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Nobleman and burgher:

a contradiction in terms
in early 19th century Hungary?
Ferenc Hrcher,
Institute of Philosophy, HAS

Plan of the paper


1. The theoretical issue: nobles versus/and
burghers
2. Furets typology of the nobility and its
relevance in Hungary
3. Some facts about towns in 18th to early 19th
century Kingdom of Hungary
4. The thesis of the present paper
5. Examples of the thesis: transition between
the two estates

1. The theoretical issue in the secondary


literature: nobles versus/and burghers
2. Furets typology and its relevance in Hungary
3. Some facts about towns in 18th to early 19th
century Kingdom of Hungary
4. The thesis of the present paper
5. Examples of the thesis: transition between
the two estates

Elemr Mlyusz:
nobility versus fourth estate
In Hungary the inhabitants of towns, if they wanted to become a
bourgeoisie (polgrsg), had to take account of more realistic and
pressing conditions, and first of all had to try to escape from the
magic circle of the view of life (letfelfogs) of the nobility.
The Hungarian development seems to have been closer to the
German model, as this ones central problem was the

opposition between the nobility and the


fourth estate (polgri rend).

Elemr Mlyusz, The bourgeoisie in Hungary in the age of the French


Revolution (A magyarorszgi polgrsg a francia forradalom korban),
1931, 225.

Mlyusz 2.: Hungary versus Europe:


ennoblement vs embourgeoisement
The more elegant (elkelbb) part of the nobility moving into the
towns, as a result of a longer process, became members of that
leading part of urban society, of which the members of the councils
and the officials (tisztviselk) recruited. This group of leaders was
turned into Hungarian (elmagyarost), and with it, were captivated
by the nobilitys view of life (letfelfogs) and way of thinking; we
could as well label them as ennobled (elnemest).
This domination of the nobility among burghers is perhaps a
Hungarian speciality, as in Southern and Western Europe one can
see that a reverse process took place: here the embourgeoisement
(elpolgrosods) of the nobility took plce,
Mlyusz 1931, 229.

Ennoblement and embourgeoisement


according to Bla Borsi-Klmn
Nobody could exactly explain how far the civilisingmodernising process of the 18-20. century in Hungary ,
the so-called civil transition (polgri tmenet, an
expression of Gyrgy Szabad), - from the above
mentioned March Bloch type of long term perspective
could be described as ennoblement

(nemeseds), and from where (from which period


and from when) as embourgeoisement
(polgrosods, Verbrgerlichung)?

(perhaps) in Hungary and in the world even today


hundreds of thousands of Hungarian men and women live
their lives bogged on the confines of ennoblementembourgeoisement..
Bla Borsi-Klmn 2002, 149.

Burghers and Gentlemen


(polgrok s urak) according to John Lukacs
The burgher (polgr) meant a class, the
gentleman (r) meant less. But the
gentleman in Hungary in the most
beautiful sense was something wholly
different from class: a conviction, a
behaviour, a kind of self-respec , in the
depth of which one could find not pride,
but humaneness and honour. The
Hungarian peasant is also able to behave
in a gentlemanly manner as the English
gentleman is not attached to a single
class. The Gerendays were burghers and
gentlemen.
John Lukacs 2011.

Tth on the border between


freemen and noblemen
How far did their (the townsfolks) social
environment tolerate the tresspassing of social
boundaries?
How rigid was in this sense the old border
between the estates (Stnde) of freemen and the
noblemen (gentry) in the last decades before the
legal dissolution of estate-based society in 1848?
rpd Tth 2012, 81.

1. The theoretical issue: nobles versus/and


burghers
2. Furets typology of the nobility and its
relevance in Hungary
3. Some facts about towns in 18th to early 19th
century Kingdom of Hungary
4. The thesis of the present paper
5. Examples of the thesis: transition between
the two estates

Furet on three types


of the French nobility
1.

2.

3.

Polish style nobility hostile to the State,


nostalgically attached to its ancient local
prerogatives, and ready to reconquer an idealised
past.
Prussian style nobility that wished, on the
contrary, to use the modernisation of the State for
its own ends, to monopolise all public offices, and
especially military grades, and to make service its
new raison dtre.
English style nobility that favoured a
parliamentary aristocracy in keeping with the new
era.

F. Furet, 1978/1981/1997,
113-114., quoted by Bla Borsi-Klmn, 2002, 21.

Styles of nobility in Hungary


Polis style nobility // majority of Hungarian landed gentry who,
on their county seats far away from the capitals, and living in their
country cottages, were sunk into their county politics of grievances,
defended until the very end their ancient (feudal) liberties
The enlightened absolutism represented by Maria Theresa, Jospeh
II. and Leopold II. towards a Prussian type nobility attracting a
large proportion of the enlightened nobility and of the intellectuals
of a non-noble origin (honorcior)
English style nobility could not find roots in Hungary, but it was
the dream and example of a number of Hungarian aristocrats, with
Szchenyi as its leader
Bla Borsi-Klmn, 2002, 22.

1. The theoretical issue: nobles versus/and


burghers
2. Furets typology of the nobility and its
relevance in Hungary
3. Some facts about towns in 18th to early 19th
century Kingdom of Hungary
4. The thesis of the present paper
5. Examples of the thesis: transition between
the two estates

Bourgeoisie and
the royal towns in Hungary
Bourgeoisie in the middle of the 18th century only the
free royal towns had a free constitutional standing
+ Mining towns (bnyavrosok)
at the time of the death of Maria Theresia:
In 1848:

44
53

Lexicon locorum regni Hungariae populorum anno 1773 officiose


confectum, Budapest, 1920, 311. where the oppidium Felsbnya
is mistaken listed, while the 5 Slavonian-Croatian towns should be
added. Mlyusz 1931, 226.
For the 1848 situation see: Elek Fnyes, The statistics of Hungary
Pest, 1843, II. 71.

The bad press of the old burghers


(rgi polgrsg)
The historical image of the old burghers in Hungary in
the late feudal period was long painted in gloomy
colors since they were depicted as passive and narrowminded participants in a period of incipient modern
social transformation.
a revision of this old interpretation.
This protestant and fundamentally German community
bore many similarities to the urban middle classes of
the West European type in the nineteenth century.
. Tth

Three layers of the townsfolk


in Hungary
1. Non citizens (German)
2. Formal citizens middle stratum, a group of well off people
(German)
(in Szeged in 1848 50.000 inhabitants, 1500 had town
citizenship
3. Elector citizens (vlaszt polgrok) (a lot of them belonged
to the Hungarian nobility)
this richest layer of leaders elected the magistrats,
managed the inner affairs of the town, and it did not let the
majority of the inhabitants get involved in these affairs.
Mlyusz 1931, 227-228.

Burghers, nobles, intellectuals


in early 19th century Hungary
Within the social stratum of the town
magistrates one cannot easily distinguish
among the roles attached to town burghers to
the nobles and the intellectuals (honoratiors)
rpd Tth 2015, 1094.

Aristocratic rule within towns


The big crowd (within the royal free towns)
did not consider that the life conditions which
determine their life could be otherwise, that
instead of the aristocratic government their
towns could be ruled by democracy as well.
Mlyusz 1931, 230.

Reform from above 1.


Joseph II. and the towns
Joseph II. against the towns
The absolutistic state with its Polizeisystem
started to control all the self-expressions
(letmegnyilvnulst) of the bourgeoisie.
Mlyusz 1931, 233.

Reform from above 2.


the Illuminati
There was no obstacle that the essentially
aristocratic order of the Illuminati in Hungary
defend the educated nobility, and not the
interests of the bourgeoisie.
Mlyusz 1931, 232.

Bourgeois self-consciousness:
Vc compared to Buccari
The Hungarian city of VC compared to the Italian
(Croatian) port town of BUCCARI
Buccari in its petition from the same period hurried to
emphasize that commerce is the strongest foundation of a
societas civilis
Vc did not give a detailed account of the economic
significance of the artisan element (iparos elem).
Mlyusz 1931, 237.

The nobility turning


against the towns in 1790
The nobility at the diet (of 1790) with its behaviour
gave indeed opportunity to the bourgeoisie to turn
against them.
With the preparation of the new diploma inaugurale
only focused on its own interests,
had a vision of the most radical of them, the outlines of a
nobilitys republic,
they wanted to introduce among the articles of the new
fundamental laws one according to which offices could
only be taken by noble persons in the future.

Here the opposition of the nobility and the bourgeoisie


became visible
Mlyusz 1931, 245.

The so called vrosi krds


(question of towns)
A constitutional debate about the representation
of the royal free towns at the diet
According to the late 18th century tradition, the
deputees of the cities had only one common vote
for which they complained a political culture
of grievances
The counties including the reform liberals - had
not much trust in the towns which they regarded
as controlled by royal commissioners
Sebestn Szcs 1996.

The alleged conservative leaning


of the urban deputees
On the four diets between 1825 and 1840 the
urban deputees have only played a minor role
according to the reports of the secret police
remained totally unnoticed, politically
indifferent
Just a very few city (Buda, Szeged, Temesvr,
jvidk) has sent opposition, liberal ablegatus
deputees
Bla Plmny: Orszggylsi kvetek, a reformkori
politikai elit, 2013, 367.

Secret police activity


at the reform diets
Out of the 3100 participants of the diets 18251848
4 county representatives
13 urban representatives
3 church representatives
12 ablegates
have actually worked for the secret police
Altogether 32 hardly more than 1 %
Plmny 2013, 357, referring to Kecskemti 2011, 34.

The social standing of the urban deputees at the


diets of 1825-1848
According to Bla Plmny
estates
magnates

f
1

%
0.32

landed gentry

137

44,39

urban burghers 160

51,78

serf

0,32

unknown

11

3,24

SUMMA

310

100

The concept of
the urban patrician elite
The urban patrician elite strived to use its riches and
political influence to create the conditions of a well-off
noble way of life, and to strengthen family ties, and its
accumulated capital to obtain landed property with
success.
For 14 young deputees his father or he himself obtained a
noble pedigre with a coat of arms. According to the
characteristic expression of Bla Borsi Klmn,
embourgeoised nobleman, or (en)nobled burgher, that
was the exemplary strategy of life and way of life.
Bla Plmny 2013, 366.

Criticising the concept


of an urban patrician elite
The expression patrician can only be used in
a very wide sense it is a terminus technicus
of the early modern German towns
What we find instead (here), is the emergence
and operation of magistrate dynasties

rpd Tth 2015, 1107-1108.

1. The theoretical issue: nobles versus/and


burghers
2. Furets typology of the nobility and its
relevance in Hungary
3. Some facts about towns in 18th to early 19th
century Kingdom of Hungary
4. The thesis of the present paper
5. Examples of the thesis: transition between
the two estates

The thesis of the present paper


By the early 19th century tresspassing

the borders between burghers


and nobles from below must have
been quite common and with more than one
strategy. Unfortunately, the opposite is not
necessarily true, although the example of
Szchenyi or Etvs show that it was not
unprecedented.

1. The theoretical issue: nobles versus/and


burghers
2. Furets typology of the nobility and its
relevance in Hungary
3. Some facts about towns in 18th to early 19th
century Kingdom of Hungary
4. The thesis of the present paper
5. Examples of the thesis: transition between
the two estates from below

On the contrary: Ferenc Verseghy


on civil life as refined culture
Of a noble family
In the centre of (Verseghys) argumentation is an
emphasis that civil life (polgri let) is equal with
the higher, more refined culture (mveltsg) and
his performance gets wings when he chants
dithyrambs about the educational effects of civil
spirit (polgri szellem) on the noble youth.
They get accustomed to connect the concept of
the burgher with honesty, working activity,
sublime thinking and magnanimity, and as a result
of that they will value and acknowledge the whole
bourgeoisie.
Mlyusz 1931, 280. referring to Vertrauliche Akten,
51. fasc. A. nr. 13.

The Szloboda family


Deputee dinasty (Bazin, Szakolca, Pest)

Bla Plmny 2013, 367.

The social mobility of


the burgher family Sloboda
The evangelical Sloboda family from the area around Bratislava
an ordinary artisan family
Father, Ferdinand Sloboda bootmaker in Bazin
Samuel, the oldest a traditional civil career braid maker in his
hometown speaker (szszl) of the elected burghers
Johann, as a lateiner learnt law vice notary in his hometown
Michael the middle one got a pleaders qualification moves to
Pest, as a protestant marries the daughter of the only evangelical
town councillor, after the death of his father-in-law inherits his
position as a councillor.

Also a deputee dinasty (Bazin, Szakolca, Pest)


rpd Tth 2015, 18.
See also Bla Plmny 2013, 367.

Schedius and Windish


two exemplary ennobled burghers in a family union
Lajos Schedius through his marriage in 1794 in Bratislava
(Pozsony), became son-in-law of Karl Gottlieb Windisch
who produced an excellent oeuvre as a writer, too.
In this connection two ennobled evangelical magistratefamilies from the Western Hungarian territory got into a
marriage union the father of Schedius was magistrate in
Gyr, a further relative (perhaps grandfather) in Modor,
while Windish was an inner magistrate in Bratislava
(Pozsony), and within the earlier generations of his genus
we can also identify town scriptors and medical officer.
Windish (1725-1793) learnt to be a merchant and got into
the circle of elected burghers,
. Tth 2015, 1109.

Schedius on
the significance of Windish
In Schedius interpretation (in ber Karl Gottlieb von Windisch) the
oeuvre of Windish is exemplary for the following reasons:
for its multi-layered cultivation of the science of cultural geography
(orszgismeret), including
editing a journal,
preparing the geography of Hungary,
writing studies on literary history,

organising a scientific society,


contacting foreign scientific societies, and

for its bourgeois

(polgri) way of life

with membership in town senate,


activity as mayor)

Lajos Schedius: Ueber Karl Gottlieb von Windisch. Zeitschrift von und fr
Ungern, 1802, I. Bd, 1. Ht, 16-23., quoted by Piroska Balogh, 2007, 75.

The social personae of Schedius


Theologian, professor of Aesthetics, bibliographer,
geographer, astronomer, linguist, journal editor, school
founder and school superintendent, theoretician of
pedagogy, theatre manager, free mason, jacobin
reformer, a loyal subject of the court, silkworm and
cotton raiser, patriot and cosmopolitan, writer,
historian, scientist and populariser; not a modern
professional, but a many sided scholar, charcterised by
his many sided spirit of enlightenment.
Jzsef Kardos 1998.

Schedius, the nobleman


In spite of the bourgeois lifestrategies (letvezetsi stratgik)
Lajos Schedius activated the
potelntials inherent in the noble
title
His noble title was announced in
the county Pest-Pilis-Solit, in 1806
Beside the above, he won the title
of assessori in Heves and Kls
Szolnok, Hont, Zala and Ngrd
an honoraqry title, which he tried
to substantiate serving scientific
and social organisational purposes
He was active in the county
(vrmegyei let) in the first decade
of the 1800s, creating and
stablising a permanent Pest-Buda
Hungarian thetric company.

P. Balogh, 2007, 77.

Schedius and Szchenyi


as candidate Wahlbrger in Pest
Ich soll mit Czirky, Ortzy L., Almsy, Krolyi,
Schedius zum Wahlbrger candidirt worden
seyn.
If unfortunately I will be elected, I will be
even more hated.
Grf Szchenyi Istvn napli. IV. 1830-1836,
Gyula Viszota 1934, 1831. 11. 02.
Quoted by P. Balogh, 2007, 91.

Schedius on
the nobility and the burghers
The Schedius-texts otherwise are connected at
more points with the models of Adam Mller as
was expected earlier...
But in their system of references one cannot find
such open associations of ideas as that the
polarity of the nobility and the bourgeoisie would
follow the polarity of beauty and the sublime.
P. Balogh 2007, 315.

Schedius as cultural organiser


The art exhibition as an element of the bourgeois socialcultural way of life first appeared in Hungary in 1834, partly
also at the initiative of Schedius.
It is visible that within the framework of his work in the
association, Schedius not only focused on the sociological
and pedagogical aspects of the organic social organisational
model, but he could establish new, bourgeois associational
styles. Beside attending concerts and art exhibitions such
phenomena are the different modes of outing and
excursions which were connected with the associational
model of socialising (a trsasgszervezs egyleti mfajval).
P. Balogh 2007, 258-269.

Schedius and Burke


One could in the same time think about the impact of another
tradition, which is also alert to the aesthetic dimensions of the
political: the tradition of eighteenth century English theories of
sociability, which is directly connected with the names of Burke and
Hume in the secondary literature.
According to the conservative programme of Burke a good work of
art and a good social-political establishment is compatible with
each other, as in Schediuss programme the beauty inherent in the
work of art accords with the ideal state of the social organisms.
The object of aesthetics and social philosophy is finally the same
they both embody humanitas.

P. Balogh 2007, 316-7.


See also Ferenc Hrcher 2011.

Bibliography

Piroska Balogh: Balogh Piroska: Ars scientiae. Kzeltsek Schedius Lajos Jnos tudomnyos
plyjnak dokumentumaihoz, 2007.
Bla Borsi-Klmn: Polgrosodott nemes avagy (meg)nemesedett polgr, 2002.
Elek Fnyes: The statistics of Hungary, 1843, II.
Francois Furet: Interpreting the French Revolution, 1978/1981/1997.
Ferenc Hrcher: A fensges zsarnoksga: Edmund Burke j eszttikai paradigmjnak
eszmetrtneti kontextusai, 2011.
Jzsef Kardos: Schedius Lajos a felvilgosult szellem embere, 1998.
Kroly Kecskemti: Plmny Bla: A reformkori magyar orszggylsek trtneti almanachja,
18251848, I-II. Avagy a levltros szakma fontossga, Levltri Szemle, 61/4, 31-35.
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