Bourgeois progress in 19th-century Hungary
MúzeumCafé 17.
How did it come about that the bourgeoisie played an important role in industry, commerce, science, culture and public life during the 19th century in Hungary? This is the theme of a travelling exhibition about several noted dynasties, which opens on the Night of Museums in June and closes in October 2011. The exhibition will appear in Salgótarján, Nagycenk, Békéscsaba, Oradea, Nyíregyháza, Košice and Zalaegerszeg. The story of the ‘century of development’ is told through the fortunes of family histories and their leading figures: Mór Fischer (1800–1880), a former inn-keeper on the Esterházy estate in Tata; Frigyes Korányi (1828–1913) the founder of a Pest dynasty of doctors; Sándor Korányi (1866–1944). Ábrahám Ganz, who was born in 1814 in Embrach near Zurich. Bavarian-born András Mechwart, who came to Buda as a mechanical engineer in 1859 and worked with Ábrahám Ganz. Then there was the Sina family, which came to the Habsburg Empire from southern Albania. György Sina (1782–1856), who was involved with commerce, was made a baron in 1832. He was the chief financier of the Chain Bridge and it was he who ensured the involvement of the Rothschild bankers. Violinist and composer Márk Rózsavölgyi (1789–1848) was born into a family of merchants. János Bihari (1764–1827), ‘the Hungarian Orpheus’, arrived in Pest around 1801. Among the chosen subjects of bourgeois development with an artistic connection, the fate of József Borsos (1821–1883) is the most interesting. The Eastern Slovakia Museum in Košice is presenting Imre Henszlmann (1813–1888), the internationally known figure of Hungarian art history and monument protection. The final exhibition will take place in the Göcsej Museum in Zalaegerszeg.