On 30 March, we recorded a podcast with genealogist János József Gudenus. The questions were posed on behalf of our Foundation by Gergely Fejérdy, Deputy Scientific Director, and Ferenc Vasbányai, Librarian. The career path that emerges from his responses can be considered representative of the fate of the Hungarian aristocracy in the decades following the Second World War.
A member of the Austrian branch of the family, Erwein Gudenus, was a steadfast supporter of the House of Habsburg and, in recognition of his merits, was awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece by the Crown Prince in 1932.
Investiture of members of the Order of the Golden Fleece, Steenokkerzeel, Belgium (1932).
From left to right: Archduke Robert of Austria-Este, Archduke Gottfried, Prince Maximilian of Hohenberg, Otto von Habsburg, Baron Erwein Gudenus, Count József Cziráky, Count József Károlyi, Count Heinrich Degenfeld.
János Gudenus, born in 1947 into the impoverished Hungarian branch of the family, was educated at the Benedictine Secondary School in Pannonhalma, one of Hungary’s most prestigious monastic schools. There, through daily encounters with individuals persecuted under the communist regime and with members of the Catholic clergy, he developed a lasting interest in the modern history of the Hungarian aristocracy. His early research was supported by the monastery’s exceptionally rich library.
He completed his secondary education in 1965 and has been engaged in systematic data collection ever since. In its early stages, his work relied almost entirely on personal trust and was largely confined to the territory of Hungary as defined after the Treaty of Trianon (1920). From the second half of the 1980s onwards, his research gradually expanded beyond these limits.
The first major result of his decades-long research was published in 1989: Shattered Coats of Arms: The Fate of the Hungarian Aristocracy and Post-1945 Hardships – An Introduction to a Sociological Study, co-edited with László Szentirmay. Within a few months, 40,000 copies were sold. This was followed, between 1990 and 1999, by the five-volume series Genealogy of the Twentieth Century Hungarian Aristocracy.
After completing what is often referred to as the “Hungarian Gotha Almanac” – a comprehensive genealogical reference work – Gudenus has remained actively engaged in scholarly work. Since 2005, he has been the editor of Nobilitas, an annual published by the Association of Hungarian Historical Families.
