Bálint Varga-kuna

Celebration & Conflict: the Reception of the Hungarian Millennial Memorials in Theben and Kronstadt Bálint Varga-kuna

Hungary celebrated her 1000 years existence in 1896. For this reason several memorials were erected throughout the country. Each of these columns carried special meaning: they symbolized the idea of the Magyar domination over ethnic minorities of the country. The erection of these monuments and the millennial celebrations led to local debates and thus serious conflicts emerged among the non-Magyar population. This book investigates two of these memorials. One of them was erected in Theben (today Devín, Slovakia), where local Germans and Slovaks had to face the symbolic hegemony of Magyars, while the other was constructed in Kronstadt (today Bra?ov, Romania), where local Saxons and Romanians found themselves in conflict with the Hungarians. Thus these monuments show the inter-ethnic conflicts of Hungary, a country building its nation in the 19th century. The future faith of both memorials reflects upon the dramatic changes of Central Europe in the 20th century. Both locations were extensively used Czechoslovak/Romanian nationalism and later communism.