Austria |
Hungary |
Hungary–Austria relations are the neighborly relations between Hungary and Austria, two member states of the European Union. Both countries have a long common history since the ruling dynasty of Austria, the Habsburgs, inherited the Hungarian throne in the 16th century. Both have been part of the now-defunct Austro-Hungarian Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1921, after their separation.
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In the last decades of the Dual Monarchy, Austria and Hungary developed quite differently. In Hungary, the Magyar aristocracy and bourgeoisie tried to make the other nations of the multi-national kingdom Magyars within forty years: education was offered in Hungarian language only, place names and all official documents had to be written in this language as well. In multi-national Austria, on the contrary, the Basic Law of the State (Staatsgrundgesetz) of 1867 declared all nations of Imperial Austria equal, and the Germans as the leading nation did not try to Germanize the others. In the Kingdom of Hungary, the voting rights were kept to the upper classes, while in Austria universal, equal and direct voting of all men was established in 1907.
Prior to World War I, many aristocratic Hungarian families (like Esterházy, Batthyany and Pálffy) had their own palaces in Vienna, where their king (at the same time Emperor of Austria) resided. Some of them own these premises still today.
Politicians and generals of both leading nations, German Austrians and Magyar Hungarians, were responsible for the disastrous foreign policy of the Monarchy leading towards World War I. Thence these two were treated as defeated enemies after World War I by the Entente powers. Both shared the experience to see millions of nationals having to live in other countries: the Austrians were not allowed to integrate the Germans of Bohemia and Moravia into their republic, the Hungarians had to leave the Magyars of Transilvania to Romania and those north of the Danube river to Czechoslovakia (today: Slovakia).
According to the peace treaties of 1919 and 1920, Hungary had to cede its westernmost part, called Deutsch-Westungarn, to Austria, since these districts were inhabited by Germans for centuries. Ödenburg / Sopron would have been the natural capital of the new Austrian State of Burgenland. As Hungary did not agree to relinquish this city, the Entente ordered a plebiscite which was won by the Hungarian side. Although the polling was not considered regular by many Austrians, the decision proved to be definitive. The area called Burgenland by the Austrians was handed over to Austria in the autumn of 1921. Until today, in some communities of this Austrian state Hungarian may be used as official language. Hungarian aristocracy like the Esterházys and Batthyanys kept their vast estates here (while they were expropriated in Hungary in 1945).
The political development of Hungary and Czechoslovakia towards communist regimes after 1945 made Austrian politicians extremely cautious in their relations with the Communist Party of Austria, which did not get much support at the elections. The Iron Curtain made the Hungarians living near the Austrian border and the Austrians living near the Hungarian border feel the division of Europe quite personally.
During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Austrians hoped Imre Nagy, Pál Maléter and the thousands of revolutionaries would succeed. When the Red Army intervened, the Austrian neutrality, adopted in 1955, did not hinder the government to deploy the army, called Bundesheer, at the eastern border with the order to shoot any foreign soldier entering Austria. Over the bridge at Andau and on other ways tens of thousands of Hungarian refugees found their way into Austria. (In 1957, U.S. writer James Michener published his novel The Bridge at Andau.) The refugees were received in Austria with great sympathy.
The most prominent refugee was Archbishop Cardinal József Mindszenty, the Primas of Hungary. Liberated from imprisonment during the revolution, he lived at the American Embassy in Budapest until 1971, when he agreed to leave Hungary. He then travelled to Vienna under U.S. protection and lived at the “Pazmaneum“, a seminar for Hungarian priests, until his death in 1975. In 1991 his remains were buried at the cathedral in Esztergom in Hungary.
Another refugee of 1956 was Prince Pál Esterházy. Expropriated in Hungary, he lived from his vast estate in Burgenland (which today belongs to his widow Melinda Esterhazy). But as Burgenland seemed too close to communist Hungary for him, he preferred to reside in Zurich with his wife.
During the seventies, when János Kádár reduced the oppression by the communist dictatorship and performed politics called “Gulyás Communism“, and Bruno Kreisky was head of government in Austria, official relations between Hungary and Austria became rather friendly. Commentators, referring to the names of the two politicians, spoke of a new “K & K era“. In the eighties, in both countries plans were discussed to hold a joint world exhibition (”Expo 1996”) in Vienna and Budapest; a negative referendum on the issue, held in Vienna, killed the plan.
When the Hungarian government decided to tear down the Iron Curtain at the border to Austria, together with Austria a “tear-down action“ was staged, at which foreign ministers Alois Mock and Gyula Horn cut through barbed wire with pliers in the presence of international photo reporters on 27 June 1989[1]. The photo, published worldwide, prompted many East Germans vacationing in Hungary to move to West Germany via Austria immediately. Hungarian sources later explained that at the time of this “photo opportunity“ most of the Iron Curtain had already been demolished.
Meanwhile both countries entered the European Union, and since the end of 2007 the Schengen Agreement allows to cross the common border without control wherever there is a way to go or drive. Austrian entrepreneurs have set up or bought banks, factories and shops in Hungary, vintners from Burgenland make wine in Hungary, farmers use Hungarian farmland leased or bought.
Austrians living in the east of the country know that dentists in Hungary sometimes work much cheaper than in Austria and visit dentists there, for example in Sopron and in Mosonmagyaróvár. Hungarian craftsmen are called to Austria for repair works and other technical jobs in households.
The gasoline company OMV, partly owned by the Austrian state, in the last years tried to obtain economic influence on the Hungarian gasoline company MOL by buying shares of this company, - with the goal to merge the two companies after some time. Public opinion and government of Hungary were strictly against this movement, and a law was passed to obstruct it. On June 16, 2008 the European Commission had said that because OMV was already the biggest player in the oil and gas markets in central Europe, a tie-up with MOL would seriously hamper competition in the region.[2] In early 2009 OMV, seeing no chance to realize its plan, sold its MOL shares to a Russian energy company and announced to plan investments in other countries.
Factories in Burgenland are heavily polluting the Raba / Raab river flowing from Austria into Hungary. As the problems could not be solved on the local or regional level, the Hungarian government is now talking with the Austrian government on the question of the earliest possible remedy against the dangerous pollution.
In 2009, in both countries the composer Joseph Haydn's death 200 years ago is remembered. Haydn, born in Lower Austria, died in Vienna, has lived and worked for the Esterházy princes for 30 years in Western Hungary, part of which now is the Austrian Burgenland.
This railway company with headquarter in Sopron is a common enterprise of the states of Hungary (66.5 %)[3] and Austria (28.6 %) and a holding belonging to ÖBB Austrian Federal Railways (4.9 %), which is due to sell its shares to Strabag building company if European Commission agrees. In Hungarian it is called Győr-Sopron-Ebenfurti Vasút (GySEV), in German it has been called Raab-Oedenburg-Ebenfurther Eisenbahn (ROeEE) until 2008 and is now called Raaberbahn.
The company maintains the following railway lines:
The main line of the company was licenced to a private company by the Hungarian government in 1872, the Györ−Sopron track could be opened to traffic in 1876. The “Neusiedler Seebahn“ was opened in 1897. Neither the dissolution of Austria-Hungary nor World War II and the Cold War thereafter stopped traffic between the two countries.
Beginning in the eighties of the 20th century, the company got more business, especially in freight trains. A new freight terminal in Sopron was constructed. From 1987, the main line could use electric traction.
See: Website of the railway company, in English, Hungarian and German
Austria has an embassy in Budapest and six honorary consulates (in Pécs, Nyíregyháza, Szombathely, Székesfehérvár, Szeged and Veszprém). Hungary has an embassy in Vienna and eight honorary consulates (in Bregenz, Graz, Horitschon, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Linz, Maria Enzersdorf and Salzburg).
Both countries are full members of the European Union. They share 366 kilometers of common borders, which can be crossed anywhere without control due to the Schengen Agreement.
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