Seite - 373 - in Rudolf Eitelberger von Edelberg - Netzwerker der Kunstwelt

Across the Leitha 373 equally result in identification with the hegemonic German and Hungarian cultures, and this is precisely what can be observed in the cases of Eitelberger, Henszlmann and Pulszky. Evidence of such identification can be seen in the early activity of Henszlmann. In the 1840s he edited and published a short-lived journal Vierteljahrsschrift aus und für Ungarn. Its objective was to promote the Hungarian demand for cultural and social autonomy ; the fact that it was printed in German makes clear that it had a double au- dience : German speakers in Hungary and political officials in Vienna. On the one hand it reads like a deliberate provocation, for it purposely agitated for the superior status of Hungarians over other groups in the Kingdom of Hungary, and this view was not unique to Henszlmann. The first volume contains correspondence between Pulszky and Count Leo Thun in which Pulszky claimed that : Das slavische Volk […] wo ich wohne, und in der Umgegend, steht auf der untersten Stufe der Civilisation, der Adel ist ungarisch, die Bürger setzen ihren Stolz darein, selbst wenn sie geborne Slaven sind, Deutsche zu scheinen.27 The exchange between the two prompted the appearance of an anonymous polemical pamphlet Vertheidigung der Deutschen und Slaven in Ungarn, which levelled numerous accusations against Henszlmann for the factual inaccuracies of his claims as well as his general political outlook.28 Yet despite the apparent chauvinism of his comments, they were not expressions of the nationalism so often associated with nineteenth century Hungary, but rather of a liberal view that saw Hungarian national culture as having a broader civilizational mission (comparable to what Austrian Liberals held to be true of German culture). As Henszlmann himself noted : Selten wird daher der Maßstab für den Liberalismus nicht auch der für die Nationalität selbst sein, und je öfter ein früher slowakisches Comitat auf dem Reichstage mit der Partei des Fortschrittes stimmt, desto mehr muß es sich ungarisiert haben.29 27 “The Slavic people […] where I live and in the surrounding region is on the lowest level of civili- zation, the nobility is Hungarian, the city burghers take much pride in appearing German, even if they are both Slavs.” Briefwechsel zwischen Leo, Grafen von Thun und Franz von Pulszky, in : Vi- erteljahresschrift aus und für Ungarn, I, 1843, pp.  61–91, esp. p. 65. This was part of an exchange in response to Thun’s pamphlet Die Stellung der Slowaken in Ungarn, Prague 1843. 28 R. Binder, Vertheidigung der Deutschen und Slaven in Ungarn : Die Kehrseite der Vierteljahress- chrift aus und für Ungarn, Leipzig 1843. 29 “Seldom will the measure of Liberalism not also be that for the nation itself, and the more often a formerly Slav county votes in the Diet with the Party of Progress, then the more it must have