Joseph de Fontenay, Vilmos de Huszár, the Revue de Hongrie, and Trianon

Neglected Sources Regarding French-Hungarian Relations, 1906–1920

Authors

  • Marguerite de Huszár Allen Northwestern University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/ahea.2023.505

Keywords:

Joseph de Fontenay, Vilmos Huszár (Guillaume de Huszár), Revue de Hongrie, Treaty of Trianon, French-Hungarian Relations, World War I, wartime propaganda

Abstract

This article addresses the still-perplexing question, as put by historian Andrew Ludányi: “Why were [Hungarians] punished the most severely by the Entente?” It does so by contextualizing Viscount Joseph de Fontenay’s influence on Hungary’s fate before, during, and after World War I. Events while Fontenay was French consul to Hungary (1906–1912) embittered him against his former Hungarian friends. He expressed his rancor in a 1920 letter to the French leader who implemented the Treaty of Versailles after Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau resigned. While in Budapest, Fontenay had founded the successful Hungarian cultural journal, Revue de Hongrie, in French, to form “a durable bond” between the two countries. Vilmos Huszár, editor-in-chief and later owner of the Revue, worked closely with Fontenay. However, historical events drove the journal’s focus toward political issues and support for Austria-Hungary, France’s enemy. Fontenay’s involvement in shaping postwar alliances and sentiment had a negative effect on Hungary’s fate. Huszár’s diplomatic appointment in 1916 to counter Entente propaganda from Switzerland broadened his outlook on events, offering him unique insights that allowed him to bear witness to the devastating effects of false and misleading Entente propaganda and practices in a book of polemical essays. m.dehuszar@gmail.com

Author Biography

Marguerite de Huszár Allen, Northwestern University

Marguerite de Huszár Allen, PhD, has taught comparative literature and German language and literature at Princeton University, Loyola University of Chicago, and Northwestern University. She has also been a Fulbright research scholar in Hungary and a visiting scholar at the Buffett Institute for Global Studies. Her numerous articles have appeared in books and journals including The Faust Legend: Popular Formula and Modern Novel. She has published articles in The Faustian Century: German Literature and Culture in the Age of Luther and Faustus and Perspectives on Faust, as well as the German Quarterly, the Germanic Review, Journal of European Studies, Law and Literature, Hungarian Studies Review, Hungarian Cultural Studies, East Central Europe, and World Literature Today. The present article is the second in the history of the Revue de Hongrie, based on research the author began as a Fulbright Research Scholar, Hungary, in 2008.

References

Ablonczy, Balázs. Pál Teleki (1874–1941): The Life of a Controversial Hungarian Politician. Trans. Thomas J. and Helen D. Kornfeld. NY: Center for Hungarian Studies and Publications, Inc., 2006.

Adam, Magda.“France and Hungary at the Beginning of the 1920’s.” Essays on World War I: Total War and Peacemaking, A Case Study on Trianon. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1982, pp. 145–182.

Allen, Marguerite DeHuszar. “Making Relations, Breaking Relations: Political, Economic, and Cultural Relations between France and Hungary 1905–1910 and the Revue de Hongrie.” East Central Europe 41, 2014, pp. 297–329.

Berthem-Bontoux (pseud. for Berthe M. Bontoux).La Vicomtesse de Fontenay: Une Ambassadrice de France. Avignon: Maison Aubanel Père, 1949.

Borsody, Stephen.“Hungary’s Road to Trianon: Peacemaking and Propaganda.” Essays on World War I: Total War and Peacemaking, A Case Study on Trianon. Boulder, Co.: East European Monographs, 1982, pp. 23–38.

Bulletins de la Societé Français Littéraire de Budapest. n.d. Budapest: Athenaeum.

Dasque, Isabelle. “La diplomatie français au lendemain de la Grand Guerre: Bastion d’une aristocratie au service de l’État? (French Diplomacy in the Aftermath of the Great War: Bastion of an aristocracy in the Service of the State?) Vingtième Siècle. Revue d’Histoire 2008/3 (n0 99), 2008, pp. 33–49.

Documents Diplomatiques Français. Tome II (19 mai–23 septembre 1920) Imprimerie Nationale, 1999.

Documents Diplomatiques Français sur l’histoire du bassin des Carpates 1918–1932. Vol. I. Document 80.

“Finita la comedia!” (End the comedy!). Reichspost, no. 268, 28 September 1909.

“Fontenay und die Magyaren.” (Fontenay and the Magyars)Vossische Zeitung, no. 438, September 17, 1908.

Frangulis, A.-F.. Dictionnaire diplomatique. Paris, 1933.

Scheler, Max. Louis Coser (ed.) Holdheim, Wolfgang. (trans.). Ressentiment New York: Schocken Books, 1976.

Huszár, Vilmos. Ha a Bálványok Rombadőlnek . . . (When Idols Break Down . . . ). Budapest: Révai Testvérek Irodalmi Intézet R.-T. Kiadása, 1918.

____________. (ed.). Revue de Hongrie. I-XXV. XLIV-XLV, 15 November 1931 Budapest: Athenaeum, 1908–1921, 1931.

____________. Életem Regénye. (The Story of my Life) Budapest: Athenaeum, 1930.

“Kossuth und die Verhandlungen des Bankanschlusses” (Kossuth and the Negotiations of Bank Connections). Reichspost, September 27–28, 1909.

Lauren, Paul Gorden. Diplomats and Bureaucrats: The First Institutional Responses to Twentieth-Century Diplomacy Diplomacy in France and Germany. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1976.

Majoros, István. “L’image de la Hongrie en France des années à la fin de la Première Guerre mondiale.” (The image of Hungary in France at the end of the First World War) Öt Kontinens: Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, Budapest, 2009.

Orde, Anne. “Essays on World War I: Total War and Peacemaking, A Case Study on Trianon. Boulder, Co.: East European Monographs, 1982, pp. 23–38.

“Österreich-Ungarn, Der Fall Fontenay.” (Austria-Hungary, The Case of Fontenay). Vossische Zeitung, no. 441, 19 September 1908.

Ormos, Marie. “Portraits croisés: regard des Hongrois sur les Français et vice-versa, 1918–1920.”(Crossed portraits: the Hungarians view of the French and vice-versa, 1918–1920) Bulletin de la SHMC: Paris, 1996.

Pastor, Peter.. “French War Aims Against Austria-Hungary and the Treaty of Trianon.” Hungarian Studies. Vol. 17, 2003, pp. 3–12.

Pavlovic, Vojislav.. “Une Conception traditionaliste de la Politique Orientale de la France:

Le vicomte Joseph de Fontenay, envoyé plénipotentiaire auprès du roi Pierre 1er

Karageorgevitch (1917–1921).” (A traditionalist’s conception of French politics in the East: Viscount Joseph de Fontenay, plenipotentiary envoy alongside King Pierre I Karageorgevitch (1917–1921)). Guerres mondiales et conflits contemporains. No. 193. Dossier: La France à la recherche de sécurité (1920–1922), 1999, pp. 69–82.

“Die Vorgänge in Ungarn” (Activities in Hungary). Reichspost, September 28, 1909.

“Wicked French Mine for Triple Alliance: German Press Discovers Plot to Alienate Austria-Hungary though Bank.”. New York Times, 1908

Downloads

Published

2023-09-06

Issue

Vol. 16 (2023)

Section

General Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Marguerite de Huszár Allen

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.