Centenary Preparations at the University of Debrecen. The editors of the journal offer status reports on the preparations for the centenary celebrations of the University of Debrecen in 2010. Special attention is devoted to those publications which thematize the history of the university (as well as the history of its predecessor institutions) and of the faculties, of which pre-eminent position is occupied by the commemorative centenary volume offering a comprehensive history of the university in answer to the expectations and requirements of the 21st century. Brief surveys are provided of preparatory projects such as the ones aimed at establishing a Museum of the University, the processes of conducting interviews pertaining to the history of the university, as well as the emerging programs of the centenary year.

Budapest’s Eötvös University is 375 years old—Report on ELTE ’s Anniversary Celebration. In 2010 Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary’s oldest continuously operating institute of higher education, celebrated the 375th anniversary of its foundation. The university’s legal predecessor was established in Nagyszombat in 1635 by Péter Pázmány, Archbishop of Esztergom. The text describes the major stages of the preparation for the year of jubilee and the most significant events of the festive year. The chief purpose of the series of events, it is stated, was to strengthen the sense of belonging in the former and current civil community of the university. In addition, the series of festivities offering a multitude of year-long professional and cultural programmes reminded all of the fact that the university, owing to the programmatically high standards it is committed to represent, is an outstanding shaper of scientific and scholarly activity and of training new generations of intellectuals.

Nándor Bernolák (1880–1951), the Second Rector of the Hungarian Royal University of Arts and Sciences in Debrecen. As second rector of the Hungarian Royal University of Arts and Sciences, Debrecen, which was launched in 1914, Nándor Bernolák played an important role in shaping the events of the first years. He was a nationally recognized theoretical criminal jurist when he was invited to chair the department of penal law in Debrecen. In addition to an outline of his brief, seven-year, university career, a discussion of his previous professional activities is offered, and the events of his life pertaining both to the early history of the university and to his subsequent political and legal career are highlighted. Professor Bernolák’s reformist initiatives pertaining to criminal law as well as his attempts aimed at the renewal of law training are likewise reviewed. In summary it is stated that Nándor Bernolák excelled both as a criminal jurist and as a university manager. As regards his political career, it turned out to be rather brief and controversial. In view of the fact that he turned his back to his university commitments, we are obliged to consider him as one of those university professors who was lost for Hungarian higher education when they assumed political commitments.

The Life and Work of Nándor Láng, the First Philologist Rector. Nándor Láng, who came from a German family, in the service of the shared goals of a multicultural Hungary prioritized those ideals which asserted the education of an increasing number of  sophisticated scholars and scientists as well as elevating domestic science and scholarship to an international level. In the first period of his career, as a secondary-school teacher, he focussed on supporting the promulgation and teaching of classical culture
through his scholarly activity, including the authoring of textbooks. A crucial turning-point in his life occurred when he was invited in 1914 to serve as head of one (Latin) of the departments of Classical Philology of the newly created University of Debrecen. In the academic year of 1916/1917 he was Rector of the university, a service that he fulfilled with a maximum commitment and a truly professional approach. The combination of his professional erudition and human characteristics made him an ideal pedagogue.
He was active in Debrecen until 1932, when he retired, but he continued to carry on significant sholarly activity in the archeology and epigraphy of the Roman period in Pannonia.

Professor János Hankiss (1893–1959), Organizer and Popularizer of Scholarship. The lecture from which the written essay has evolved, memorializes János Hankiss, the internationally reputed Professor of French of the University of Debrecen by recalling the most significant stages and achievements of his professional teaching and research career, also including his attainments in the organization of scholarship. He started his academic career at the University of Debrecen in 1920. In the distinguished community of his peers who taught at our university between the two world wars, János Hankiss undubitably belonged to the top professionals. If a university’s academic rank is determined not only by its local or national prestige but also by its international recognition and appreciation, then in this latter frame of reference it was perhaps Professor Hankiss who did most to put Debrecen on the map for Europe and beyond. Indeed, he would share his knowledge not only within the confines of the University: he was a popularizer of scholarship and of the literary culture who was ready to move beyond the narrow limits of his immediate professional field and to address a larger audience. Besides, his name is also associated with the still extant quarterly periodical Debreceni Szemle [Debrecen Review] and Debrecen University’s International Summer School.

The Impact of the Götti ngen Ideal of Knowledge in the Area of Healing with Reference to Hungary and Transylvania in the 18th Century. This study offers a brief outline of the process through which the medical faculties of the German universities caught up with the leading medical schools of the continent in the 18th century. The paradigm shifts associated with the foundation of the medical faculty at Halle in the first half of the 18th century also manifested themselves in other German medical faculties: at the
universities of Strasbourg, Göttingen, Vienna, etc. The most important reformist tendencies, as well as the teacher personalities who made it possible for these tendencies to be realized, are also discussed. It is primarily the Göttingen reforms of the second half of the 18th century that are given a comprehensive discussion. In the second part of the paper the studies and professional activities—including their respective scientific work—of about two dozen medical students from Hungary and Transylvania are given well substantiated treatment.

British and American Participation at the Debrecen International Summer School before World War Two. This survey focuses on a selected aspect of the history of a peculiar and in many respects unique initiative: the pre-World War One British and American ties of the Debrecen International Summer School, which was established in 1927. In doing so, the study firstly identifies by name those British and American guests who can be documented as having attended the Summer School as officially enrolled students;
secondly, it follows up and evaluates those aspects of the teaching program which had a British or American relevance; and, in the third place, it supplies examples for how the International Summer School advertised itself in the English-speaking countries. The survey is concluded by an analysis of selected contemporaneous views formulated by the representatives of the university and of the Summer School with reference to the past and (then) presence of British/American and Hungarian ties.

Concerning University Students Forced to Interrupt Their Studies in Hungary in the Middle of the 1930S. This study explores the reasons why in the 1930s—despite the general intent of support, a continuously developing student welfare institutional network, as well as the evolving state student social policy—led to a situation in which part of the university student body, owing to welfare conditions, was compelled to discontinue their studies. Those university students who—despite various support programs and because of their social conditions, the financial situation of their parents, high tuition fees, and perhaps because of further expenses pertaining to their studies—were unable to continue their studies, thus they were obliged to interrupt their university student status. Among the further possible causes for the termination of university studies reasons pertaining to health and actual study are also included, with the latter primarily meaning the absence of required preparedness. Statistical data provide a graphic representation of the situation of the university student population in Hungary in the middle of the 1930s.

Teaching Scriptural Scholarship (Biblical Studies) in the First 50 Years of the National Institute of Rabb inical Training. Focusing on the first 50 years of its existence, this survey first offers a brief outline of the early history of the Institute of Rabbinical Training (established in Budapest in1877), then it takes stock of the most distinguished representatives of teaching scriptural scholarship (biblical studies) there, the subjects they taught, as well as the completed doctoral dissertations relevant to the field. The review also includes a detailed bibliography of the Institute’s history.

Tensions Involving the Construction of the University Church in 1938. Next to the Main Building of the University of Debrecen stands a Protestant church which for long years in the past accommodated the periodical holdings of the university’s Main Library. However, by now much of the church’s early history has been forgotten. The study demonstrates that the university’s management supported the view, as early as the very beginning of the 1920s, that for a fundamentally Protestant institution of higher education the government authorities should provide a church of its own. This project was delayed by the world economic crisis of 1929 and the fact that the construction of the Main Building itself of the university was not completed until 1932/1933. The management of the university, the Protestant Diocese of the Trans-Tisza District and the Ministry of Religion and Public Education jointly invited tenders for the construction of the building, the winner of which was a contructor of Jewish background. This decision—reflecting the spirit of the age—elicited aversion from right-wing student organizations. Through presenting the standpoints concerning this event, the study provides a graphic description of the relevant contemporaneous attitudes.

The Text and Ministerial Preamble of Article XXXIV of 1912 ”About the Foundation of Hungarian Royal Universities in Debreczen and Pozsony”. The objective of this source publication is nothing else but the bill and its preamble, through which in 1912 the universities of Debrecen and of Pozsony, respectively, came to be established. The preamble signed by Minister of Religion and Public Education János Zichy well reflects all the aspirations and controversies which characterized Hungarian educational and higher educational policy at the end of the 19th century, and the path, punctuated by manifestations of zeal and regression, finally led to the foundation of the third and fourth university in Hungary. The thorough preliminary professionalism pervading the preamble which, despite the disunity of the political spectrum, made a success of the bill can be regarded as exemplary.

The Loan Transaction of Peregrine Students in Erlangen. The sources—four brief documents—made public here offer an insight into student life at the end of the 18th century: the high fees of tuition, especially the cost of their studies abroad, significantly impacted not only on the cost of education but on the subsequent lives of the students as well. The ”peregrine students” were obliged to take loans, the burdens of which they had to carry for long years. Two of the documents here presented pertain to two peregrinators who completed their studies at the College of Debrecen but had earlier concluded a loan agreement in Erlangen, Germany. In the Archives of the Debrecen Protestant College we can read the texts of the original contracts, as well as the written documents submitted to the home church authorities in the matter of the reclamation of the loaned sum.

The Report s of the Faculties of the Academic Year of 1944–1945. Indubitably, the most difficult period in the history of the University of Debrecen was the last year of World War Two. The relatively undisturbed operation of the institution before the autumn of 1944 soon became impossible to maintain. The approaching battle-front and the subsequent entry of the Soviet troops resulted in the departure of a large segment of the professorial faculty. Those who stayed behind tried to maintain a semblance of order through emergency measures.Wartime damage, the utilization of the building facilities for other purposes, and teacher shortage posed almost impossible problems to those who felt responsible for making the university function. The documents that are made available here—the reports of the faculties prepared in the spring of 1945—make it clear what a superhuman struggle was carried on to maintain the operation of the university for almost a year.

The Teaching-Assistant Staff of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, 1919–1950. Part I: Theoretical Institutes. Members of the subordinate staff who helped the work of the professors played a determining role in the teaching and healing activities of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Debrecen. The data base offers a comprehensive register of the relevant facts and figures pertaining to the institution’s professors, assistant professors, instructors, research students, and assistants. In this first installment, the compiler has processed the data of the subordinate staff of the theoretical institutes.

The Assista nt Personnel of the Medical School of the University of Debrecen, 1919–1950. Part 2: The Clinics/1. Indispensable participants of the teaching and therapeutic activities of the Medical School of the University of Debrecen were the personnel assisting the work of the professors. The register is designed to serve as an overall recording of the pertinent data of the departmental professors, assistant professors, instructors, interns, and teaching assistants. In this second part the assistant personnel of the following  clinics is registered: Clinic of Neurology and Psychiatry, Clinic of Ophthalmology, Clinic of Pediatry, Clinic of Dermatology and Sexual Pathology, Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. II.

A Pécsi Püspöki Joglyceum emlékezete 1833–1923 - recenzió

Szállási Árpád: Dr. Bókay Zoltán (1885–1955) és a hazai gyermekgyógyászat - recenzió

Official Speech, March 15, 2010. The festive speech, of which a footnoted-extended version can be read here, attempted to highlight how the previous five generations of the students of higher education in Debrecen had participated in the celebration of the bourgeois revolution of 1848. It was also important to underscore in this speech that for about a hundred years the student body of the College, then of the University, of Debrecen celebrated together with, indeed at the forefront of, the population of the city while for the past few decades the rituals of the local celebrations have diverged.