Books and Events

Katalin Botos. 1956 and the Christian Spirit of Gáspár Nagy. In his generation, Gáspár Nagy (1949-2007) was certainly the poet whose work was most intimately and audaciously involved with the ideas and heritage of the Revolution of October 1956, for which he received repeated official censures from communist party ideologues before 1990. His commemorations of the teenage heroes and his idea of liberty are suffused with Christian images of passion and transcendence.

János Szávai. Father of the New Europe: Robert Schuman. Areview of the work and figure of Robert Schuman, the great Euroepan founder, on the occasion of the publication of the first Hungarian monograph on his work and career. (Géza M. Szebeni: Egy kereszténydemokrata az európai egységért: Robert Schuman. Magyar Szemle Könyvek, Budapest, 2009).

György Somogyi. Under water, Above the Earth. ARetrospective Exhibition of Ágnes Kecskés. The great time-honoured traditions of tapestry, brilliant new painterly ideas and personal history - family, Komárom and the Danube - are brought together in the gobelin art of Ágnes Kecskés, as attested in her exhibition at Tihany Abbey in summer 2009.

Zoltán Fáy. Crisis, Love, Truth. Afirst view of Pope Benedict XVI's new encyclical, its balanced judgment of the world economic crisis, and its upholding of the relevant Christian virtues that may help solve it.

Katalin Metz. World Drama - Wagner's Universe. An enthusiastic review by our theatre columnist of Wagner's Ring, which was performed on four consecutive July nights in the air-conditioned concert hall of the Palace of the Arts in Budapest. Ádám Fischer as conductor was in supreme charge of the performances, appreciated and praised by a brilliant international cast of stars. Projected backgrounds, painted draperies and mime scenes made up for the lack of stage props and supporting cast, designed Hartmut Schörghofer.

Klára Tóth. The Polish Example. Hungarian movie directors have been wary and unsuccesful after 1991 in presenting the painful quotidian realities of the forty-five year Soviet occupation of east Central Europe, of the scant interactions of the Soviet soldiers and staff with the local population. Polish cinema here again has shown more courage, as our movie columnist reports from the Wroclaw International Filmfestival. Though dramatically and artistically this new Polish work is not perfect, it is effective and authentic.

Mihály Kubinszky. Eastern Station is 125 Years Old. Acom-memoration of the inauguration and building process of a mag-nificent piece of late 19th century architecture in Budapest, Keleti pályaudvar. Its architect, Gyula Rochlitz made a design after studying the major railway architecture of contemporary Europe. In an effort to by-pass the example of the brick and steel Western Station, designed and built by the Eiffel studio ten years earlier, he created an impressive facade with sculptural work. The superb structural engineering of the building was done by Feketeházy János.

János G. Gáspár. The Constitution Stolen Away? Many argue that the Hungarian Parliament should have written an entirely new Constitution at the beginning of the Nineties. However, as the author argues, the surge of unconstitutional behaviour every day in all walks of life does not rise from an unsuitable Constitution, but from the Left-Liberal governments' continuous offending against legality since 2002, ranging from an amazing variety of corrupt practices to the state's attacks on citizen's rights.

Péter Ákos Bod. Image and Loss of Face. Despite the efforts of public relations think tanks, the international image of Hungary has sunk in recent times. Image-building is doomed where government leadership quality sinks, and with it all the major indicators of a country's health. From leaders of the East Central European transition in 1989-1994, we have been increasingly lagging behind since 2002.

János Brenner. AGlimpse of Old Germany. In the backwaters along the border of erstwhile Communist East Germany, a centuries old Germany survived in little old towns, untouched by the dramatic modernization beginning with the Sixties. Our Berlin correspondent visited such a little town, Helmstedt.

Zoltán József Tóth. For the Beatification of József Mindszenty. Aresponse to the critique of Ádám Somorjai, who in our August issue debated certain judgments of the author in connection with the figure of the late Cardinal József Mindszenty and his positions vis-a-vis the Communist Kádár government and the Vatican in the Sixties and Seventies.

The present issue of Magyar Szemle is illustrated with work by Ágnes Kecskés.

Our October issue is published with a special supplement on Roma Problems, with material from a Roma Symposion held by the 2011 Circle, presided by former President of the Republic Ferenc Mádl.

Roma Problems. Special Supplement of Magyar Szemle and the 2011 Circle