Colonel Attila Bonhardt, director of the Military History Archives
MúzeumCafé 13.
Attila Bonhardt got a taste of the ‘genre’ as a boy. The future archivist was first inspired by Géza Gárdonyi’s novel The Stars of Eger. This was followed by other books about history. His father worked as an engineer at the Csepel Iron and Metal Works, his mother was an accountant with the Oil and Gas Planning Company. What they both shared was a love of books. And so did their son. As a teenager walking among the cannons in Tóth Árpád Avenue on Castle Hill in Buda and standing about and gaping at the basement windows of the Military History Museum there, he was led towards his future profession. The restoration workshops were behind those windows. Corroded swords and guns were given a new lease of life there. In 1973 Bonhardt applied to study history and geography at Eötvös Lóránd University. Working his way thorough the foundation courses in history, he changed for a course on archives. What does an archivist do? Managing archives and being an archivist is a post for a civil servant and simultaneously a scientific appointment. After graduating, his path to the Military History Archives was open. He became an assistant archivist on 1 August 1979. At the time the profession was handed down on a succession basis. He spent 2-3 years with a colleague soon to retire whose special field covered the Horthy period. During his career his investigations have included the history of tank manufacture in Hungary, whose bare existence only a few knew about. He conducted interviews and traced many recollections in connection with a variety of themes. In 1997 Attila Bonhardt went to Vienna. Soon after his return to Hungary and following the retirement of the then director he was appointed to head the Military History Archives in the rank of colonel.