É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.

ORMOS, István: Goldziher's Mother Tongue: A Contribution to the Study of the Language Situation in Hungary in the Nineteenth Century

GOLDZIHER'S MOTHER TONGUE Herzegovina.

7' The mother came from a German family which had already become Magyar both in language and sentiment so the children's mother tongue was Hungarian.

8

0 Anton was born in Sopron (Germ. Ödenhurg

), Hungary, while Franz was born in Komárom, also in Hungary.

S

1 Anton chose a military career, serving in various parts of the Monarchy, but mainly in Hungary. When World War I was over and the Monarchy was dissolved, he faced the task of opting for citizenship of one of the successor states. As his father's heir, he belonged officially to Czechoslovakia. However, he was born in Hungary, raised by a Hungarian mother, and went to school in Pozsony (Hungary),

!i

: Prague and Vienna. He married a Viennese wife, and the Imperial capital thus became a second native town for him.*' He considered himself a German who had been born in Hungary.

s

4 Although his mother tongue was Hungarian, he seems to have used German as a means of conversation in his mature years, by which time his Hungarian had become somewhat rusty: he admits that he did not have a full command of the Hungarian language at that time.*

5 It was mainly under the influence of his brother Franz, whom he liked very much and who "wanted to be Hungarian at all costs", that Anton also opted for Hungary, finally becoming a Hungarian soldier although he had not hitherto been a Hungarian citizen. Such a choice was likely to involve serious conflicts of conscience in the case of an eventual conflict between Austria and Hungary.

8

6 And such a case emerged all too soon: in Lehár's birthplace, Sopron, a plebiscite was held on 14-15 December 1921 to decide whether the town should be ceded to Austria in accordance with the decisions of the peace treaty, or remain in Hungary. However, once Lehár had chosen from among the possible loyalties, he stuck doggedly to his choice and as a Hungarian soldier he did everything in his power to prevent German-speaking western Hungary from being ceded to Austria. These efforts were crowned with partial success. As the result of the plebiscite, the impartiality of which was questioned by some contemporaries,*

7 Sopron and its immediate neighbourhood, which were characterized by a German majority in those ' Anton Lehár, Erinnerungen. Gegenrevolution und Restaurationsversuche in Ungarn 1918-1921. Ed. Peter Broucek, Vienna 1973, 137. Incidentally, the father is buried in the same cemetery as Goldziher. S

H Ibid.. 9. 8

1 1920-1938 and since 1947 Komárno in Slovakia. 8

7 See note 23 above. 8

3 Lehár, Erinnerungen..., 59. 8

4 Ibid.. 158. 8

5 "ohne vollkommene Kenntnis der Sprache... " Ibid.

, 96. 8

6 Ibid., 59. 8

7 See, e.g., Páter Zadravecz titkos naplója [Pater Zadravecz's Secret Diary], Budapest 1967, 180; August Emst, Geschichte des Burgenlandes. Vienna 1987, 190-199; Katalin Soós, Burgenland az európai politikában (1918-1921) [Burgenland in European Politics], Budapest 1971, 172-173. 221