guarded at night, but our government guards also made sure that we got Hungarian black coffee each morning and that no harm could befall us at the intermediate stops.

3 July

- We crossed the Rhine at 9 in the morning without any formalities and drove with the German police patrol car in front (a car was leading us everywhere in the FRG) to the Einstein grammar school where we were received by Mayor Ulrich Mentz

and

Consul General Dr. László

Sáringer. The

ceremony was in the grammar school, where Piroska Horváth played

Bartoks works, then the mayor gave a cocktail reception. We proceeded at noon passing by Karlsruhe, Stuttgart and Munich. We checked in at the Bauer inn in Feldkirchen near Munich and then returned to Munich, to the building of the Bavarian Radio, where there was a memorial ceremony. Our ambassador Dr. István

Horváth gave

a speech, then Secretary of State Dr. Thomas Goppel;

and then following the piano and vocal performances of Erika Lux and Júlia

Hamari,

Professor of the College of Music Dr. Günther

Weiss

gave a lecture entitled “

Bartók and

Munich”. Afterwards, there was a reception with the participation of representatives of the Bavarian cultural, political and economic life till the late hours. The next day,

on 4 July we set out early in the morning, crossed the Austrian border at Salzburg, then we took a short detour toward Mondsee, where I showed my brother the scene of our stay with my father in 1931, which he had not attended at the time.

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