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Wage and Subsistence: German Infantry during the Fifteen Years' War
A significant number of German soldiers served in the Kingdom of Hungary in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Some of them served in strongholds of strategic importance comprising the Hungarian border defence system, which had been developing from the end of the 1520s. Despite their signifi cance, the co-habitation of these soldiers with the urban bourgoisie and the Second Estate began to attract interest in Hungarian historical scholarship only recently. About the others, who arrived with the yeomanry, there is even less information. Who were these German foot soldiers, Landsknechts, serving in Hungary? Which layer of German society did they come from? Why did they choose military service, or more exactly, what did they turn their backs on to take up service instead? Unfortunately, the muster rolls, which are the primary archival sources containing answers to these questions, are scarce: from the period of the Fifteen Years' War only three such documents survive.
In this present essay, I have endeavoured to reconstruct from sources and German-language scholarship the profi le of people who undertook service in German infantry regiments for wages agreed on by the parties at musters (military and arms inspection). The examination of a soldier's expected (but not always received) monthly wages and expenditure reveals that this income of mercenaries, often arriving with their families, was not suffi cient to cover their living costs. In spite of the frequent default of payment, the musters show an oversupply of mercenaries during the period of the Fifteen Years' War. This can be explained by other opportunities of income to complement unpaid military wages. The soldiers may have been involved in fraud or the systematic pillage of nearby population. Furthermore, their spouse and children could also contibute to the family income.
„Was not dragged in threatened by kill, I've signed up by my own free will': Voluntarism and Conscription in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century and the Hungarian National Defence Force of the 1848–49 War of Independence
The soldiers of the National Defence Force in the Hungarian War of Independence in 1848–49 are remembered both in literature and historical scholarship more differentiated: besides the volunteers, from September 1848 there were also conscripts, who were selected or assigned by local authorities by order of Prime Minister Lajos Batthyány. This arrangement was similar to the conscription system in the Austrian Empire, which had been applied only partially in Hungary. The conscription, however, was only decreed when the country received an external attack. For the supression of the Serbian rebellion in the country, militiamen were deployed besides the enlisted soldiers. The militiamen were mobilised for the theater of war in various ways. At the same time, the organisation of the defence forces was facilitated by the wide national backing, which almost obliged any capable young man to enlist. Th eir performance in war was encouraged by the internal cohesion of military corps, which the Hungarian army strived to maintain both by conventional means (e.g. battle standards, distinguishing features, closed task forces), and by the idisyncratic methods and characteristics developed specifi cally in the Hungarian Defence Forces. These elements contributed to the outstanding military success and that eventually the enormous Russian military force had to be deployed to overcome the Hungarian Defence Forces.
Irredenta Cult and War Propaganda in School Celebrations, 1939–1944
Why was the irredentism so successful and supported by the wide circle of society? The reasons are probably the following: it was connected to a special occasion by touching the whole society itself, so the social experience and the meaning of cult were concurred. The palling of cult – among others – was related with the exchanging of the actual generation. The new generation wasn't had the personal experience about the historical Hungary – that's why the political leaders of the period tried to inoculate with revisionism irredentism the new generation through ceremonies of schools (which were the part of institutionalized educational system).
My study based on manuals of ceremonies for teachers. I analyzed that how can manipulate ceremonies of schools the changing political aims between the two world wars. By the analyzed plays, scenes, dramas (for schools ceremonies) it can be told that the speeches and roles of these were all served the momentary aims of the actual political leadership. And they transmitted the actual countersigns, goals, attitude, and picture of enemy towards the children. The ceremonial speeches and roles reflecting steady tendencies. It follows that we can talk about a formally existed revisionistic – moreover, irredentist in the level of sources – cult by the political regime between the two world wars.
Th at cult wasn't ended by entering the Second World War but significally overshadowed and – parts of it – transformed. It helped the actual aims of the political regime: mobilization in war or rather the common effortment and trust of community for the winning of war.
Flagships of Hungarian Consumer Socialism: Civilian Production of the Armaments Industry, 1953–1963
Imre Nagy's 1953 government platform set targets to increase the production of articles for daily use and to improve nutrition and basic supplies for the population following the darkest years of the Rákosi-dictatorship. Converting military industry production posed an extraordinary challenge, as, except for carry-overs from the interwar years, these companies had scarcely dealt with civilian products, and the majority of their military products had been based on Soviet licences: hardly any of them undertook independent research and development. The companies had to fi nd a new "secondary" profi le and new consumer/exchange products, and put them into production, whilst maintaining military production capabilities and equipment. This shift toward consumer goods also signified diversification of production everywhere: in place of the manufacture of a few licensed products in bulk came production of many kinds of articles, partially constructed on the basis of independent development. The demand for washing machines, refrigerators, televisions and motorcycles, however, also points to the appearance and intensification of other social requirements and consumer expectations. Following the defeat of the 1956 revolution, the Kádár government, not wishing repeated confrontations with society, had to give in to "consumer pressure" in some way. Hungarian industrial management found a practical solution to this: the manufacture of durable consumer goods (1956–60) allocated to military industry companies struggling with the problem of utilising capacities. The decisive articulation of consumer demands and interests at the end of the 1950s, therefore, became a factor in shaping economic and industrial policies even inside the socialist system. Hungary's political leadership, industrial managers, and workshops all displayed great adaptability; all in all, the construction of a dual profile (military and civilian) made a fundamental contribution to increasing the effi ciency of the national economy.
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