Vol. 10 No. 3-4 (2019): MMXIX vol. X.nos.3-4

Published January 11 2020

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Portraits

  • Tivadar Hüttl, Rector Magnificus of the Academic Year 1939/40 of the Tisza István University
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    Tivadar Hüttl, Professor of Surgery the Rector Magnificus of the Hungarian Royal István Tisza University of Debrecen during the Academic Year 1939/40. Tivadar Hüttl – whose father was the owner of a successful porcelain factory – graduated as a doctor of medicine from the University of Arts and Sciences of Budapest, and worked there at the I. Surgery Clinic besides Professor Tibor Verebély. In 1921, he was entrusted with the management of the Surgery Clinic in Debrecen, and one year later, he became a director-professor. In his clinic, he organized sections of otorhinolaryngology, stomatology, urology, traumatology, orthopaedics, etc., which later became independent clinics. He established an important scientific school; his students came to him from all over the world. In the academic year of 1939-1940, he was the rector of the István Tisza University of Arts and Sciences of Debrecen, and the representative of the university in the Upper House of the Hungarian Parliament. In 1944, he stayed in Budapest because of the war, and after his return, he was deprived of the position of professor on indignant causes in a show trial. From 1951 to his death in 1955, he was the head physician of the National Institute of Oncology in Budapest.

     

  • Gyula Mitrovics, Professor of Pedagogy the Rector Magnificus of István Tisza University of Debrecen of the Academic Year 1940/41.
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    Professor of Pedagogy Gyula Mitrovics was Rector Magnificus of the Hungarian Royal István Tisza University of Debrecen in the academic year of 1940-1941. His profound interest in the arts and his Protestant identity
    shaped by the oscillation between the Sárospatak versus Debrecen axis constituted the basis and the framework for an overarching career which the child of a Sárospatak family of educators could fulfill in the Hungary of the first half of the 20th century. Despite the fact that the success of his early publications and the affirmative critical responses beckoned the young and upcoming teacher to a career in art history or to the calling of an aesthete, the interests of the arts faculty of the ”newly born” university of Debrecen dictated a different professional alternative. His attention turned to pedagogy, of which he became privat-docent in 1917, then full professor in 1918. Starting from this juncture, he led parallel professional lives rooted in aesthetics and pedagogy. In the year before his retirement he was elected rector of the university. His attitude in this supreme office was characterized by seeking compromises, which was a direct consequence of the priorities of the age in which he lived. It was during his rectorship that the university was to surrender its science departments. However, the diplomatically sensitive rector was able to attain the continuance of instruction in the disrupted departments by employing external lecturers. During his retirement as pensioner his life assumed a tragic turn: int he year 1949 – prompted by outside advice – he resigned his position as corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy then, in the middle of the 1950s he left Hungary. The one-time Debrecen professor of pedagogy spent his remaining years in Stuttgart and that is also where he died in 1965.

Studies

  • Viktor Julow and the Independence War in 1956
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    Viktor Julow and the Revolution and the War of Independence in 1956. After 28 October 1956, Viktor Julow started to work as an editor for the revolutionary Csokonai Radio, writing and reading out articles. The radio, capable of local transmission only, aired four of his articles. The first one, entitled “Thank You for the Blood Conserve” was a commentary in a lyrical tone; the second one, “Reply to a Pamphlet” reacted to a piece of news he had heard on Miskolc Radio about a pamphlet issued in Slovakia. In the other two articles he proposed changes in street names and the system of national awards. His persecution began in May 1957, when he was downgraded to a lower academic position. However, as ministry officials still considered this as too mild a punishment, he underwent another disciplinary procedure and was finally dismissed from his job with immediate effect on 3 October 1957. After that, the unemployed scholar had to rely on the assistance of his work contacts and friends such as László Kéry, Péter Nagy, József Szauder and László Országh. After months of insecurity, he was appointed senior researcher of the Déri Museum in February 1958.

  • Ethnography and Folklore Studies at the Hungarian Universities until 1960
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    Ethnography and Folklore Studies at the Hungarian Universities until 1960. At the University of Budapest at the end of the 18th century it was Dániel Cornides (1732–1787) who dealt with issues of Hungarian ancient religion, while András Dugonics (1740–1818) paid attention to various  aspects of Hungarian folk poetry (tales, idiomatic phrases, proverbs) and folk customs in his lectures. Descriptive statistics, reports of the state of affairs in various regions and ethnic groups within the country documented the ethnographic character of these areas and groups in the first half of the 19th century.  In the second half of the century professors of Hungarian literature and language investigated and discussed these topics with a comparative European perspective at universities. Ethnographic and folklore-related knowledge was disseminated by excellent professors of classical philology and oriental studies. Professors of geography (János Hunfalvy, Lajos Lóczy) played a crucial role in providing information about faraway peoples and continents at the University of Budapest.

    The first associate professor (Privatdozent) in ethnography was Antal Herrmann at the University of Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca, now Romania) in 1898. He delivered his lectures until 1918 in Kolozsvár, and between 1921 and 1926 in Szeged where the University of Cluj was relocated to. The first university department for ethnographic and folklore studies was established at the University of Szeged, where Sándor Solymossy, a scholar of comparative folkloristics, became professor.  At the University of Budapest the first department for ethnography and folklore studies was founded for professor István Györffy, who primarily studied material culture and the people of the Great Hungarian Plain.  His successors were Károly Viski (1942), then folklorist Gyula Ortutay (1946). In 1951 at the University of Budapest another department came into being for István Tálasi who was a scholar of  material culture studies and historical ethnography.

    The head of the ethnography and folklore department of the Hungarian University of Kolozsvár (Klausenburg, Cluj) was Károly Viski in 1940–1941, and Béla Gunda between 1943 and 1948.  At the University of Debrecen established in 1912  a number of associate professors held ethnographic and folklore lectures between 1925 and 1949 (István Ecsedi, Károly Bartha N., Tibor Mendöl, Gábor Lükő), but an autonomous department was established only in 1949, led by Béla Gunda until 1979. At the University of Szeged Sándor Bálint was appointed professor of ethnography and folklore studies in 1949, but only after 1990 became it possible to provide M. A. degrees in ethnography and folkloristics. M.A. degrees in ethnography and folkloristics have been provided at the University of Budapest since 1950, while at the University of Debrecen since 1959.

  • Inscrutable Students.Searching for Enemy in Hungarian Universities at the Beginning of Fifties
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    „Unknowable Students”. „Searching for the Enemy” at the Hungarian Universities in the Beginning of the Fifties. The Communist Party organization of Hungarian universities, in order to fulfil one of their main tasks, i.e. to “unmask the enemy”, attempted to gather a lot of information about the students. They collected data through admission procedures about their class-origin, which was reckoned as basic indicator of their political reliability, while functionaries tried to force them to verbalize their opinion and to comment daily political events in obligatory courses of Marxism-Leninism and in other formal and informal discussions. Besides the identification of the “enemy”, the forcing of political statements had the purpose to get the chance to correct them. However, the overstraining of political issues, the circulating process of re-learning the same parts of Communist ideology over and over again, along with the overreaction of functionaries to politically “incorrect” opinions led to an unwanted effect. Reports on the effectiveness of contemporary practices of indoctrination stated several times that the ideological dissemination of knowledge does not provide some students with a world view, but rather a practical knowledge: the students, instead of revealing their real thoughts “learned to speak Marxism”.

  • The Neolatin Greeting Poems of the 17th century Professors of the Calvinist College of Debrecen
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    The neolatin greeting poems of the 17th century professors of the Calvinist College of Debrecen. Contemporary occasional poems provide an excellent insight into the literacy of the early modern protestant intellectuals in Debrecen and the relationship between members: for example greetings, wedding greetings and mortal poems. In the 17th century prints connected to certain members of the intellectuals of Debrecen appeared with a nice number in Hungary and abroad, which were also welcomed by the professors of the Calvinist College in Debrecen. Collegial teachers volumes published in Hungary mostly by Hungarian, while polemical treatises printed abroad by Latin greetings accompanied. In my study I undertake to provide insight into the literacy and relationship system of the professors in Debrecen in the 17th century with detailed philological analysis of some neolatin greetings.

  • From a Protestant Law Student a Catholic Professor of Law in Linz (Johann Ferdinand Behamb)
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    From a Protestant Law Student a Catholic Professor of Law in Linz (Johann Ferdinand Behamb).  From among the law writers of Hungarian origin in the 17th century, Johann Ferdinand Behamb from Bratislava emerges regarding both his efficiency and his awareness. After his recatholisation he became a law educator in Linz serving the Upper Austrian Orders. The paper tries to reconstruct Behamb’s education and teaching activity, also paying attention to a special type of school of higher education (Landschaftschule).

     

  • Ramism in the KIngdom of Hungary and in Transylvania
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    Ramism in the Kingdom of Hungary and in Transylvania. The study reviews the impacts of Ramism on the scholarly, pedagogical, and cultural life of the Kingdom of Hungary and of Transylvania, including the local publications in grammar, rhetoric, homiletics, and logic, and the presence of Ramist considerations and components in domestic education. Judging by the evidence of its reception in Hungary and Transylvania, we can conclude that Ramist influence was present in the main Calvinist institutions, that is, in the colleges at Gyulafehérvár, Kolozsvár, Sárospatak, Várad, and Debrecen during the mid- and late seventeenth century. Such influence affected the whole system of classification of the academic sciences, and elements of Ramism remained detectable until the mid-eighteenth century. More sporadic, but not insignificant, was Ramist influence usually taking a more syncretic form at Lutheran institutions that adhered to essentially Melanchthonian pedagogy.

    Literary works by Hungarian authors with Ramist and, often, Puritan convictions are clearly understandable texts characterized by their conceptual plainness and clarity, which include only a few elements of belletrism, affective attraction, and literary originality in their predominantly rational argumentation. That such texts strive primarily for intellectual rationality is clearly connected with the authors’ Ramist mindsets, because, under a strictly Ramist theoretical framework, only a small number of the taxonomic processes which distinguish literary works from the natural order of precise, objective, rational discourse could be accepted.

  • The Study of Arabic language at European Universities
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    The Study of the Arabic language on the European Universities. The study of oriental languages, among them that of the Arabic is among the oldest branches of the humanistic scholarship. In the beginning, one can see sporadic individual works, later well-organised activities that take us to the Iberian Peninsula, to Salerno and Paris. In addition to the Koran, philosophical, mathematical and astronomical works were translated from Arabic into Latin in the first half of the second millennium. Later, in the Renaissance, Italia and the Papal State became the centre of the Arabic scholarship. The main ambition of the age was to prepare the texts of the polyglot Bibles, and to investigate the Greek and Arabic medical works. In the following epoch, Leyden and Netherlands emerged from the range of the European universities. Here the aim of the Arabic scholarship was to support the international trade. The Arabic philology on modern sense have been created in Paris by S. de Sacy, who is the common ancestor of all European Arabists. In Hungary, we are attached to him by K. Czeglédy, de Goeje and his Dutch masters.

     

Sources

Repertoire

  • Doctoral Dissertations of the Mathematical Seminar of the University of debrecen at the beginning of the 20th Century (1927-1940)
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    Doctoral Dissertations on The Mathematical Seminar of the University of Debrecen at the Beginning of the 20th Century (1927–1940). In this article we present 16 mathematical dissertations, the life and later carrier of their authors (15 persons) in two parts. These dissertations were written under the direction of Professor Lajos Dávid between 1927 and 1940. At that time he was the leader of the Mathematical Seminar of the University of Debrecen. The themes of the dissertations were connected with his scientific work, such as history of mathematics (the two Bolyais), or research work in mathematical analysis (arithmetic-geometric mean). The dissertations were published separately as books. Later these were collected in a colligation named Dissertationes Davidianae Debrecen 19271940. We have to mention this colligation does not contain the dissertation of Ferenc Kárteszi. We found his work among the dissertations of Doctors of Philosophy in the Library of the University of Debrecen. (Part 1: 19271934). 

Remembrance

  • History of the Stomatology Clinic of the University of Debrecen under the Leadership of Professor József Szentpétery and Gusztáv Keszthelyi (1979-2000)
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    History of the Stomatology Clinic in Debrecen under the Leadership of Professor József Szentpétery and Professor Gusztáv Keszthelyi (19792000). From July 1, 1979 József Szentpétery was appointed to lead the Stomatology Clinic in Debrecen. His main task was the curriculum-development of dental education, that started three years ago and to bring it closer to the curriculum of other Hungarian universities.

    The lack of staff and facility also made it difficult to organize education. He brought teachers from Szeged and employed fresh graduates. In 1981 the new building of the clinic was completed.

    From July 1986 Professor Gusztáv Keszthelyi became the director of the clinic. He completed the reconstruction of Oral Surgery, established a new lecture room and created departments. In 1997-98 he created a new phantom practice room, thus more students could attend the 3rd year preclinical practice. He inspired lecturers to do scientific work. Between 19942001 nine lecturers were awarded with scientific degrees. He wrote and edited a textbook that survived 2 editions. He went to early retirement in 2001, was later appointed Professor emeritus and returned to teach in Hungarian and in English.

     

     

     

Book Reviews

Actualities

  • Glass Windows of Art Nouveau by Miksa Róth at the Department of reumatology of the University of Debrecen
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    Miksa Róth (1865-1944) glass strainer and mosaic artist significantly contributed to the beautiful buildings of the University of Debrecen in the first part of the 20th century. It is regarded that his most famous work here is the five big glass windows in the Hall of the university that were reconstructed in 2012. Furthermore, he left the result of his artistic work in other buildings of the university. Nevertheless, these works were destroyed nearly without exception. The only exception is the three glass windows, which were discovered in the basement of the Surgery Clinic. They were taken out from there in 2018 and the following study introduces the history of the reconstruction.

  • Ethnography - 70 - Debrecen
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    Ethnography – 70 – Debrecen. The Department of Ethnography of the University of Debrecen held a commemoration for the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the department. Besides the introduction of the event in the following, we can read the two speeches describing the past, the present and the future of the department held to the audience at present, the past and present students, lecturers of the department, and those who are interested in ethnography.

     

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