Nation-Building and Contested Identities: Romanian & Hungarian ...

The Intellectual Horizons of Liberal Nationalism in Hungaryitself is more absurd than to invent the perpetuum mobile, which is permanentlyin move, without external influence. 10Horváth’s positive evaluation of the achievements of the French Revolutionwas expressed in the article “Europe’s internal conditions fromthe French Revolution onwards” (1839), which reflected the ideas ofWilhelm Wachsmuth. Horváth believed that the revolution significantlycontributed to the development of civilization. Though not Europewide,certain phenomena, such as the limitation of Church influence,new laws regulating civil and criminal conditions, the emancipation ofthe Jews, the abolishment of serfdom, or the immense improvementof sciences were all relevant proofs of the obvious development. Interestingly,Horváth, who always sought to offer a balanced evaluation, didnot find one remotely negative aspect which could have been associatedwith the revolution. Thus, he completely shared Wachsmuth’s evaluationwho declared, in his Geschichte Frankreichs im Revolutionzeitalter (TheHistory of France in a Revolutionary Age), that for Europe the FrenchRevolution could only do good.The two most influential German authors in this context wereundoubtedly Wachsmuth and Heeren. Horváth occasionally translatedtheir work, without referring to the original source. Yet, it would not besensible to dismiss all these writings with the excuse that they lackedoriginality. It is more useful to examine the function of these articles.Mid-19 th century academic scholarship in Hungary was not fully developed:the institutionalization and professionalization of the historicaldiscipline was in an initial phase and this process could not be completedovernight. Naturally, the establishment of scholarly institutions, periodicals,and the framework of the discipline took considerable time.Thus, it was unrealistic to expect that within short time original Hungarianworks, based on extensive study of sources, would appear. In themeantime, translations or summaries of foreign articles could fill the gapbetween desires and realities. This attempt was often undertaken in aninstitutional setting. For instance, in 1832, the Hungarian Academy ofSciences compiled a list of books to be translated, which also includedHeeren’s and Wachsmuth’s works.Horváth’s articles were written with the purpose to familiarize thelearned public with contemporary Western developments, and informingthem about academic scholarship elsewhere. In providing a summary offoreign achievements, there was no need to be particularly original.On the other hand, Horváth’s articles often adopted foreign ideas to theconditions of Hungary, thereby endowing the analyzed issues with localrelevance. These writings offered an aspect of innovation, even though29