The Background

Switzerland is a particularly interesting medium for the Hungarian diaspora in Western Europe. The country, which is neutral, but at the same time particularly committed to humanitarian goals, has become an important meeting point for various intellectual and political currents. This openness was especially experienced in the second half of the twentieth century by those who, breaking out of the grip of communist dictatorships, sought their prosperity in the free world. A crucial element of the identity of the Swiss Confederation is that in 1848 the bourgeois revolution won. The importance of democratic structures, local autonomies, and respect for individual freedom come together in a strictly guarded order, the maintenance of which is not merely in the interest of the state, but also in the common will of the citizens of different nationalities; for continuous multi-party, grand coalition governance is guided not only by the well-known, albeit less-cultivated consensus, but also by the principle of concordance. This does not mean avoiding disputes and disagreements, but results in an approach that also overrides national identities, leading them into a well-defined channel, thus preventing the escalation of conflicts. This system, of course, also affects – it should affect – those who are not originally Swiss descendants, but who came from different parts of the world to live in Switzerland.

Switzerland received more than six hundred Hungarian university students in November 1956 and distributed them in various university cities: most of them settled in Zurich, but many went to the universities of Bern, Basel and Geneva. Following the official hearings, the young people were placed in families or dormitories, language courses were organized for them, and their as soon as possible integration was ensured. The author of these lines considers it a special gift that during his diplomatic service he became acquainted with not only those who came to the Alpine country in 1956, but also those who had already arrived in the 1930s and 1940s and helped the integration of the ’56 immigrants. Many successful careers indicate how prosperous the integration has been, in addition to the fact that in the system described above, everyone could certainly have preserved their Hungarian identity better than in many other European countries.

The sound recording, which will be published for the first time, was received by the Otto Habsburg Foundation from Dr. László Luka, a psychiatrist living in Geneva, who is still an iconic, popular figure of the Hungarian community in Switzerland. His recollection below is a good illustration of the kind of community solidarity that has developed among Hungarian students and how this has been received by the Swiss authorities.

“In February ’57, I received a letter from a Yugoslav refugee camp, a dear classmate of mine – with whom we had been in the same class for 12 years – asked for help to get out into Switzerland. This letter prompted us to form an association. This is how the Hungarian Student Association of Zurich was formed. As the first elected president of our association, I turned to the official Swiss forum to get my former classmate to enter. Unfortunately, they run out of money, was the answer. I convened an irregular meeting, and asked the participants to offer 5 francs a month from their scholarship, so that we could finance the studies of my friend from the refugee camp. The association unanimously accepted the proposal. With this recommendation, I went back to the officials, from whom I only asked to arrange the entry since the necessary financial resources were offered by the Hungarian students. This venture aroused such sympathy that the official Zurich committee admitted ten more Yugoslav students and awarded scholarships to each of them.”

The Venue

The patinaed building of the University of Zurich is a traditional venue for high-profile lectures, the appeal of which far exceeds the university environment. It is enough to refer only to Winston Churchill’s lecture of 19 September 1946, in which he spoke of the importance of European cooperation. Of course, Otto von Habsburg’s talk was completely different, but there is no doubt that he knew the weight of the speeches given there before him – this is clear from the arc of the ambitious perspectivism of his performance. However, the Swiss location meant more to Otto than this, as let us not forget that in 1959 his mother, Queen Zita moved to the Franciscan monastery of Zizers in the canton of Graubünden at the invitation of the bishop of Churi. Not far from Zurich lies Habichtsburg, “the ancient Habsburg nest” in the canton of Aargau. Muri, a former Benedictine monastery founded by the Habsburg family, is also nearby, where the heart urn of King Charles and Queen Zita was placed. Both the oldest dynastic and direct family ties and the atmosphere of modern European politics permeated the “spirit of the place”, which was undoubtedly dominated by the young audience and the use of the Hungarian language.

The Time

Nearly four years after the 1956 revolution, Hungarian students in Zurich, like the vast majority of Hungarian refugees of ’56 in Switzerland, had already seen the direction of their lives. The communist Hungary’s attention to emigrant organizations remained lively, and the memory of the conflict of August 16, 1958, which led to the death of one of the young Hungarians carrying out the operation at the Hungarian embassy headed by József Marjai, still occupied both domestic and Swiss authorities.

How much attention the Hungarian authorities paid to Otto von Habsburg’s lecture in Zurich is the subject of a further research, but it is certain that the secret service surveillance of Hungarian emigration was continuous.

At the time of the lecture, Otto von Habsburg was 48 years old and was living an important stage of his life. With his vast international experience before and during World War II, he intensively operated his extensive system of personal contacts. His work for the cause of the 1956 revolution also earned him great prestige among the younger generation of emigrants, unconditional adherents of the republican idea. In addition to the world political events covered by the lecture, Otto was also preoccupied with another far-reaching issue that affected him and his family personally, namely the possibility of returning to Austria. We know from Hellmut Andics, Austrian historian-journalist’s volume entitled Der Fall Otto Habsburg (Molden Verlag, 1965) that in the summer of 1960 the negotiations that sought to settle the status of the former Crown Prince were quite revived. Returning home from the Eucharistic Congress in Munich, Austrian Chancellor Julius Raab reported to the press that on August 7, 1960 – just over six weeks after the lecture in Zurich, – he had met with Otto von Habsburg, who made clear his intention to return to Austria. This was the first time Otto had taken the issue of return on an official path. All this indicates that at the time of the speech, a number of circumstances may have influenced Otto von Habsburg’s remarks.

The Lecture

Given the above, we should not be surprised that the arc of the lecture goes a long way from the fundamental issues of world political processes to the importance of children’s language learning. Although the questions are heard from the audience only after the lecture, their interest clearly proves that the lecturer has assessed the expectations well from the beginning, the applause that pops up during the lecture indicates the enthusiasm of the Hungarian students.

The purpose of this lengthy introduction is to make it clear that it is worth listening to and reading the 60-year-old recording and text of Otto von Habsburg. The fact that it is not a written speech, but a freely expressed process of thought, also without political clichés, makes the recording much more traceable and listenable. In his geopolitical analysis, he sheds excellent light on the situation of the great powers.

By introducing his audience to the background secrets of the post-World War II order he declares his position on the revision of the Treaty of Trianon and on the recovery of “annexed territories”. Under the pretext of the subject, referring to the dynastic mistakes of the past, he clearly commits himself to the principle of national self-determination. It is clear from his statements that he often cannot get rid of the idea either: as for the fate of Central Europe, there were also actors in the ranks of the Western powers who served Soviet interests. He is almost a visionary, as he sees the dilemmas that arise with the rise of China; at the same time, he spares no vitriolic sentences when he speaks of the chances of a world revolution and the fall of the left-wing intelligentsia — especially in relation to the international judgment of the ’56 Revolution. Regarding the UN apparatus – which “pushes the chariot of the Soviets more today” – he puts this particularly sharply: “Look, the last time I went to this rotten house on the East River, I attended a lunch there and then we talked about the problems. And please, everyone said that of course they don’t like communism, but, well, communism will triumph and we have to adapt eventually. This mentality prevails there.” In the Bang Jensen case, he makes a very specific charge. Nevertheless, we can learn from Otto von Habsburg that he considers Fidel Castro to be insane and the puppet of the Soviets, and he also refers to his personal encounter with Che Guevara.

He is not looking for cheap popularity among Hungarian refugees of ’56, since he makes it clear: after the liberation, the change of regime – and he says this in 1960! – “only the nation left at home can decide” what should happen next: “Hungarian legitimacy is at home and will remain at home. And our only duty and task is to serve this, whatever Hungarian decision comes next.” As he puts it, Central European cooperation has an important role in a unifying Europe, as this is the only way to counterbalance the interests of the continent’s great states. Finally, he gives very practical advice to young Hungarians living abroad: relationships need to be built and their children need to be taught Hungarian!

In his recently published book (The Habsburgs: The Rise and Fall of a World Power, Allan Lane, 2020), Martyn Rady, a Hungarian-born British historian, describes Otto von Habsburg with a difficult-to-translate sentence: “the best emperor the Habsburgs never had”. By which the author suggests that in terms of his analytical skills, world political insight, consistency, and tactical sense, the former Crown Prince stands out far from the century-old line of Habsburg rulers. Listening to the 1960 lecture, we can hardly doubt the truth of Rady’s concise characterization.

On behalf of the Otto von Habsburg Foundation, I am grateful to dr. László Luka for preserving and handing over the sound recording, as well as to Dr. Miklós Cserháti, who organized the event sixty years ago and who let me have a look in its details.

Gergely Prőhle