GYMNASTIC EXERCISES, OR "WORK WRAPPED IN THE
GOWN OF YOUTHFUL JOY": MASCULINITIES AND THE
CIVILIZING PROCESS IN 19TH CENTURY HUNGARY
By Mikl6s Hadas
The Subject and its Context
Corvinus University of Budapest
The aim of this article is to highlight how masculine dispositions have
changed in the course of the civilizing process, and how a major drive for
change-modem man-was born in the 18-19th centuries. On the basis of
Hungarian data it is intended to point to some universal traits of this process.
The overriding thesis is that masculine behavioural patterns were channelled
into new directions: the drive to fight, to kill the enemy was gradually built upon
by competitive and, later, by co-operative dispositions. It is argued that various
existential conditions produce different habituses, which can be transferred
to diverse areas of practice. Consequently, sports--duelling, fencing, hunting,
horse racing, rowing, gymnastics, athletics, cycling and football-might be regarded
as indicators that show the changing behavioural patterns of different
social groups.
My inquiries are based on two mutually adaptive "great narratives": Norbert
Elias' civilization theory and Pierre Bourdieu's sociology. What differentiates
my position from that of these two giants is that I ascribe distinguished
importance to specificities derived from the continuously changing patterns of
masculinity. This is possible on the basis of adopting the main canon of men's
studies-according to which masculinity is a culturally and historically conditioned
changing social phenomenon.' In other words, the article belongs to the
area of relational disposition sociology investigating the long-term transformation
of the "structured structures" oflasting non-conscious behavioural patterns man~
ifest in continuous improvisations during the everyday practice and perceivable
in bodily traits.
Elias drew a parallel between the "parliamentarization" of the squire and the
"sportization'' of leisure-time, saying that the people who sent the deputies to
the parliament pursued sports in one another's company, motivated by similar
habitus components irrespective of their political orientation.r His argument also
warns that it would be ill advised to take parliamentarianism as the cause and
sporting customs as the effect, as both phenomena are conditioned by the same
structural specificities of 18th century English society. Bourdieu expresses es~
sentially the same relation in the following way: "various existential conditions
produce different habituses, which can be simply transferred to diverse areas of
practice.P
In the following, by comparing gymnastic exercises with rowing and fencing,
I do not intend to suggest that one stemmed from the other, or that there is
some causal relation between them. In other words my work remains at the
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level of sociological ideal-types. At the same time, historical events, facts and
relations are indispensable sources of the discussion. The statements are based
on empirical historical-sociological research carried out using an inductive logic:
in the course of the research, I analyzed as many of the available sources and data
as possible in order to find which leisure-rime activities were the most typical
and frequently pursued in various periods in the upper strata of 19th century
Hungarian society. My data and sources were primarily qualitative: memoirs,
diaries, correspondence, publications and press coverage of important people of
the times.
In my book I ascribed great significance to the emergence and changes of
organizational frames. When, for example, a source indicated that a group of
aristocrats established a share-holding company with the intent of introducing
horse racing, and, related to that, I found many entries in the diary of one of
the leading Hungarian aristocrats about horse racing, let alone a whole book
about horses which was later responded to by another aristocrat, I deemed this
amount of information sufficient to interpret horse racing as a salient activity,
even though in the 1830's there were fewer than ten races each year. Or, when
based on a monographic elaboration of the Press of a period I found that rowing
clubs mushroomed to such an extent that the largest number of sports unions
at a given time in Hungary were rowing clubs, then the question appeared selfevident:
what lay behind this institutionalization? Why did these sports unions
arise, what do these different groups express, and, ultimately, what effect did
they have in the transformation of masculine dispositions?
My aim is, however, not to outline Hungarian specificities in a comparative
context, but to explore what is universally European in these specificities. I wish
to sketch the general model of the emergence of modern-time European masculine
dispositions on the basis of this particular sample: I am intrigued by the
social genesis of modem man. This explains why I ignore questions such as: cornpared
to Germany, why gymnastics have less importance in Hungary, or, why did
cycling spread earlier or later (if ever) in other countries, or again, why certain
sports activities which are pursued in other places (bull fighting, badminton,
sailing, rugby, etc.) did not take root in Hungary.
Since my inquiry concentrates on the long term changes of masculine dispositions,
I did not examine the afterlife of the activities studied. According to one
of my central theses, masculine dispositions were channelled into new directions
in Western and Central Europe from the late 18th century onwards: the drive
to fight, to kill the enemy were gradually built upon by competitive masculine
dispositional patterns. I wished to verify this thesis by analysing, among others,
the transition from hunting to fox hunting, then to horse racing and rowing. If
I had conceived a historical work, I would be rightly charged that the activities
I declared "superseded" did not vanish from social practice, as people still hunt
to this day, and indeed hunted even more extensively in the late 19th century.
True, but the social importance of hunting at the tum of the 20th century was
nowhere near that of a hundred years earlier, as the aristocrats and middle-class
gentlemen, at that time, took part in far more athletic activity, cycling or even
football in their leisure time.
As is known, Elias studied centuries-long processes in the vast West Euro-
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THE CIVILIZING PROCESS IN 19TH CENTURY HUNGARY 163
pean region, the activities analyzed ranging from behaviour at table through
nose-blowing and sexuality to battlefield behaviour. Aiming to write about the
"deeper unity" and "common keynote" of national traditions, and the "unified
affective regulation" "despite the diversity of national schemes" which isstill (in
the mid, 20th century) felt to be "the common heritage of the West", Elias rep'
resents a position which focuses on the convergent features of the phenomenon
studied instead of the divergences of the parts." How far can the relevance horizon
of the present study be stretched, then, if its subject is far narrower than
Elias', restricting the historical period at issue to the 19th century, the social space
to Hungary and the activities to (pre-) sports?
In my opinion, a study of this kind may produce significant methodological
gains: ifwe succeed in proving that the theory of the civilizing process can be applied
feasibly to specificities of 19th century Hungarian society, we may test four
possibilities of verifying Elias' paradigm and corroborate the almost peerlessly
strong relevance of the theory. First, if we presume that our subject is a random
sample the success of our undertaking may prove the homogeneity of Elias' theory.
Second, if the subject is conceived as a deliberately chosen restricted sample, not
examined by Elias, our analysis might be interpreted as the verification of the
expansiveness of his theory. Third, if our subject is seen as a concentrated sample
(compared to Elias' broad spatial and temporal horizon) our research may verify
the density of his theory. If, finally, we stress again that key bourdieusien concepts
and the outcomes of the new men's studies have crucial importance in our work,
a fourth aspect may be added to the above three. In that case, the examination
of 19th century Hungarian sports not only affords the possibility to verify the
homogeneity, expansiveness and density of Elias' paradigm but it may also con,
tribute to answering further questions posed with the help of other paradigms. If
convincing answers are given to our basic questions, then we shall have provided
verification of the flexibility of Elias' theory, i.e. its compatibility withother theories.
In other words: combining Elias with Bourdieu and the new men's studies may
imply not only paradigm expansion but also paradigm synthesis.
Gymnastic exercises vs. rowing and fencing
"Cultured people have many other gymnastic exercises and games which were
originally devised for physical strengthening. They are all fragments from our an,
cestors' muscular efflorescence and from the ancient world of the Greeks. These
fragments, however, are only prevalent in certain regions and certain classes of
the population, and are practiced only rarely: therefore they cannot be regarded
as tools of national education customary for all, but as rare festivities and pas,
times. Consequently, they are non,existent for millions: and if we ignore here
the 'idle walks' and journeys on foot, for the majority of the people there are
only card games and the night's rest as a source of recreation. For, where is ana,
tion that has public national institutions for the strengthening of physical man
or public festivities designed for similar purposesi'"
The credit for the introduction of gymnastic exercises into Hungary in an or,
ganized form isdue to a Frenchman, Ignacz Clair, a former captain of Napoleon's
guards who arrived in Pest in the mid,1820s.6 In the early 1830s he held train,
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164 journal of social history fall 2007
ing sessions in his own gymnastic institute for both boys and girls. This school
was converted into the Gymnastic Society in 1839. As the Society's yearbook
for 1852 reveals, between 1839-1851 the number of boys and girls who attended
the training sessions were 1326 and 497 respectively, and 53 people were trained
to become instructors. A total of 108 people attended the school in the first year.
The number of pupils gradually increased: in 1842 there were 150, in 1848 171,
in 1852 (after a slight drop) 184. Clair's institute was opened in the garden of
a house in the Theresia district on the outskirts, so it was not in the city centre.
"Exercising" did not go on all day but only between 6-8 pm, for women on
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, for men on the other days.7 In this period,
there was only one similar institution in Hungary: the Fencing School (founded
in 1824).
The two most prestigious positions of the "directing board" of five were held
by two aristocrats: Count Man6 Zichy as patron and Baron Gabor Pr6nay as director.
The three other members of the directing board plus all the members of
the "general board" of twenty'three were however of middle class origin. Typically
enough, only one general board member had a Hungarian name: the fa,
mous fencing master of later years, J6zsef Szekrenyessy. The others all had German
names. The 22 share~holders for life who set up the foundation included
12 counts and barons from great historical families-from Batthvanys through
Szechenyis to Zichys. The largest investment was made by Count Man6 Zichy
at 1000 pengo forints. Most of the others offered 200 forints. The rest of those
making endowments-five of them with German names-were not aristocrats.
They also included the municipality of Pests.
Those who owned just one share each (worth 10 pengo forint) numbered 115.
Among them, only three had the title of count or baron (as well as a concomitant
Hungarian name). 15 of the remaining 112 had Hungarian names, the rest
being foreigners, mostly German. All this adds up to confirm that the Gymnastic
Society was already basically an institution of the middle class. This holds true
even if it is accepted that the decisive role in its establishment (together with
the creation of the necessary financial basis) was played by the aristocracy-just
as that of the Fencing Institute.
Although the literary and pedagogical initiatives to introduce gymnastic exercises
as collective sport preceded the institutionalization of rowing and fencing,
the two other emerging new sports of the period by nearly a century, the be'
ginnings of its organized practice coincided with these of rowing and fencing.
Besides, unlike duelling and fox hunting, which practically ceased in Hungary
from the 1920s onwards, and hunting and horse racing which later were not
considered to be sports in a strict sense, these three activities proved suitable to
crystallize as modern sports after a course of rationalization and standardization.
The major function of the duel, an earlier form offencing, was to maintain and
defend the honour of a nobleman and his family. In historical terms, this offered
a "side door" for the archaic masculine drive to fight in an increasingly more civilized
and rationalized world through which these urges can still be satisfied for
some decades, thus assisting the harmonious transformation of the dispositions
as much as possible. Fencing, by offering the illusion of a duel, was a prosthesis,
expressing both gentlemanly conduct and elevated virility. In this activity
masculine honour became civilized into masculine posture, indicating that an
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inheritable, traditional, morally embedded activity gradually transforms into a
self,controlled modem social institution. While the aim of duelling was to take
satisfaction for a stain on masculine pride via the annihilation or wounding of
the adversary, revenge is replaced by an almost wholly stylised presentation in
fencing. The fencing schools, founded during the first part of the 19th century,
were already public, autonomous, independent and legitimate organizations pro'
viding a suitable frame and form for the acquisition and routine practise of a
repeated and rationally carried on activity.f
Although originally the boat'related pastimes of the aristocracy served ad,
venture and amusement to a large extent, the structure of the activities of horse
and boat races was practically identical. Implying low risk, both were staged on
the basis of the principle of fair play; both have contestants starting side by side
under identical circumstances and heading towards a common goal. However,
rowing was a less exclusive activity than horse racing, hence its practitioners
soon included people from ranks below the aristocracy. By civilizing hunting to
horse'racing from the mid,19th century onwards, the aristocracy frees the spirit
of competition from the bottle for good, allowing for the middle classes, regarded
as their allies in the given historical-political context, to take part in the game
under identical conditions. Thus, rowing competitions can be interpreted as
manifestations of masculine dispositional rivalry between middle-class citizens
and aristocrats. The representatives of these two social classes could match their
competence in a struggle where the dispositional arsenal of the middle classes
ensures a more favourable outcome.
The most evident feature common to gymnastic exercises, rowing and fencing-which
becomes obvious if we compare them with horse racing, one of
the most preferred leisure'time activities of the highest social strata in the first
part of the 19th century-is that they are human sports. In addition, they are
more tightly bound to individualistic body building ideologies. In all three sports
from the very beginning the communities (mainly clubs, societies and unions)
founded for their cultivation were flexible enough not to exclude members of
other social groups. In their foundation an essential element was rallying in the
spirit of class solidarity based on the extension of rights: the aristocratic founders
of the Pest National Fencing School spelled out in the Rules in 1824 that pupils
"can only be admitted from the middle class".l0
Another important common characteristic of fencing, rowing and gymnastic
exercises is the far smaller risk implied by them as compared to earlier activities
such as hunting. In these sports there were no physical contacts between the
participants, so violence was only present symbolically (as in fencing). In addition,
all require (self) discipline, tolerance of monotony, and self-denial, that is
the capability to suppress immediate needs. (However, gymnastic exercises-as
will be seen--differ in this regard from the other two, as they tend to eliminate
not only fighting but also immediate rivalry from its repertoire.)
A further element shared by these newly emerged sports is their relatively
low degree of standardization. (This is particularly obvious when we compare
them with their later crystallized forms. Just think of the differentiation of various
fencing categories: sword, foil, epee, the diversification of rowing by boat
type, or modern gymnastics by apparatus!) In the first half of the 19th century
not only was the duration of a sports event was not fixed (no one could fore'
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166 journal of social history fa112007
see how long a gymnastic demonstration, rowing or fencing match would last)
but the spatial parameters of the venues were also undefined. It was also uncertain
whether an event was to be held indoors or outdoors. At the same time all
three had the modernizing potential required for their transformation-hence
standardization-which is to be stressed in our contexts.
Let us examine the major differences!
Gymnastic exercises can be considered as a kind of umbrella sport; or to be
more precise, in the first half of the 19th century when the term "sport" was
yet as little used in the European continent, gymnastics and gymnastic exercises
meant for most people what we today understand by the word sport. Its
protagonists took it for granted that rowing and fencing-and practically all
systematic movement aimed at developing the human body-were part of gymnastics.
Characteristically enough, Ignacz Clair taught not only gymnastics but
also fencing:
"The gymnastic institute of Mister Ignacz Clair ( ... ) in which both boys and girls
can learn on separate days various physical movements and training of strength
with great success and usefulness for their health. They can combine gymnastic
exercises with fencing, of which Mr Clair is also a master."n
But while fencing and rowing were practised relatively rarely, gymnastic exercises
came gradually into the focus of the middle-class citizen's way of life. Thus,
this activity can rightly be interpreted as a good indicator of the body politics of
the emerging middle classes.
Fencers fight, rowers compete with each other. However, even if we accept
that there is a gap of civilization between fighting and competition we should
also take into account that both of these sports can only be practised in the cornpany
of other participants. No one can fence against himself, nor can a boat race
be held without rivals. In this respect, gymnastics is definitely different, as the
elements of both fighting and rivalry are mostly absent. In the mid- 19th century,
gymnastic exercises denote the collective body-building and training exercises
carried out in the presence of a master or instructor. In a gymnastic society a
person's qualities are usually not defined against another's strength, dexterity,
speed because a gymnast competes primarily against him- or herself. The main
concern of the activity is defined in comparison with the gymnasts' past condition
or potential future state. The practitioners of gymnastic exercises wish to
"establish and maintain" their health by "purposeful work", via exercises aiming
at "endurance, strength, dexterity and physical beauty"-to cite the journal
Honmuvesz again.
The activity is most clearly separated from all other newly emerged sports and
traditional pre-sports by its practitioners being mainly children and not adults.
Bydefinition, gymnastics is "work wrapped in the gown of youthful joy". In other
words, work is done by children under the guidance of a tutor as master. The
mentioning of joy is nothing, just an excuse for legitimating the adults' will.
The Enlightenment and the spiritual sources of gymnastic exercises
A nobleman wields the sword out of pride and masculine virtue; the instrument
is the symbol of his nationality and nobility, his desired and real power, and
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even of his own and his nation's independence. He is guided by his traditional
feudal way of life embedded in the national past when he decides to acquire the
art of fencing. It would never occur to him not to learn the tricks of this weapon.
Even if he employs a fencing master of foreign origin (who teaches him the use
of the stabbing foil instead of the cutting sword) he is convinced that he follows
the Hungarian national fencing traditions. (It is no accident that he engages
Italian or French fencing masters, as this decision is compatible with his hostility
against Austrians.) Rowing, on the other hand, appears to be an imported
gaudy extravagance for him, the aping of fashion-mongers, nothing more than
a new Anglo-maniac vagary. This provincial attitude is mocked in Honderii in
the following way:
"Your Excellency the County Judge Mr Retrograde walked all along the Danube
bank in Pest. Mr Retrograde belongs to the national flaneurs who come to a halt
whenever he sees a new thing, puts his left leg forward, leaves his right hand in
the pocket of his trousers, wags his head a few times saying: well I never. and walks
on. During his stroll through Pest our friend reached the Boat House. Boat-house,
eh? What nonsense can that be? ( ... ) What's that for? Who lives in it? ( ... )
Would it were in my village, in Nadudvar, we could at least bathe the sheep in
it."12
The reference horizon of gymnastic exercises is far more complicated than that
of the other two (and, we may add, of the other pre- sports). It is therefore worth
taking a closer look at it, with emphasis on a few less well known components of
its history. From May 8, 1836 successive issuesof Honmuvesz, one of the leading
Pest cultural weeklies, carried reports about Ignacz Clair's "gymnastic institute".
The author embeds the information about "gymnastics exercises" in an intricate
context.
"It has been the main objective of education for centuries to have a sound mind in
a sound body. 'Gymnasticain corpore sanobonumhabitumgenerare conature'. ( ... )
To establish and maintain health needs purposeful work. Gymnastic exercises are
work wrapped in the gown of youthful joy ( ... ); they are a system of exercises
that are aimed at endurance, strength, dexterity and physical beauty." (My italics,
M.H.)13
The Latin citation, the concept of man as an indivisible synthesis of "sound
body" and "sound mind", the stress on "purposeful work" and "physical beauty"
make it obvious that we have a typical dissertation showing the imprints of the
Enlightenment. Should there still be doubts about the references, the cited authors
would banish them immediately. The most frequently cited name is that
of Rousseau.followed by the "Greeks of yore". The reference to the Greek tradition
is part of the neo-classical attitude defined in terms of aesthetic and moral
ideals in the name of which the Hungarian poets and artists of the early 19th
century populated their poems and pieces of art with Greek deities, nymphs,
driads and fauns. One of them, Ferenc Kazinczy declared: "the work of an artist
created in Greek taste withstands the siege of time laughing." On the basis of
these references one may presume that Clair had the children do physical exercises
introduced by Pestalozzi and the philanthropic tradition. This repertoire of
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movement included (ball)games, military marching exercises, dance, wrestling
and mental exercises. And, obviously, fencing.
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1825), Swiss pedagogue, created the "elementary
gymnastics" as part of the general system of education. In his Elementar~
gymnastik published in 1807 he grouped the exercises by the possible movements
of the joints. He was the first in Europe to get schoolchildren to carry out a string
of stylized exercises. These exercises, however, were only meant as tools of improvement.
He conceptualized the personality of the child as an entity, and his
exercises were aimed at helping the rational will overpower "physical instincts".
As a follower of Rousseau, he wished to contrast natural movements with the
artificial, affected habits of pampered weaklings that spread in society. Like his
master, he also wrote pedagogical novels (Leonard and Gertrude, Christof and
Elsa), and as an advocate of general education, he made efforts to have as many
children as possible do his exercises simultaneously.
Philanthropy was the joint pedagogical product of English, French and German
Enlightenment. The philanthropists involved in realizing physical education
at school based the core of their movement system on classical Greek phvsical
culture complemented with remains of folk and children's games involving
movement as well as some elements of military activities and working processes.
In their stock of movements, three major groups are differentiated: games, working
exercices to improve manual skills, and the physical exercises proper.
As we can see, gymnastic exercises constitute a kind of umbrella sport covering
all kinds of physical movement. And even more! If one reads the notes
in Honmuvesz with due attention, you will find that gymnastic exercises went
further than just postulating the individual as a mental and physical entity; it
was also part of this sports' integrative program to supersede individual physical
and mental characteristics, shifting towards the national community:
"In nearly every large town things went so far as to deem natural physical movement
and exercise unbecoming. This situation is, however, improper for a nation
that lays claim to manliness. Therefore, the main aim of gymnastic exercises is to
persuade the youth about its importance, otherwise our nation will be exhausted
physically.,,14
As this quotation reveals, "national" almost unequivocally corresponds to "manliness".
It is not a single accidental usage, as "manliness" occurs frequently in the
text in accentuated places. Just to cite an example:
"It is the parents' duty to guide their offspring's senses in such a way that their
minds and bodies be strengthened in a manly way. The best tool is gymnastics,
which lures the pupil to the open, where he will not care for rain, wind, heat, cold
during the execution of useful exercises. His nerves, muscles, skin will be steeled;
all the physical ills will be alleviated; he will learn to feel the so-called manly
pride; he will come to like the tribulations of life with manly patience and ability,
for he will not only learn to endure but also find pleasure in the exercise of his
strength in this persistency. ( . .. ) Pampered boys are slaves when grown up. Get
rid of the carnal pleasures, accustom your children to tolerate tough food, hunger,
thirst, frost and heat. It is only that way that how the mind's ambition will be
powerful andvirile." (My italics: MH)15
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THE CIVILIZING PROCESS IN 19TH CENTURY HUNGARY 169
As regards the context of this concept, the quotation-presumably from Rousseau-included
in the publications is highly illuminating. Notably: "toutes les
passions sensuelles logent dans des corps effemines: ils s'en irritent d'autant plus,
qu'ilspeuventmainsles satisfaire. Un corps debile affaiblit I'ame" (my italics, M.H.).
Honmuvesz translated the word effemine with a Hungarian term meaning "softness"
instead of the figurative "feminization". Though the translation blurs it,
it cannot erase the fact that eventually the definition of masculinity was formulated
in contradiction with femininity, and the latter's certain connotations
shifted into the meaning of softness or enervation. However, since in the early
18th century women were so totally absent from public life that this gender discrimination
remained in the dimension of preconscious routine automatisms of
thinking.
That does not mean to say that the linguistic formulae derived from the connotations
of "feminine" did not imply other, more or less hidden meanings. Just
note how the statement in Honmuvesz after the French citation continues.
"One feature of the masculine character ever more weakened by our way of living
is a wise trust in our own power which does not let us shout for help immediately
or fall into despair. This must be the basis for smaller or greater undertakings and
is indispensable for us human beings and bourgeois to preserve a certain degree of
autonomy. I leave it to the kind reader to decide whether this manly characteristic
can sprout and develop in the soil of effeminate education." (My italics: MH)16
No doubt about it: this is the voice of the middle class citizen who does not
merely take the liberty, explicitly including himself, too, to enunciate from the
position of the repository of the nation's future envisioned as manly, but who
also marks himself off from the aristocracy. There can be no doubt in this context
that the "effeminate" bodies signify-similarly to Rousseau's or contemporary
Hungarian magnates' writings-the feeble and inapt body of the noblemen
which is becoming increasingly formless in all senses of the word. In other words,
peeping out from behind the pace-setting liberal aristocrats, the strengthening
bourgeois cautiously opposes the "Sybaritic" nobility. (It is to be stressed that all
this is done very carefully. That is perhaps why the Hungarian translation of the
French text is far more moderate than the original.) Taking into account other
elements of the context of the publications, it becomes even more obvious that
the voice of the bourgeois is heard here. Typically enough, the author puts his
topic in an expressly pedagogical context: turning against the "small,minded
men of education," he presents himself as protagonist of pedagogical reform.
He also attempts to sum up the kind of body exercises being pursued in each
country of Europe at the time. Among "political celebrations" he names "target
shooting", "bird,shooting", "carousel-riding", "horse,racing", "bull-fight", "run,
ning races", "racing by cart and on water". The author also names "knightly exercise"
(horse-riding and fighting) and "body,training games". It is fashionable, he
continues, for Germans to go bowling, for the English to play cricket, the Dutch
to play games with sticks. Wrestling in Switzerland and Russia, and swimming
in areas with streams also belong here." And he goes even further. As against
the almost exclusive legal and moral philosophical or sometimes economic arguments
of contemporary thinking among the nobility, he takes serious steps
towards the natural scientific, more precisely medical legitimacy of his subject.
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This specificity is remarkable because Honmuvesz is a popular weekly magazine
in which the ideas had to be worded in easily comprehensible language. In
spite of that, dozens of citations can be quoted such as "a noted physician said",
"generally speaking-said Ackermann-a sedentary way of life is the source of
all illnesses doctors call cachectics, which are numerous. To them belong anaemia,
hepatitis, atrophy, worms, Flechten, hardness of the bowels, bleeding, dropsy,
and so on." Or again: "In our country hypochondria, says Zimmermann in his
work about experience (part II, vol. 4. p. 293), causes half of the chronic diseases."
It is also typical to divide the body on the basis of rational, quantitative
elements: "Our body has 249 bones and more than 450 muscles; most of them
are movable. The latter partly work alone, partly in union so as to bring variety
to movement. The work of the muscles thus has infinite variety, but it is not
automatic but is governed by volition.,,17
Locke, Rousseau and the philanthropists and humanist pedagogical schools
translating their ideas into practice spread ever wider in Hungary in the late 18th
century, playing especially decisive roles in the private tuition of aristocratic
offspring. John Locke's Thoughts on Education published in 1693 appeared in
Hungarian only eighty years later, in 1771; there were only thirty years between
Rousseau's Emile (1762) and its Hungarian version (1796).18 The doctor and
teacher of Jena Christof W. Hufeland's Macrobiotics, a Rousseauian work of far
less impact written in German (1796) was followed by its Hungarian version
only two years later (1798).1 9
By the standards of the time the work was a bestseller.
Hufe1and writes:
"Movement adequate for the body is the main foundation of health, of continuous
recreation, of the durability of the body, and these are prevented by just sitting and
thinking. The drive to move the body is just as natural to man as is the desire for
food and drink. Just take a look at any child: sitting is the greatest torture for
him. ( .. . ) There is evidence that people who regularly exercised in the open
air for long periods lived longest. That is why travelling, hiking, riding, moderate
dancing and other physical exercises are useful, and it would be imperative to
imitate the ancient people in this regard who appreciated and used this majestic
tool of health.,,20
Hufe1and's book was translated into Hungarian by a physician of Pest, Mihaly
Kovats, indicating that in the mediation of the spirit of the enlightenment the
new intellectual stratum also played an important role. Four years later, in 1802,
another Hufe1and work appeared in Hungarian, entitled: Goodadvice formoth,
ers aboutthemain points of children's physical education. It was translated by Las,
z16 Ory Fabian, who dedicated the work to the "right honourable Dame Ilona
Cserei of Nagyajta, the wife of the right honourable Baron MiklosWesselenyi
of Hadad".21
The introduction of the spirit of the enlightenment into Hungary can be ex~
emplified by publications written by certain aristocrats for the education of their
own children, with reference to-and often lengthily citing from-the great
authors. Two works influenced by Locke can be mentioned: Count Gyorgv Festetich
edited a publication in 1799 entitled A planfortheeducation of my son, in
which physical education is given prominence.v and Count Laszlo Te1eki's Ad,
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THE CIVILIZING PROCESS IN 19TH CENTURY HUNGARY 171
vice forthebringing upof children written in 1796 and meant for his son's tutor. It
is noteworthy that as Laszlo Ory Fabian, he also presented his work to Countess
Ilona Cserei. The first part of the tripartite work is devoted entirely to physical
education.23
The cited examples indicate that the ideas were not only borrowed indirectly
through the channels of professional literature, but also spread directly and in;
formally, within the societal life of kinship and class relations, as well as other
direct contacts. An example is that in Zso1ca in Borsod county, Colonel Miklos
Yay engaged a young graduate of the Sarospatak College, Janos Varadi Szabo,
to visit Pestalozzi's Institute in Switzerland and after his return educate the Yay
children on the basis of what he was to learn there, but in a "national spirit".
Varadi Szabo returned with a Pestalozzi pupil, Vilmos Egger, who was first the
tutor of the young aristocrats and later, upon the initiative of Yay and Varadi
Szabo, the first teacher of physical education in Pest, actually in the Lutheran
Grammar School, a school that showed great affinity to the subject.i"
These examples might hopefully illustrate that the comparatively wide spread
of knowledge about Enlightenment and physical education was not exclusively
attributable to the aristocracy's efforts. As the examples of Laszlo Ory Fabian,
the physician Mihaly Kovats and Janos Varadi Szabo show, the emerging bourgeoisie
as well as intellectuals as experts took their share in producing and dis;
seminating knowledge. (This statement can be given more weight by referring
to the significant Hungarian pedagogues of the tum of the 19th century from
Samuel Tessedik to Andras Fay, who made important contributions not only in
the practice of education, as founders of schools, but also as the authors of key
works.)
Aristocracy vs. middle classes
The aristocrat had a position of power in society; hence it was not in his
interest to reshuffle the power relations fundamentally. Believing that he was
unassailable it only rarely occurred to him to use his body as a (competitive) tool
or as a part of a long-term strategy aiming at social mobility. Its "steely" hardness
was a compulsion to prove his worth, stimulated incessantly by masculine pride
rooted in his family's past. This pride was the source of his excitability, his "desire
to bicker" also objectified in constant challenges for duelling or hunting. Let us
refer to the above-mentioned Wesselenyi family as an example!
Baron Mikl6s Wesselenyi Sr. (1754-1820) was mentioned by his conternporaries
as the "fierce Wesselenyi". (Remember that Hufeland's "Good advice for
mothers . . . " was dedicated to his wife by the translator!) He was a "violent,
passionate and hot-blooded" nobleman, who "didn't obey anybody, spent his
time with horses and overheated revelries", and "showed the highest level of
temper." When younger he simply abducted his future wife from her convent
school. Between 1769-1778 he served in Galicia and was promoted to the rank
of captain, but after a joke he had played on a district administrator was expelled
from military service. He was a man of great bodily strength, a famous fencer and
horseman.
Wesselenyi Sr. was an ardent 'believer in the ideas of freedom, which caused
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172 journal of social history fall 2007
conflict with his neighbour, Count Haller, who was of a "very royalist character".
To express his dislike, he found a reason for formally declaring war against Haller.
For this act he was sentenced to four years in prison by Joseph II. From 1791,
after his release, he supported liberal ideas in the Transylvanian diet and was
one of the leading figures of the opposition. In 1793 he played a significant role
in his county's refusal to pay war aid to Vienna. In response to Napoleon's call
to the Hungarian nation, he equipped 40 horsemen of his own expense.v'
His motto, echoing his ancestors, was: "nunquam retro!" (never retreat!). It
meant to live constantly on the alert to fight, never to compromise or surrender.
Rather to die. This disposition urges him to seek deadly danger:
"What savage delight must have run along the nerves of (the elder) Wesselenyi
when he reached desperately wild places with his restless and artificially aroused
horses, when he let his carriage move along unobstructed. He lashed the horses
with his whip and galloped on like a whirlwind. When the danger increased, he
threw away the reins. The wild foursome dashed like lightning towards the edge of
the precipice or the deep bank of the Szamos. One more step, one more moment
and all would end. God's hand could help no longer. Then Wesselenyi's shrill voice
penetrated the thumping of hoofs and screams of the guests. Upon the well-known
sign the carriages stopped immediately, the horses with trembling knees with the
effort. The foam kept pouring off them, the master got off with indifference and
patted his steeds that neighed in a friendly tone as ifagreeing with the performance
of the savage trick ... And the guest? The half-dead guest, while obliged to smile
at the fine trick, firmly resolved inside that come what may,he would never partake
of the host's hospitality again.,,26
Another time he burst out with blind wrath at his son's alleged clumsiness or
helplessness:
"Originality was Wesselenyi's main characteristic, so he celebrated spring in his
own manner. ( ... ) Amidst flourishes and cracks of whips the distinguished procession
was passing the broad streets of Zsib6 when some sleeping swine by the
garden fences woke up with a peculiar grunt at the noise. This made his son's fiery
horse take an enormous side jump so that its rider fell head first into the hard
lumps of earth and passed out. For a few seconds we thought he was dead: his fa,
ther jumped off his horse and burst out into desperate lamentation, and in the
violent embrace of his son's apparent death the extraordinarily powerful man also
collapsed. We poured cold water over the youth who came to in a few minutes.
The voices of joy awakened the father, and his son jumped to his feet. The father's
anguish now turned into wrath, and the joy over his son's recovery was overshadowed
by the disgrace of his falling off the horse. He grabbed his son by the chest
and threatened him with his fist for the shame. Only much begging and entreaty
could pacify the father whom the injury cut to the quick.,,27(Ujfalvy 1955: 47-48)
His son, Baron Miklos Wesselenyi Jr. (1796-1850) is an important figure of the
Hungarian imaginary national pantheon. History books depict him as the "masculine
ideal" of the Members of the Parliament, the "champion of masculine
beauty and courage." He is the "boatman of the flood", saving thousands of lives
during the 1838 flood of Pest, thanks to his legendary bodily strength, and his
self-sacrificing and heroic conduct. Most of his life was spent in Transylvania at
his estate at Zsibo, from where he always arrived at the Transylvanian parliament
in Kolozsvar with his "foaming team". He began to participate in public
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THE CIVILIZING PROCESS IN 19TH CENTURY HUNGARY 173
affairs in 1818, and from the 1830 diet he was one of the leaders of the opposition
in the Upper House, a leading figure of the Transylvanian political movements
and a devoted unionist. In 1835 he was sued for his provocative speech at the as,
sembly of Szatmar county. In 1839 the royal court sentenced him to three years
imprisonment but in 1840 he was granted amnesty.
The young Miklos was brought up according to his father's ideas based on the
principle of "nunquamretro". The child, also of great bodily strength, was said
to have shot a wolf at the age of seven and deer and boar at eight. And when,
in 1805, clutching the handle of his sword, the father rushed to the lord lieu,
tenant Tholdi's quarters, the young Miklos also defended his father by sword,
legend says. Similarly to his father, he was also known nationwide for his bodily
strength, temper, courage and relentless impatience. This patriarchal rnasculinitv,
resulting from the urge of the pre-modern libido dominandi, i.e. an instinctive
desire after domination, a sort of sense of duty based on an inner drive that man
"owes himself",28 which structured the daily routine of the Wesselenyi manor,
was characterized by a sort of militant, tough, savage disposition close to nature,
refusing compromise, retreat or pity (and self-pity). His urge "to stop a wounded
wild boar started from its den dashing towards the hunter with a single hunter's
knife" is almost promoted to the rank of a moral principle.
The middle-class youth was the opposite of the aristocratic offspring. In society
he had no position of power as yet, and consequently it was in his interest
to rearrange the power relations. At the same time, he already felt the opportunity
of upward social mobility, and he subordinated almost everything to it,
including his own body. His self,control and social accommodation formed the
credit for his potential career, the guarantee for his future excellence. He tried
to increase his long,term upward mobility opportunities by turning his accornmodation
into routine clad in the ethos of the emerging lower middle classes. As
a result, he envisioned the bringing up of his offspring as disciplined members
of a community trying to control the morality, intellect, attitudinal drives and
abilities, as well as the physical properties postulated as main goals.
There was another-far from simply formal---difference between the physical
education of the enlightened vanguard of the aristocracy and gymnastic exercises
as pursued in Clair's institute, namely that the high,born families employed
private tutors who cared for their young offspring individually. That signifies a
decisive difference in the whole process of education: during socialization at
home, the noble scion acquired the skills and knowledge not as a member of
a community subordinated to the authority of the educator, but exclusively as
the focus of his tutor's attention. Since home tuition was tailored to the pupil
and the aristocratic family were in a position of power over the tutor, it helped
maintain and reinforce the belief that the young magnate was an extraordinary,
outstanding, unique being simply as a result of his social position. Thus, the improvement
of a young man's physical abilities at home can be interpreted as the
continuation of the family's past.
Conclusion
Although Hungary was more archaic and "backward" in several respects in
the first half of the 19th century than the majority of Western European soci-
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174 journal of social history fall 2007
eties, social changes moved in the same direction: towards modernization. True,
for example, that around 1830, out of a total of over 30,000 inhabitants of Buda a
mere 1000 were residents with all rights, the rest being poor craftsmen, artisans,
servants, serfs, paupers. In addition, there was the vestige of feudal times-the
outdated system of guilds curbing production. In the early 1840s only some 500
of the over 11,000 industrial firms of the Monarchy were in Hungarian territory
and the Kingdom produced a mere 7% of the Monarchy's total industrial
output. In this period, not even the towndwellers were involved exclusively in
industry or trade: many also had land, gardens, vineyards. Barely one-third of
towndwellers are presumed to have lived exclusively by industrial or commercial
activity29 •
Michael Grant's formulation, however, namely that European civilizations are
interrelated and "no European can be a complete exile in any part of Europe.Y"
holds true as far as the Hungarian Kingdom is concerned in this period. Eric
Hobsbawm might also be quoted in this context: "the educational highway
seemed more attractive than the business highway. ( .. , ) In a sense education
represented individualist competition, the 'career open to talent' and the triumph
of merit over birth and connection quite as effectively as business, and this
through the device of the competitive examination.t"! Needless to say: physical
education based on an "optimistic view of men's perfectability'v/ together with
the institutionalization of a rational and rationalized body politics was also part of
this educational highway in different parts of Europe-including Hungary. The
major question of the period was how the nation could supersede the limits of
feudal nationalism. Similarly to England, Poland and Spain, the nobility was a
social and political body of outstanding weight in Hungary. Paradoxically, this
fact offered the advantage that there was no class schism between the various
fractions-as against, for example, France where there were desperate political
struggles between the middle classes and the aristocracy.P A division similar
to England's Whig vs. Tory dualism did exist in the Reform Age but the basic
principles of liberalism were more or less shared by the two main fractions.
What fundamentally differentiated liberal nationalism, which by the mid-1840s
"emerged in full force,,34 in Hungary, from feudal nationalism was that the liberal
national movement elaborated an inclusive concept of nation that encouraged
assimilation by voluntary choice. Citizens' rights were extended to those of nonnoble
birth. A good case in point is the Pest National Fencing School, established
as a foundation in 1824 by liberal aristocrats in Pest who, "aiming to provide instruction
to poor Hungarian youths in fencing," obliged themselves to pay 400
Florin to the foundation.35
Although delayed one or two decades, in the first part of the 19th century
the changes that took place in Hungary were part of a long-term development
characteristic of the entire Western and Central European region in the course
of which the main institutions of a modern civilized society were crystallized.
That Honmuvesz could carry instalments about gymnastic exercises for many
weeks was eventually possible because in the 1830s the tenets of the Enlightenment
were already "in the air" in Hungary. And although the majority of the
Hungarian nobility were hostile to the enlightened absolutistic Habsburg court,
the messages of enlightenment drifting eastward from west of Vienna reached
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THE CIVILIZING PROCESS IN 19TH CENTURY HUNGARY 175
more and more people. It is hard to overestimate the role of self,control and the
ability of delaying gratification of the needs in this process.
"In the 1840s, associations for charitable purposes, social service, self,help,
economic or cultural improvement proliferated and contributed to the disintegration
of the barriers between estates. The combined membership of the approximately
600 associations in Hungary and Transylvania might have reached
100.000 by 1848. Some of the over two hundred casinos and reading societies,
with tens of thousands of members, became thoroughly politicized.P? Thanks
to these social changes, both aristocrats and the members of the emerging mid,
dle classes could allow themselves to spend more and more time with contests,
games and sporting activities. It should be emphasised that leisure time as such is
also the product of this period since "pre,modern society had a different notion
of work from a modern society. It had little sense of specific leisure; the notion
of vacations and regular, off-the-job recreation was born into the nineteenth
century".37
Baron Wesselenyi junior was born in 1796 as a pre-modern man and died in
1850 as nearly a modern man. Imbued with the responsibility for the nation, he
was one amongst those future'oriented, self-reflexive, rational and enlightened
European men who, as champions of a new Weltanschauung, "believed firmly
(and correctly) that human history was an ascent, rather than a decline or an
undulating movement about a level trend." These men "believed that human
society and individual man could be perfected by the same application of rea,
son, and were destined to be so perfected by history.,,38That was the age when
masculine energies were directed at the subjugation of the secularized Nature to
human power. Teleological man, who did not only wish to anticipate the consequences
of his deeds rationally but also wanted to take moral responsibility for
them, evolved gradually.
True, the reproduction of noble perseverance and "manliness" served, first of
all, the conservation of past greatness, the reinforcement of the social position
of the select few. When Wesselenyi senior educated his son to harden his body,
his main aim was to preserve the patterns of noble pride, power, potential, and
authority accumulated over the centuries. However, as we have seen, the senior
baron had access to a variety of sources to gain knowledge in the spirit of the
Enlightenment with special emphasis on physical education. There is no reason
to doubt that the elder Wesselenyi brought up his son at the turn of the century
relying on the same principles of Locke, Rousseau and Hufeland as are referred to
in Clair's statements in Honmuvesz a generation later. Neither is there any doubt,
that both Clair and Wesselenyi conceived of the body as a rational instrument
which is part of an overwhelmingly rational world. It is easy to recognize the
body,training principles of an enlightened rationalism in the elder Wesselenyi's
ambition to assign tasks of graded difficulty to his son in the following quotation:
"from the time the child was able to bring an oak chair easily to the table, his
father hammered a nail into the chair each day, and the young baron took it to
the table with the same ease".39
In rowing, men of trained physiques, working like quasi automatons, repeat,
ing simple and monotonous movements, exerting somewhat mechanical efforts,
disciplined and accommodating to their comrades, were in the boats and tried
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176 journal of social history fall 2007
to offset their social disadvantages as compared to the aristocrats by deliberately
improving their physical strength and transforming their way of life, if need be.
The young men attending gymnastic exercises had to submit to a form of socialization
under institutional and organized circumstances which sooner or later
enabled them to participate in social reproductive mechanisms aimed beyond
their own life-time. When a child is trained to acquire behavioural forms that
are expected of adults, the compulsion of obedience imposed upon him by his
basic relation to the realm of grown-ups leaves him no freedom of choice to
protest against the desires of the adults projected into him. In this way the future
of the child, the potential he implies is rightly regarded as the prolongation
of the socially conditioned career of his ancestors.
The sociological approach concentrating on the probable causal constituents
of the life-path of different social groupst" could throw into relief that gymnastic
exercises as a set of activities were the product of spreading modernity and their
long-term impact on the restructuring of social relations had far greater importance
than any of the other pre-sports. While fox hunting, fencing and rowing
are indicators of these social changes, gymnastics can be taken as the generator
of these changes-on account of its intention to reorganize the entire way of
life-because it incorporates the dispositional arsenal required for social mobility
in the clearest embodied form. In this regard, then, the institutionalization
of gymnastic exercises can be seen as part of the long-term changes in social
dispositions and social structures in comparison to earlier forms of (aristocratic)
living conditions. To put it differently, in the newly emerging sports masculine
behavioural patterns are channelled into new directions; the urges to fight are
gradually built upon by more rational dispositions conditioned by the civilizing
process.
The radical innovation of gymnastic exercises is also manifest in converting
the morally permeated collective ideal of nation into the ideologically permeated
individual ideal of the body. The point of the long-term investment with
gymnastic exercises going beyond one's own life-time is to improve the machinery
of the main resource, the human body, to an optimal state of functioning.
When for the middle-class citizen the health of his offspring becomes an aim
in itself, a social group employs the ever more widely used techniques of selfcontrol
and obedience in the service of envisioned long-term social mobility.
By incorporating and internalizing these rational and teleological elements, the
bourgeois increases the steepness of his family's mobility curve, i.e. enhances
the chances of progress in the social sphere. Hence, in Europe in the first part of
the nineteenth century, gymnastic exercises can be considered as generators of
revolutionary changes in the way of life: this umbrella sport is destined to create
the corporeal foundation of modernity.
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THE CIVILIZING PROCESS IN 19TH CENTURY HUNGARY 177
Appendix
Characteristics of gymnastic exercises and rowing
Social~cultural
background
Social basis ofpreen-
tioners
Cultivation-
promotion
Reference
Organizational form
Accessibility
Sport socialization
Financing
Attitude to nation
PoUticalorientation
Audience
Collectiveness
Beginning/end of
activity
Spread, frequency
Ideology, scientific
references
Genderroles
Reproduction of
competences
Basic disposition
Characteristics of
manUness
Bodypolitics
GYmnastic Exercises
Aristocracy, later middle-
classes
Directly involved in activity
German, French
Private school, society
Open for the offspring of both
aristocrats and middle-classes
Learning it as teenagers
Donations by aristocrats and
middle-classes
Latent anti-Habsburg orienta-
tion
Enlightened liberal tradition
Negligible
Collective organization, collective
exercises
From 1830s to this day
Weekly, later daily
Moral philosophy, medicine,
and pedagogy of the Enlighten-
ment
Both boys and girls
Journals, educator as a master
Disciplined, obedient, goaland
future-oriented, looking
for harmony
Collective spirit, obedience,
aimed beyond their own life
time, projecting into the chil-
dren
Own body exposed to futureoriented
efforts, regular training,
body-as-machine, discovery
of corporeality
Rowing
Aristocracy, then middle-
classes
Directly involved in activity, no
others being used as tools
British
Rowing club, association
At first aristocrats, middleclasses
soon joining
Learning it as grown-ups
(strength required)
Donations by aristocrats, then
by middle-classes
At first important, decreasing
later
Negligible
At first many, later fewer on-
lookers
Individual and team competi-
tions
From the late 1830s to this day
Annually, later more frequently
Health-ideology, systematic
training based on medical
sciences
Only men
English models, books, collective
praxis
Competitive, disciplined, accommodating
exertion of own
energy, domesticated yearning
for adventure
Struggle, effort, aquatic adventure,
discipline in nature
Own body exposed to proportionate,
even, slightly mechanical
effort, need for training,
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178
Specificities ofsport activity
journal of social history fa112007
Venueof cultivation Mainly in the open In the open, on natural waters
Sport field Low-level of standardization, Slowly standardized course
public is not important sizes, need of spectators disre-
garded
Competition time Not fixed Not fixed-dependent on sea,
son
Needforinstruments Moderate; main concern is the Moderate: racing boat needed
own body
Meanslfunction/aims Individual as part of the com, Let the best win under equal
munity conditions
Collectiveness / Individual as part of the com- Individual and team contests
individuality munity
Rules/measuring Learning, repetition, exercises Gradually refined: racing
categories, distances, boat
types pointing to standard,
ization, principle of fair play
self,evident
Supervisory body Educator's authority Racing committee
Degree of risk Low Low
Physical contact of No direct contact, working No direct contact, starting side
competitors side by side by side
Professionalism/ Not to be taken into account Club amateurs as individuals
amateurism
Qualities required Discipline, concentration, Strength, endurance, perseverobedience,
endurance, perse- ance, discipline, tolerance of
verance monotony
Betting No Negligible
Degree of violence Low, no direct fight None, pure competition
through identical tools
Character of sport Obedient and disciplined indi- Rivalry of individuals or teams
activity vidual as part of the commu- with identical tools in nature,
nity on water
Direct aimof activity Overcoming own weaknesses, Overcoming the other, glory of
preserving health, strengthen, victory
ing the body
Source of pleasure Training of will, successful ex, Overcoming the other, glory of
ercises victory
Weight of activity in At first minimal, later growing At first minimal, later cornpetiwayof
life importance tor must train
Physical/mental/moral Physical qualities are impor- Physical qualities are imporcharacter
tant; moral of self-discipline, tant: strength, trained body; no
"sound mind in a sound body" special moral and/or aesthetic
requirements
Required costs Moderate Moderate
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THE CIVILIZING PROCESS IN 19TH CENTURY HUNGARY 179
Institute of Sociology
1093 Budapest
Fovam rer 8
Hungary
ENDNOTES
1. R.W. Connell, Masculinities (Cambridge, 1995); Stephen M. Whitehead, Frank J.
Barrett, eds., The Masculinities Reader (Cambridge, 2001).
2. Norbert Elias, Eric Dunning, The QuestforExcitement. Sport andLeisure in theCivilizing
Process (Oxford, 1986).
3. Pierre Bourdieu, LaDistinction. Critique sociale du jugement du gout (Paris, 1979).
4. Norbert Elias, The civilizing process (Oxford, 1969 [1939]).
5. Honmuvesz (1836), 476-77.
6. Laszlo Siklossy, Szechenyi,Wesselenyi es meg egynemzedek [Szechenyi,Wesselenyi and
one moregeneration] (Budapest: 1928),440.
7. Baron Gabor Pr6nay, ed., N Pesti Testgyakorlo,Egylet Evkonyve {Yearbook oftheSociety
of Body Exercises in Pest} (Pesth, 1852).
8. Baron Gabor Pr6nay, ed.,N Pesti Testgyakor16,Egylet Evkonyve [Yearbook oftheSociety
of BodyExercises in Pest} (Pesth, 1852).
9. Pieter Spierenburg, ed., Men and Violence: Gender, Honor, and Rituals in Modem
Europe and America (Columbus, OH, 1998).
10. Laszlo Siklossy, Szechenyi,Wesselenyi es megegynemzedek [Szechenyi,Wesselenyi and
onemore generation] (Budapest: 1928),347.
11. Honmuvesz, July 12, 1835.
12. HonderU, July 8, 1843.
13. HonderU, July 8, 1843.
14. Honmuvesz (1834), 386.
15. Honmuvesz (1834), 684, 531.
16. Honmuvesz (1834),434.
17. Honmuvesz (1834), 610.
18. Ferenc Kemeny,ed., Magyar Pedagogiai Lexikon [Hungarian Pedagogical Encyclopaedia]
(Budapest, 1935).
19. Brockhaus Enzyklopiidie (Wiesbaden, 1969).
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180 journal of social history fall 2007
20. quoted by Laszlo Siklossy, A magyar sport oskora [The prehistory of Hungarian sport}
(Budapest, 1927),420.
21. Laszlo Siklossy, A magyar sport i5skora [Theprehistory of Hungarian sport] (Budapest,
1927),419.
22. LaszloSiklossy,A modemsport e1i5keszfrese [Thepreparation ofmodem sport) (Budapest,
1929), 12.
23. LaszloSiklossy,A modem sporte1i5keszfrese [Thepreparation ofmodem sport} (Budapest,
1929), 11-12.
24. Laszlo Siklossy, A magyar sport i5skora [Theprehistory of Hungarian sport} (Budapest,
1927),430.
25. Samu Dr. Kardos, Baro Wesselenyi MiklOs elete esmunkai[Thelife andworks of Baron
MiklOs Wesselenyi] (Budapest, 1905).
26. Zsigmond Kemeny's recollections, quoted in Laszlo Siklossy, A magyar sport oskora
[Theprehistory of Hungarian sport} (Budapest, 1927),330-31.
27. Sandor Ujfalvi emlekiratai [Memoirs of Sandor Ujfalvi] (Kolozsvar, 1941),47-48.
28. Pierre Bourdieu, Ladomination masculine (Paris, 1998).
29. Domokos Kosary, Ujjaepftes es polgarosodas [Reconstruction and bourgeoisification]
(Budapest: 1990),256-57.
30. Michael Grant, The Civilizations of Europe (London, 1965),3-4.
31. Eric J. Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789-1848 (New York, 1962):
190-91.
32. Richard D. Mandell, Sport: A Cultural History (New York, 1984), 160-61.
33. Istvan Hajnal: Az Ujkortartenete [The History of Modem Times} (Budapest, 1936),
559.
34. LaszloKontler, Millennium inCentral Europe: A History ofHungary (Budapest, 1999),
244.
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