Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 30. (2002) – Az ötven éves Nagy-Budapest – előzmények és megvalósulás
Pándy Tamás: Nagy-Budapest egy kistelepülés kisemberének szemével : Pestszentimre a Városban 273-287
Pándy Tamás Nagy-Budapest egy kistelepülés kisemberének szemével Tamás Pándy Pestszentimre in the City - Greater Budapest with the Eyes of the Small People of a Small Settlement Pestszentimre is the product of the 20 th century - reads in a study. Around 1900 there were only some families living in Péteripuszta. Due to constructing the railway parcelling out the territory became possible. The factories built in the area offered good job perspestives for the workers buying plots in its Soroksárpéteri. Soroksár, being the administrative center neglected its suburb therefore it fought for its independence. In 1919 under the soviet republic the declaration of their independence was warmly welcomed, the name of the settlement became Marxfalva (Marx village) In 1920 poverty became the ruler again. The refugees from the detached parts of the country were flooding the area, despite the fact that there was nothing here. This is why the title „the poorset settlement in Hungary" was labelling Soroksárpéteri. The possible occupation was to rake the rubbish of the capital at the Cséry dumping-ground. It was under these circumstances in 1930 that the decree of the minister of inner affairs arrived declaring the detachment of Soroksár and Soroksárpéteri. The independent settlement wanted to free oneself from the bounds in its name too. The name Pestszentimre was chosen in honour of the 900 th anniversary of the death of St Imre (Emeric). The twenty years of independence are the years of miracles: the inhabitants worked far beyond their capacity to forget the ingnominious adjective of the poorest settlement. By the threshold of Worl War II Pestszentimre became a settlement with 15000 people and it was worth becoming a city. The devastation by the war, the removal of the population retarded the development, but in three ayears they not only regained the loss, but conducted other developments too. For example after the war the first tram line of Budapest, the number 40, was going here. Before uniting greater Budapest in the 50s there had been several promises unfortunately the fulfillment was delayed and given up. The developments of the 50s were fulfilled mainly by the volunteer work of the population. As retarding factors there were the priority of the Pestszentlőrinc part of the district, overshadowing the leaders of Pestszentimre,and the complete dissolution of local administration. The top of the negative discrimination was the secularization of the name of Pestszentimre: Without any official decrees it became Pestimre (szent meaning saintly). After the 1960s there were several new investments. The steps forward or back after 1990 should be evaluated by posterity. 287
