Hungarian Period (1907-1919)

From Karl Polanyi
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Key : “Name” or „Name”: article; Name: book; (Name): draft article; (Name): draft book; 'Name': Speech or Conference; <Name>: Plan; To {Personal Name}: letter

1907

World Events Polanyi's Extended Network(s) Polanyi's Life Date Document
A tudomány mödszere[The Scientific Method]

1908

World Events Polanyi's Extended Network(s) Polanyi's Life Date Document
He begins his seminar in psychology and philosophy, where Ernst Mach's Analyse der Empfindungen was discussed. 01.01-08.17
02.08 To György Lukács
07.21 To György Lukács
08.18 To György Lukács
The Galilei Circle is organized and P. is elected president. 11.22
12.09 To György Lukács
12.18 To György Lukács

1909

World Events Polanyi's Extended Network(s) Polanyi's Life Date Document
H. G. Wells, Tono-Bungay 02.xx A tudomány mödszere[The Scientific Method]
02.09 To Endre Ady
Rudolf Steiner, “The Gospel of St. John” (GA 112), Cassel (until 7th July) 06.24
He obtains the doctorate[1] at the University of Kolozsvár. 06.26
Late this year “he suffer[s] a series of illnesses.”[2] ? Kultura – ákultura[Culture - Pseudo-culture]

1910

World Events Polanyi's Extended Network(s) Polanyi's Life Date Document
H. G. Wells, The History of Mr Polly He lets the direction of Galilei Circle. 01-02.xx[3] Nézeteink válsága[The Crisis of our Ideologies]
Preface to Ernst Mach’s The Analysis of Sensations
10.xx Az orthodoxia fontosságáról[The Importance of Orthodoxy]

1911

World Events Polanyi's Extended Network(s) Polanyi's Life Date Document
Creation of the Great Orient of Hungary's lodge Archimedes, in Budapest[4] 02.25
H. G. Wells, The New Machiavelli Polanyi's appointment as chief editor of Szabadgondolat "coincided with his initiation into the Archimede's Masonic Lodge".[5] 03.xx Mi nem küzdünk a vallás ellen…[We do not Fight Religion]
04.xx A szabadoktatásért[Free Education]
05.xx Hit és hiszékenység[Credo and Credulity]
06.xx A destruktiv irányról[On the Destructive Turn]
10.25 To Maria Lukács

1912

World Events Polanyi's Extended Network(s) Polanyi's Life Date Document
01.31[6] To György Lukács
02.xx A Magyar irodalom válsága[The Crisis of Hungarian Literature]
He takes his law finals.
He leads a seminar on the historical philosophy of Hegel, Marx and Pikler.[7] 08.xx

1913

World Events Polanyi's Extended Network(s) Polanyi's Life Date Document
Dimitrije Mitrinović is in Munich. Az egyház a természeti[The Church is Natural]
01.xx Az ó-testamentomi[The Old Testament]
03.xx Az egyházi uradalmak[Religious Traditions]
04.xx Beszéd a meggyözödésröl[Speech on the Meaning of Conviction]
He speaks at the Martinovics commemoration day organized by the Society of Free Thinkers in Hungary. 05.13
05.xx Tanulság[A Lesson learned]
07.xx Az esküdtszéki reform[Reform of Jury]
07.xx Történelemtanitás a láthatáron[(History) on the Horizon]
07.xx Az angol példa[The English Response]
The Thursday, Polányi helds a seminar on social science, dealing with the history of Hegel, Marx and Pikler in particular[8] 08.05 Kétségeim (1)[My Doubts]
08.12 A Regnum Marianum cserkészei[A Regnum Marianum Scouts]
08.19
08.26
09.xx Kétségeim (2)[My Doubts]
10.xx Kétségeim (3)[My Doubts]
Kétségeim (4)[My Doubts]
He gives a forceful speech at the Music Hall against the planned press laws. 11.02
11.xx Radikális polgári politika[Radical Bourgeois Politics]
12.xx A strohmann[A Straw Man]
He joins the Archimedes free masonic lodge. 12.05

1914

World Events Polanyi's Extended Network(s) Polanyi's Life Date Document
Dimitrije Mitrinović goes to Munich.
S. G. Hobson, National Guilds: An Inquiry into the Wage System and the Way Out; H. G. Wells, The World Set Free
01.xx Review of Az egyelvű világszemlélet by Samu Fényes
02.07 To Michael
He lectures in the Archimedes lodge on the relationship of science to morals, for the first time.[9] 02.13
He lectures in the Archimedes lodge on the relationship of science to morals, a second time.[10] 02.20
He lectures in the Comenius lodge on the free thinkers’ movement.[11] He gives a lecture entitled "New Worldview"[12] 02.27
Szabadgondolat 4.3 He gives a series of lectures on relationship between freemasonry and the free thinkers’ movement. (March and April) 03.xx A magyar hegemonia és a nemzetiségek[The Hungarian Hegemony and the Nationalities]
03.14 To György Lukács
03.20 To György Lukács
He participates in the work of the organizing committee of the National Radical Bourgeois Party. (May) 05.xx Polgári radikálisok, szocialisták és törtenelmi ellenzé[Bourgeois Radical, Socialists and the Established Opposition]
Creation of the Civic-Radical Party. Polanyi is secretary. 06.06
The Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife are assassinated at Sarajevo 06.28
He gives conferences for the (N)CRP To Michael
Letter to unknown addressee
Beginning of WWI for Austria-Hungary in the Serbian Front 07.28
Dimitrije Mitrinović goes to London pennyless.[13] 08.14

1915

World Events Polanyi's Extended Network(s) Polanyi's Life Date Document
G. D. H. Cole formes the National Guilds League Early in this year, Polanyi is lieutenant in the Galician Front. He reads the Bible (and convert intimately to Christianism), and Shakespeare's Hamlet.[14]

1916

World Events Polanyi's Extended Network(s) Polanyi's Life Date Document
Robert Seton-Watson and Tomaš G. Masaryk both found and publish The New Europe, a weekly periodical to promote the cause of the Czechs and other subject peoples. Seton-Watson finances this periodical himself.

1917

World Events Polanyi's Extended Network(s) Polanyi's Life Date Document
G. D. H. Cole, Self-Government in Industry P. is brought back in Budapest as war invalid.[15] The Galilei Circle is now officially declared illegal.[16] End of the year

1918

World Events Polanyi's Extended Network(s) Polanyi's Life Date P.'s Document
WWI: treaty of Brest-Litovsk and end of the Eastern Front According to Henk Woldring, Lukács pre-Marxist period ends in this year[17] 03.03
04.xx A mai nemzedék hitvatása[The Calling of a Generation]
Rudolf Steiner, “Goethe's personal relationship with his Faust”, in Prague (GA 72) 06.12
“The second phase of his [political activities] beg[ins] in the Summer 1918.”[18] 08.xx A világbéke Dummer August-jai[The Clowns of World Peace]
10.xx Pártjaink és a béke[Our Parties and the Peace]
Aster Revolution in Hungary 10.28-31
Armistice of Villa Giusti between Austria-Hungary and Italy “Still from the hospital, P. s[eeks] to contact 'New Galileists' through his friend Tölgy. He would have liked to meet them. The answer is a rebuff.”[19] 11.03
11.xx Radikális párt és Polgári párt[Radical Party and Bourgeois Party]
Károlyi proclaims the Hungarian Democratic Republic 11.16
12.01 A Radikalizmus Programmja és Célja[The Programme and Goals of Radicalism]
12.xx A szocializmus próbája[The Test of Socialism]

1919 (until August)

[20]

World Events Polanyi's Extended Network(s) Polanyi's Life Date Document
“P. probably converts in 1919, a year that witnessed a “mass movement” of conversions of Budapest Jews to Christianity, particularly of the upper classes, and which included in its number Michael Polanyi and his friend Leo Szilard.”[21] 01.02 Katasztrófa - politika
Szózat a Galilei Kör ifjúgához[Oration to the Youth of the Galilei Circle]
01.xx Fizikai és szellemi munka[Manual and intellectual Labour]
“Hungary finds itself under attack from Czech-Slovak, Serb, and Romanian armies.”[22] 02.xx Internacionálé[International]
”The government orders the imprisonment of leaders of the Communist Party, banned its newspaper, and shut down its premises. The communist leader Béla Kun is beaten up in prison in the presence of a journalist, whose report occasioned 'a wave of sympathy for the bolsheviks [to sweep] over the capital.'“ This was a turning point.[23] 02.21
02.xx A tudomány autonomiája és az egyetem autonomiája[The Autonomy of Science and the Autonomy of the University]
03.01 Jog és erőszak[Law and Violence]
03.01 Polgárháború[Civil War]
The liberal-democratic Károlyi government is replaced by a new Soviet-influenced regime headed by Béla Kun. “Polanyi view[s] the handover with ambivalence. Although far from uncritical of the social democrats for having abandoned Károlyi in favor of an alliance with the Bolsheviks, or of the new government for its suppression of Szabadgondolat [and freemasonry], he believe[s] that no alternative regime [i]s viable, and he [gives] it credit for its social and cultural reforms. On Lukács’s invitation he accepte[s] an official position in the People’s Commissariat of Social Production.”[24] 03.21
O. Jászi let Hungary for Austria.[25] 05.01
“For the length of [this] single day he [is] communist: from the hospital he sen[d] a message to (…) György Lukács (…) to say 'I'm joining the Party'“[26] 05.02
“In June 1919, he [is] taken to Vienna to undergo a grave operation from which he recover[s], in some measure, after many months.”[27] 06. xx
“In the early summer of 1919, [Mises] led negotiations with representatives of the new—and as it turned out, short-lived—Communist government of Hungary, concerning the property rights of Austrian citizens in Hungary. The official leader of the Hungarian delegation was the ambassador to Austria, but this man rarely took part in the meetings and thus the real leaders on the Hungarian side were one Dr. Görög and one Dr. Polanyi. (…) P. had a brilliant mind and was a convinced Communist who clashed at many meetings with Mises, often in long discussions of fundamental questions of social philosophy”.[28] 07.xx
End of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, leaded by Béla Kun “Through the summer of 1919, P. convalesced in Eugenie Schwarzwald’s rest home called Helmstreitmühle, at Hinterbrühl , a suburb of Vienna. Schwarzwald must have seemed to him an Austrian pendant to his own mother. A pedagogue, social reformer, and feminist, she put her villa at the disposal of Hungarian left wing refugees, and ran a salon (…) at which regular guests included P.’s future political antagonist, the arch-conservative sociologist Othmar Spann, as well as several future acquaintances, such as the legal theorist Hans Kelsen and the philosopher of science Karl Popper.”[29] 08.01
(Kézirásos töredék svövege)

Notes and References

  1. Equivalent of a Master in English university
  2. Dale 2016a, 32.
  3. This article was published two times. First in 1910, in Huszadik Század [01/06, 6-8], and second in Szabadgondolat, 8.3, 1918 [01/06, 1-5].
  4. KODEK Günter K, [2009] Zwischen verboten und erlaubt. Die Chronik der Freimaurerei in der österreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie (1867-1918) une der I. Republik Österreich (1918-1938) , Wien, Löcker Verlag, 163.
  5. Múcsi 1990, 29. “This particular lodge had as its mandate reorganization of the Hungarian Association of Free Thinkers with the participation of nine 'masters' who had left the Comenius lodge. The founders of the group hoped to recruit students from the Galilei Circle, and to publish a journal for its members. Szabadgondolat thus came into being, and both the lodge and the journal strengthened by Polanyi's active participation.” [Ibid.]
  6. 01.27? In the Selected Correspondence of G. Lukács, Judith Marcus and Zoltán Tar, read '27' where Adam Fabry read 31.
  7. Gyurgyák 1986, 182
  8. Szabadgondolat, September, 304.
  9. Gyurgyák 1986, 182.
  10. Gyurgyák 1986, 182.
  11. Gyurgyák 1986, 182.
  12. Szabadgondolat 4.3, Movement
  13. RIGBY Andrew, [2006] Dimitrije Mitrinović. A Biography, 190 p.
  14. Duczyńska 1970, 29/12, 48.
  15. Duczyńska 1970, 29/12, 48.
  16. Duczyńska 1970, 29/12, 48.
  17. Henk Wolrding, [1986] Karl Mannheim. The development of his thought, New York, Saint Martin's Press, 79.
  18. Litván 1990, 31-32.
  19. Duczyńska 1970, 29/12, 49.
  20. I choose a psychological 'cut' in this period, August, because he seems to have a Hungarian political activity until this month; after this date he is not a Hungarian activist anymore, but a Hungarian man in exile. A physical 'cut' would have put June, because he arrives in June in Vienna for medical reasons… -- Santiago Pinault
  21. Dale 2016, 7.
  22. Dale 2016, 58.
  23. Dale 2016, 58. See also Wikipedia
  24. Dale 2016, 58. Dale uses: Congdon, [1991] Exile and Social Thought, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 218; an anonymous interviewee; and refers also to „Die neue Internationale“ [1925].
  25. Dale 2016, 72n199
  26. Duczyńska 1970, 29/12, 49.
  27. Duczyńska 1970, 29/12, 49.
  28. HÜLSMANN Jörg Guido, [2007] Mises: The Last Knight of Capitalism, e. 4269 / p. 343.
  29. Dale 2016, 63; See also Duczyńska 1970, 29/12, 50.