Redemption Through Culture: Hungarian Cultural Diplomacy and Its English and American Perspectives in the 1920s

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Gizella T. Molnár
Márton Tőke

Abstract

This paper examines how the prolific Hungarian Minister of Culture in the interwar period, Kuno Klebelsberg shaped cultural diplomacy in the 1920s, with a specific focus on the relations between Hungary, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. After reviewing the many links between Klebelsberg and mainstream contemporary European education, politics, and culture, the paper illuminates Klebelsberg’s policy of science and scientific research, developing Hungarian participation in natural and technical sciences, and the strategic aims he prioritized in connection with these endeavors. Subsequently, the paper provides an in-depth analysis of Klebelsberg’s cultural diplomacy, his embeddedness in the ideals of a Hungary that is an integral part of Europe and that mends the injustices of the Treaty of Trianon through cultural efforts and not arms. Finally, the paper also investigates the globalizing efforts in Klebelsberg’s higher education policy, focusing especially on the system of Collegium Hungaricum he realized as well as the plans and goals that were not ultimately reached due to Klebelsberg’s death and the shift in policy priorities that followed.

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How to Cite
T. Molnár, Gizella, and Márton Tőke. 2020. “Redemption Through Culture: Hungarian Cultural Diplomacy and Its English and American Perspectives in the 1920s”. AMERICANA E-Journal of American Studies in Hungary 16 (1). https://iskolakultura.hu/index.php/americanaejournal/article/view/45452.
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Essays
Author Biographies

Gizella T. Molnár

Gizella T. Molnár is a Professor at the Institute of Cultural Studies, Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, University of Szeged. Her main fields of interest include the history of German minorities in Hungary and 20th-century Hungarian cultural policy.

Márton Tőke

Márton Tőke is a PhD student at the Institute of English and American Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. His main fields of interest include 20th-century conservative political philosophy, Western intellectual history, and political revolutions.