The study at hand examines the role of the Hungarian scientific elite during World War I, paying particular attention to the challenges associated with the reintegration of war veterans. First, it reviews the impact of the Great War on the functioning of science and the transformation of international scientific relations, then it demonstrates that reintegration was a complex challenge that engaged several disciplines. Special attention is devoted to the public lectures held by members of the scientific elite of the time, which were significant not only in that they created an independent professional discourse, but also in that they contributed to raising awareness of the traumas experienced by war veterans, thereby strengthening social sensitivity and solidarity. The main argument of the article is that the scientific elite actively sought to contribute to the processing of war experiences and to facilitate the reintegration of veterans, but the impact of these efforts remained limited due to institutional constraints.