Reform Era Culture: Architecture, Painting & Music

Reform Era Culture

• The Reform Era took place in the 19th century

Architecture

• Ybl Miklós was one of the greatest Hungarian architects
• A main masterpiece is the Opera House
• Pollack Mihály was a master of Hungarian classicist architecture.
• Hungarian National Museum
• Imre Steindl
• Construction of the Parliament Building took place from 1880-1899.

Painting

• Significant portraits by Miklós Barabás (1810-1898)
• Mihály Zichy illustrated Arany ballad
• Viktor Madarász created the lament for László Hunyadi
• Bertalan Székely composed historical compositions, including the discovery of the corpses of II. Lajos and Women of Eger
• Mihály Munkácsy painted "Ásító inas", "Ecce Homo", "Kálvária", and "Christus Pilátus előtt"

Music

• Ferenc Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies
• Ferenc Erkel: "Hunyadi László," "Bánk bán" (opera), and "Hymn"

Dance

• Béni Egressy composed songs
• Keringő (Johann Strauss' "Blue Danube Waltz"), csárdás, and verbunkos are various dances

Theater

• Traveling actors and Ekhószekér (Traveling stage) were frequent
• Hungarian Theater of Pest was founded in 1837
• Róza Laborfalvy, Déryné Széppataki Róza, and Luiza Blaha (the "nightingale of the nation") performed

Science

• János Bolyai and Farkas Bolyai were mathematicians
• Ignác Semmelweis discovered around 1850, maternity fever is caused by infection, and disinfected the hospital with chlorine.
• Ányos Jedlik invented soda water
• Ányos Jedlik created the first dynamo in the world
• Lóránd Eötvös conducted physics research on gravity
• The world-famous invention of the Eötvös pendulum was in (1891), which shows the oil hidden in the subsoil
• Kálmán Kandó was just 33 years old when the railway line he designed was inaugurated in Italy in 1902
• Tivadar Puskás invented the telephone exchange and the radio

The Reform Era ("Our Slogans Have Always Been Homeland and Progress")

• 1825-1848
• "Reform" translates to renewal and change.
• The goal was to develop Hungary peacefully, and to introduce new laws
• Because the domestic bourgeoisie wasn't strong enough, the intelligentsia initiated the reforms
• István Széchenyi toured Western Europe and saw how far Hungary was behind

Szechenyi Istvan's program

• Hungary's rise to the level of developed countries serves as a domestic transformation model.
• He proposed an annual income to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences at the 1825 National Assembly.
• Introduction of horse races.
• Building of the Chain Bridge to unite Pest and Buda
• Budapest steamboating (on the Danube and Lake Balaton)
• River regulation (conversion of the Tisza river bends)
• Casino

Vörösmarty Mihály

• Born in Pusztanyék (now Kápolnásnyék) on December 1, 1800, into an impoverished noble family
• His father served as an estate manager on a count's estate
• He attended a gymnasium in Székesfehérvár, then completed his studies in Pest
• After his father's death in 1817, he provided tutoring to help the Perczel family
• He spent eleven years in Pest as a tutor to Miklós Perczel and his three brothers

His career

• He moved to Pest where he earned recognition
• His first success came with the epic "Zalán futása" (The Flight of Zalán) in 1825
• He worked for four years from 1828 as a clerk for the Pesti Writers' Association
• In 1836, he helped establish the Kisfaludy Society
• He also wrote romantic literature
• His epic poems include "A búvár Kund", "Szép Ilonka".
• Lyric poems: "Ábránd," "A merengő"

Political Involvement in his Personal Life

• In the 1840s, he became friends with Miklós Wesselényi and Ferenc Deák, and served as president of Védegylet
• He stood by Kossuth in his journalistic articles.
• He married Laura Csajághy in 1843, who was eleven years younger than him.

Involvement in the 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence

• He welcomed the March 15, 1848 revolution with his poem "Talpra Magyar"
• Late in the year, he was an assembly representative, later sought refuge with the government in Debrecen, Szeged, and Arad

Retreat and Death

• He was forced into hiding after the surrender at Világos, but was acquitted
• From 1850, he settled with his family as a tenant farmer at his birthplace
• He struggled with material worries and illness
• He died mentally broken in 1855
• Twenty thousand gathered at his burial in a silent demonstration against Austrian autocracy.

Reform Era Endeavors

• Equality before the law
• Shared public burdens (nobility should also take part in certain burdens)
• Language renewal (that Kazinczy Ferenc created)
• Making Hungarian an official language (1844)

Kossuth

• Lájos called Széchenyi "the greatest Hungarian."
• The country wore national mourning after suicide
• Miklós Wesselényi was nicknamed the "flood sailor"
• Editor of Pesti Hirlap starting in 1841-1844, dealing with the most important issues in leading articles
• Minister in the Hungarian government responsible after the outbreak of the revolution in 1848
• The government deposed the Habsburg dynasty on April 14, 1849.