40 years after the Treaty of Trianon, on 18 June, 1960 at a lecture for Hungarian emigrants at the University of Zurich, the text will soon be published in full by our Foundation, he explained:
“Well, I think we must first understand that Hungary is the heart of the Danube Basin. And for this reason, Hungary must play a major role in every solution.
However, to have an actual role, there must be unity in the Danube Basin. This unity is only possible if we can succeed in reconciling with the other nations who live in the Danube Basin.
None of the articles published on 4 June, 1960 actually said that Trianon was the right or a positive solution, but numerous critical articles appeared in both the English and American press. So you really have to be blind if you cannot see that, a grave and fatal mistake had been made when, instead of a free solution for the Danube region a solution was made which necessarily led to a disaster – as Jacques Bainville, an excellent French politician wrote in his book entitled Les conséquences politique de la Paix. In this regard, I think, now there is an almost complete consensus of opinion abroad.”
On 25 June, 1992 at a lecture given at the Dániel Berzsenyi Teacher Training College in Szombathely, he stated:
’’Let us not forget: it was not in the final days that we had come along a false path – through no fault of our own but that of others – with the Treaty of Trianon. It was there that the tragedy of Central and Eastern Europe began.
Without Trianon, Versailles and Saint-Germain, there would have been no Adolf Hitler, no World War II, no general collapse which we are now only, just slowly, step by step, recovering from.”
Badges from the Otto von Habsburg Foundation’s medal collection
