I would have thought you were a lively, feisty little kid. Am I wrong?

I was obedient rather, and patient. My parents worked as teachers and I was often picked on by other children, so I vowed to learn to defend myself. However, at home I was always told to study, to stop playing sports, that's for Olympians. One day, I saw the dragon logo of the Kelemen István Jiu-Jitsu Hall on Madách Square and started to train there. At 14, I was already big in the children's group, so they put me in the adult group where I got beat up very badly. But I didn't give up, I kept reading martial arts books like the Bible. Two years later I switched to aikido, the first sport I became an instructor of.

Why was it important for you to volunteer in the army in the meantime?

I needed the challenge to toughen me up. At the time I even thought I was going to be a detective or a professional soldier. I requested to be placed in Pécs, to join the Depth Reconnaissance Squadron, which had been defending the border from the South Slavic war not long before, but I also trained with the legendary Kálmán Furkó in Szolnok. Without him I wouldn't be here today, he didn't tolerate compromise, but if you did what he asked you to do, you could leave. I learned hand-to-hand combat and parachuting, and I realized that real combat is different from idealized martial arts. The latter is a kind of inner path to spiritual peace, considered by many to be more art than combat. I think everyone gains as much from it as they understand. Those who go to Tai Chi will not become fighters, those who go to Thai boxing are obviously interested in competition, not enlightenment. One is health promotion, the other is results-oriented.

Am I correct that you eventually found your place in the krav maga Israeli self-defense system?

First I was a civilian skydiver, then I worked as a scuba diving assistant for a friend. After skydiving, it was strange to find that I dived more slowly and that while skydiving is a long preparation with short enjoyment, scuba diving is the exact opposite. But I've also been a receptionist at the Saudi embassy and armored truck personnel, too. And krav maga really got me with its practicality. The system is also effective because it is still being refined in Israel today. The coaches noticed me right away, and after being the best in the class I became an instructor of it a year later. Meanwhile, I was also the first Hungarian to complete in kettlebell the so-called "Beast Challenge", which requires you to perform three tasks with a 48 kg iron ball.

I trained for 9 months for this, but success was followed by endless emptiness. Since then I have learned - from the Olympians I trained - that professional athletes and even billionaire businessmen go through the same thing after a big result. They reach their goal, but then what's next?

I understand - before Alonso and Schwarzenegger - that the next step for you was knife fighting and shooting...

I first saw Sayoc Kali knife fighting in the movie "The Hunted" and I wanted to learn it right away, but it was many years later that I had the financial means to do it. Then I only had to travel as far as England, not the USA. Mentally, the training was extremely demanding: we started between 8 and 9 in the morning, stopped twice to eat, and often kept on until after midnight. We had to practice until 'the knife became part of our body'. At night I saw knives coming from everywhere, and in the morning I woke up dizzy. The master told me I looked bad. I said to him because I didn't sleep. Then he called his son to attack me. I didn't even know who I was, but I defended myself with 80% accuracy because my body responded automatically. He says, "do you get the point of the training yet?" I realized then, that the flaw in most martial arts is that they only imitate the attack. It's one thing when someone stabs you who is trying to take your life and wants to go home from the conflict instead of you, and it's another to defend against him so that you can use the knife, you can feel what he's going to do. I have since taught Sayoc to elite police and military units.

As well as teaching situational shooting, you also have taught multiple Olympic water polo champions, like Dr. Tamás Molnár and Norbert Madaras. Did the knife lead you straight to the "Formula 1 of shooting"?

As a kid, we used to go up to Mátrafüred, where I used to shoot air rifles at an old man’s house on weekends, and that was another seed that later took root. I always liked the idea of being in the present when shooting. If you mess up and then think about it, you'll mess up again; if you think about how the next one has to be good, you'll look to the future and you'll mess up again. I started my shooting career almost 20 years ago. I wanted to know the depths of that too, so I studied until I became an instructor. I have won many competitions: this year I won the Hungarian championship, and in 2019 I finished first in the handgun cup of the University of Public Service, ahead of the best police and soldiers of our country.

But I also took hand-to-hand combat further, choreographing the melee scenes in the Hungarian crime film series ”Tűzvonalban”, featuring András Stohl, for two years.

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Mátyás Tóbiás - Photo: Alfréd Pohlotka

We can say that by the age of 40 you've mastered everything you need to be a bodyguard, so we can move on to Alonso, Schwarzenegger...

My first job as a personal bodyguard was to protect Fernando Alonso's Formula 1 racer. I escorted him between the hotel and the race track, and we went to the Opera House for his birthday party. He's a jolly guy, and as everyone likes him, he didn't need to be protected much. And Arnold Schwarzenegger is an endlessly charismatic, mild-mannered, good-hearted gentleman. "Guys, thank you so much for making the event so nice for me, I was relaxed the whole time, I felt safe, and everything was on time," he said at the end of our work. It's rare for a client to be so direct because there is no communication between us. But on the last day, he offered to take a group photo with us, as well as individual photos with him. Once he opened the door in a towel with a cigar in his mouth, and then I saw how strong he still was. If you spoke to him respectfully, he was really nice. He had an extraordinary charisma, if he had told us to go with him to the North Pole barefoot, we would have followed without a word. And he never forgot where he started from, while he paid a high price for his extraordinary success. One thing was difficult: paying attention to your surroundings when you have the Terminator standing next to you... (laughs)

By the way, beyond this calm personality that characterizes you, what makes someone a good bodyguard?

I was part of a great team at the time, and bodyguarding is a team effort. People think you have "the" bodyguard like Whitney Houston has Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard. But that romantic notion exists only in the imagination of Hollywood screenwriters that the bodyguard comes along, protects the client, beats everyone, shoots well even when blind, drives like Jason Statham, fights like Bruce Lee in his heyday, never gets tired, never bleeds - if he gets hurt, he just gets shot in the shoulder - and finally becomes a lover and takes the girl and the money. It's also a job that takes a lot of preparation, a lot of practice, and it can take a lifetime.

What the bodyguard uses most is his head. He builds everything up in advance, like an algorithm, and then, as events unfold, before anything dangerous can happen, he takes the defended person in another direction.

You have to know your client, and we even knew Arnold's astrological sign and blood type, down to the little things like his dislike of fizzy water. He smokes six cigars a day - when he arrived he was so tired he fell asleep in the jeep with a cigar in his mouth. So a job like this is two or three weeks of preparation, and site visits, from when the elevator was last serviced to what the escape route is in case of a power cut, where the shelter is, or where to transport the person if there's any problem.

Have you ever been in a (life-) threatening situation in your career?

Rather, in my life, because these were not always the result of work. Once our flat burnt down, or we fell into an 8-meter ravine in a car in the Buda hills. I drifted under a lorry and was almost shot in the back with a shotgun. While scuba diving, I was run over by a speedboat in the Red Sea: I was hit on the head, I didn't know where I was, I raised both hands out of reflex. My left arm was tugged and something started hitting it, I thought it was a shark biting it. But I was hit by the end of the boat's rudder, which hit me on the head, and its propeller tugged on my arm. If my diving watch with the metal buckle hadn't taken the first hit, I might not have a left arm today. There was blood everywhere, and the back of my hand and forearm were bleeding, but at least it wasn't a shark. It was then I realized how grateful I am to have two hands and two feet. Then we once crashed in a plane during a parachute training in Gödöllő. At 90 meters altitude, the engine stopped and at that altitude, you cannot jump out. We saw into the branches of the trees, tipped over, crashed, and hit a power line with the crash landing. As we were rushing out of the plane, the power was striking everything.

I think that the fact that we survived is, besides great pilot skills, due to divine intervention, because those who were there have been involved in important tasks ever since.

We haven't talked about everything yet, for example, as a self-defense coach you also train women and civilians on how to protect themselves. But what are you most proud of?

To the lives saved and to those who have returned home safely because of my contribution. The sporting and other achievements are nice but only temporary. I think my life has been all about spiritual development. When I had to become a man, I became a man, which in today's world is not self-evident. When I was a kid and my mom took me to the Friday market, I saw what the kid next door was like before, during, and after his military service. Back then, boys really became men. And it taught me responsibility when, for example, I had to escort an international delegation as a bodyguard and on the first day I sat down with the boss, who said. "You get the best training, equipment, and colleagues, all with different elite unit experience. If anyone of the clients gets hurt, we'll buy you a plane ticket and you'll go to their family to tell them." In the end, from the Saudi prince to Russian, American, and Middle Eastern businessmen, families, and sports delegations, many felt safe with me, and all of that is a source of pride.

Cynthia was born in 1982 in Golden, a small town in the Rockies. After the revolution against the Soviet Regime, her father, Frank Berényi, had to leave his homeland, Hungary in 1956. Her mother followed her love twenty years later. The writer emotionally and honestly tells us about how she grew up as an immigrant family’s child in the ’80s and ’90s in Canada, her experiences when visiting Hungary as a teenager also later as an adult and her recognition of the traumas originated from her parents past and the affects to her own life.

The history of The Berényi Family is multilayered and diversified, experienced by all characters in their own way. In Cynthia's writing, she reveals her relationship with family: her father, who buries his painful memories within himself, works for the prosperity of his family and is away a lot, her mother, who tries to fit into a foreign environment and is often left alone with her children, her brother, who is sometimes seen as a competitor, sometimes as a partner in fate, and her rarely-seen grandmother who she feels close to her.

They all strive for security, love, and harmony, but the unprocessed traumas of the past and the conflicts, fears, and misunderstandings of the present prevent them from achieving these goals.

As the death of the beloved father approaches, family unity is finally born, and Cynthia overcomes the long mourning process and finds her own voice and path.

What inspired you to write this book?

I was inspired to write this book to honor my father and all the people who fought for freedom in The 1956 Hungarian Revolution plus all those who continue to fight for freedom today. I was inspired to share a sense of hope and inspire others to heal so they can live life fully.

Why did you choose this title for your book?

I choose the book title So Much More - A Multigenerational Memoir of Spiritual Liberation, because the book is about my father’s escape from Hungary during the revolution and so much more. It is about how that trauma impacted him and also how that impacted me and my life. There are many pieces in this book that everyone can relate to and there is so much more that can be found in every reading, even for myself!

How did you realize that there is a relation between the difficulties in your life and your relatives’ personal histories?

Not all my difficulties are in relation to my relatives’ personal histories, but some of them are. One part that was challenging for my father was to share his story and his voice fully. Same with my mother. When I asked my mother and her experience with the revolution and the details for my book, my mother responded: “the revolution happened, it was hard, we got through it and we never talked about it.” I realized that there were parts of my life that I felt were hard to share as well, such as my father's passing. Sometimes it feels easier to push things down, especially if they are hard to deal with, but these hardships always linger in the background of all we do.

I watched this with my father and saw at the end of his life, what it means to fully be free of burdens, to heal, to truly let love in, and for life to be amazing.

I had to do my own healing, which meant sharing my voice authentically.

Reading the story of your birth, I felt the difficulties your mother faced when having children in a foreign environment.

A year and a half before I was born, my mother had a miscarriage, contracted an infection, and almost died from it. I think the fear and sense of loss stemming from that trauma was deeply rooted in my mom and maybe was passed down to me as well. I arrived prematurely and was a jaundice baby, so I was put in an incubator. One day the nurses forgot to put my eye shield back on and my mom screamed in panic as she didn't speak English and couldn't explain to them what was wrong. In the end, my dad had to come back to the hospital and he resolved the situation. I think this is a good example of how challenging it was for my mother during her early days in Canada.

In your book, the painful feeling of rejection appears as a kind of family legacy.

Unfortunately, my father experienced this many times: he didn't know his father, he had no relationship with him, and when he was four years old, my grandmother sent him to her relatives, who made him work on a farm. He was rejected by his youthful love, and his marriage ended in divorce. The depressing experiences gained during the revolution also accompanied him throughout his life, preventing him from being able to let himself go completely spiritually. This also affected me, as I could rarely feel liberated and safe. My mother didn't get the love and attention she needed from her father either, and during our upbringing, her own desires and ideas had to be pushed to the background. For example, she was only able to implement her business after the divorce, because my father insisted that he be the only money earner in the family.

Although my parents loved us and gave us everything, I often felt that my emotional needs, and thus a part of my personality, were being rejected.

You also faced the dilemma that every child faces: can I have negative feelings towards my parents, and at the same time not feel bad for that and also be grateful for them?

Yes, for example, I learned from my dad to stand up for myself and speak up if I don't like something, but he didn't take it well if I did this to him or my mom. When I was little, I felt that my family was happy when I was smiling and going with the flow. I tried to live up to it, so I suppressed my negative feelings. In my teenage years, of course, I clashed with my mother many times and my parents could not handle this. Later, I understood that the tensions did not arise because my parents didn't love me or didn't care about me, but because they also had to work on their own difficulties. This realization led me to forgive and build more loving relationships and find gratitude for my family and acceptance of them and myself.

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Cynthia Berényi with her father - Photo: Cynthia Berényi

Have these hardships prevented you to live a life of fulness?

At times, I have held back parts of myself by putting on masks to fit in with others and society, which were not authentic and did not truly represent who I really was. Although it was hard to share so freely, this writing is my truth, and

finding my voice and sharing fully has allowed me to accept and connect to myself fully and therefore allowed me to accept and connect to others more fully as well.

What other methods did you use for healing yourself from transgenerational traumas than writing?

Journal writing has been the most therapeutic way for me to explore my thoughts and ways of being. I have also connected with healing modalities such as cranial sacral therapy, talk therapy, EMDR, and Emotional Freedom Technique/tapping.

What does it mean for you to be Canadian? What does it mean for you to be Hungarian?

 To be Canadian means to have a fresh start and a sense of freedom, which my father fought for. Being Hungarian means family, my roots, and my blood. I consider myself both Canadian and Hungarian and feel very lucky to have the background and status of both.

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Cynthia Berényi

Cynthia finished her manuscript, which she had been working on for 10 years, during the pandemic. She said it took her that long to muster up the courage to share her story.

”When we no longer want to pretend anymore that we are fine and everything is alright, then the possibility to accept and heal opens up to us” – says the writer, for whom the journey to the past showed the way to a happier future.

Cynthia is my cousin, so our families' stories interact at some point. For me, it was a strange and uneasy feeling to read the book, to "meet" characters that I also know. I would like to express my gratitude to Cynthia for using her work to memorialize those family members who are no longer with us.

The book So Much More – A Multigenerational Memoir of Spiritual Liberation is available in English on Amazon and also on the writer's own website.

You are young and a woman. If the reports of others are to be believed, this pairing is not necessarily a straight path to success in your profession either.   

It is true that in the world of classical music - especially for conductors, composers and concertmasters - men are still in the majority, but fortunately, we can see progress in this area too. I feel lucky to have been supported in my career by my environment.  

How did you discover the artist in yourself?

I've always loved music, my mum is a piano teacher, so I started playing music at an early age, and I decided I wanted to be a violinist when I was nine. 

You first took up the piano, why did you decide to take up the violin? 

I preferred the sound of it and the way I could communicate with the audience through the instrument.

I feel that the violin is more a part of my body than the piano.  

Born in California, how much of a culture shock was it to move to Austria when you were ten? 

The first challenge was the language because I didn't speak German at that time and all my classes were in German, so I had to pick it up quickly. By the way, European culture is very important in classical music and everyone should know it, wherever they live and work in the world.  

In Salzburg, you were admitted to the Young Talents’ Class at the age of ten, which meant that you got into the competitive world of adult musicians as a child. How did you cope with this pressure to perform?  

Musicians are under constant stress, and the most important moment is always the concert or competition, where they have to perform at their best. Fortunately, I always loved being on stage, showing what I could do in front of a lot of people, and that helped me to cope with high expectations as a child.  

Is there much competition in this world? 

Of course! You have to practice a lot, work a lot, because there are so many talented musicians. At the same time, it is not good to always have in mind to be better than the other.

I think everyone has to compete with themselves.

How did Budapest come into your sights? 

I was already in Salzburg for my undergraduate studies when I came to the Liszt Ferenc Academy on an Erasmus scholarship, which of course meant another change of environment, but I am an adaptable person. Budapest has a very attractive cultural scene, great musicians working in Hungary, and there are fabulous concert venues and good audiences. 

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Photo: Péter Suha

What is a good audience like?

(thinks) I can feel that the people are listening very carefully. The energy I feel when the audience is part of the musical magic is like nothing else.  

You are one of the youngest concertmasters in the world. What are your responsibilities in this position?

The concertmaster leads the orchestra. In symphony orchestras, the conductor gives the signal, but the musicians also pay attention to the concertmaster because they are a more precise form of signal. For example, they show the stroke, the style, and the tempo. All this helps to implement in rehearsals what the conductor says, and especially with guest conductors, it is important that the concertmaster represents the orchestra. You also have to coordinate the musicians, write schedules, and of course pay attention to your colleagues, listen to them, and care about them.

It is important for the concertmaster to be a good leader not only in music-related matters.  

Besides practicing, competing, and performing, you also organize high-profile events. From 25 to 30 August, hosted the New Millennium International Chamber Music Festival for the fourth time, with the addition of the Academy this year. What was the program like?

This year, the program has also been expanded with new international partnerships. Last year, I founded the V4 String Quartet, which made its Hungarian debut at the opening concert and had the specialty of performing Hungarian, Polish, Czech, and Slovak works. At the Academy, we also collaborated with Spanish, Austrian, and Bulgarian partners. There were workshops where we talked about important topics such as how to manage yourself, how to communicate in rehearsals, and how to stay healthy as a musician both physically and mentally. Thanks to the Erasmus+ grant, we were also able to provide financial support to disadvantaged musicians.  

Is talent alone not enough? 

Unfortunately not, and in today's world, even a lot of practice is no guarantee. If you don't know how to organize a concert, how to create an opportunity for yourself, it's very difficult. Managers don't come knocking on the door of practice rooms to offer concert opportunities, and not every musician can have their own manager! This is not taught in universities.  

You mentioned that participants can also get health advice. Is the life of a musician that mentally demanding? 

I think it's important that mental well-being is given more attention in this area too. If you look at sportsmen, when they are preparing for a competition, they are also working with psychologists to ensure that they can perform at their best in the competition. For musicians, this would be even more important because music is subjective: if someone wins, they don't do it in the same way as in swimming, for example, where it's who finishes first.

Being the best on stage is only half of it, the other half is how to deal with failure, how to deal with criticism when you don't win.  

How do you avoid burnout? 

It's always good to have a hobby. I love languages, I speak German, and Russian and I'm learning Spanish when I want to relax. I prefer active recreation. 

Do you keep in touch with your master, does he also help you prepare for concerts and competitions? 

I am grateful to Eszter Perényi, we keep in touch. Whenever I have an important solo concert, for example, the last one in Krakow, I call Aunt Eszter and she gives me a lesson. You can always improve, no matter how many degrees you have.

Which composer's musical world do you identify with the most? 

For me, Béla Bartók's music is very natural, and his quartets are among the best of the 20th century. I have played his violin concerto many times and I like the folk influences in his works, the slow movements are my favourite.

You also perform abroad a lot. What do you think the prestige and visibility of Hungarian musicians are like in the world music scene? 

There are a lot of successful Hungarian musicians playing at festivals, and I find that Hungarian artists are also taken seriously abroad.

The sport was in his blood

Miklós Hargitay was born on 6 January 1926 in Kőbánya to a family living in difficult circumstances. He inherited his love of physical exercise from his athlete father, who also took the upbringing of his four offspring very seriously in the field of sport. The Hargitay brothers performed a joint acrobatic act at the “Fényes” Circus troupe, and their success was reflected in the fact that the show toured the country.

Later, at his brother's urging, Miklós also tried speed skating, winning three Central European titles. "I still remember (...) that there was a skating rink near Szabadság Square, where I used to go. Not only because I loved the sport and was preparing for the '48 Olympics, but also because I could only take a hot shower there, because at home we only had cold water in the tap," he recalled. He also was a professional football player for Fradi and probably studied architecture at the University of Technology in Budapest.

With a big smile on the streets of America

The circumstances of his emigration are still unclear. According to some sources, he left the country as early as 1945 to test his knowledge and skills overseas, while others say he left only in 1947. His own memoirs confirm the version that he arrived in the United States in 1947.

With his boat docked off the coast of Brooklyn, young Hargitay set off on the American Dream with only $10 in his pocket and endless optimism. He started working in a fruit market for $2 a day and then headed west.

He supported himself for a while with temporary jobs - plumbing, carpentry - and then married an American acrobat, Mary Birge. Mickey's experience in Hungary came in handy, as he and his wife worked on a performance together, which they performed nightly in Indianapolis nightclubs. They had one child, Tina, but he and Mary parted ways after a few years.

Fame from muscles

The turning point in Mickey Hargitay's life came with a magazine cover. It depicted one of the highest-paid male actors of his time, Steve Reeves, who with his elaborate body, had created masculine characters on screens such as Hercules, Sandokan, and the muscular colossus Goliath. At the time, building muscle for aesthetic purposes was far from being a widely accepted sport, but Hargitay was ahead of his time in his pursuit of bodybuilding.

So much so that in 1955 he was awarded the prestigious Mr. Universe award in London.

The bodybuilder -turned- actor Arnold Schwarzenegger looked up to him as a role model, and later played Hargitay in the biographical drama The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980).

The victory set the young Hungarian sporting talent on a whole new path. He got a contract in the New York revue of the world-famous actress Mae West, which, in a somewhat bizarre way for the time, was especially based on men with sculpted bodies. The aging sex symbol also had a bit of a crush on Mickey Hargitay, which caused quite a stir within the company. Ironically, the Hungarian bodybuilder didn't end up with Mae West, but it was in this place that he found all-consuming, passionate love.

Flown to Hollywood by love

The story goes that one night, the 1950s sex symbol Jayne Mansfield, a Marilyn Monroe-type blonde entered a New York nightclub.

She sat down and when ordering, all she asked for was "I'd like a steak and the tall man on the left side of the stage".

Passion drew the two beautiful people together with an elemental force, and they were married on January 1, 1958. They were a dream couple, constantly on each other's lips, who were frequently written about in the magazines of the time, and Mickey had their Beverly Hills luxury home, the Pink Palace, completely renovated with 10 baths and a heart-shaped pool.

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Mickey Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield with their kids in 1963 - Photo: Profimédia - Red Dot

The beauty, also known as the "second Marilyn Monroe", didn’t hesitate to bring her beloved husband to Hollywood. The 20th Century Fox studios, under contract to Mansfield, were not pleased, as they wanted to convey the official message to the male public that their sex bombs were single and therefore available. The actress, however, persisted until Mickey Hargitay finally appeared on her side, in a 1957 comedy, "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” They later paired up in the historical romance  The Loves of Hercules, on the shooting of which Mansfield was pregnant with their first child. This was followed in 1963 by Promises... Promises!, which made Jayne Mansfield the first American star to be seen completely naked on screen. As a result, the production was banned in several cities.

By his own admission, Mickey Hargitay had as much to do with acting as a taxi driver.

But this and the scathing reviews did not discourage him from continuing acting: he also appeared in Bloody Pit of Horror (1965), inspired by the writings of the Marquis de Sade, and in the terribly weak Lady Frankenstein (1971). He also signed five film contracts in Italy and appeared in a television physical exercise show.

Did the Hungarian spirit crush the dream couple?

During married life, the differences between the two became more and more pronounced. Although Mansfield was fond of playing the 'dumb blonde' to the cameras, in reality, she was a woman of outstanding intelligence, widely educated, and fluent in five languages. Her intellectual needs did not necessarily match those of her beautifully built husband, even whose humor she found less than sparkling.

But the real breaking point was the arrival of the children - Miklós, Zoltán, and Mariska - and the personality differences that emerged in their upbringing. "We are different. I'm adaptable and avoid conflict, I can't stand discord. And Mickey is really wonderful, devoted, a great husband, but Hungarian! He's quick-tempered, prone to tantrums, and very strict with the children, whereas I'm permissive with them. Yes, it all started with the children," Mansfield confessed about the breakdown in the relationship.

Mickey Hargitay visited Hungary on several occasions, first in 1961 with Jayne Mansfield.

The bodybuilder was such a star at home that the road from the airport to the city was closed, and the Minister of the Interior Affaires offered his own staff car, a Volga to drive them.

He was reluctant to visit the places of his childhood, but he was always proud of his roots - it is no coincidence that all three of his children were given Hungarian names and learned Hungarian. He confessed his love of his homeland at the 2005 Hungarian American Foundation Gala when he remembered his parents. They taught him to "remember to include the name of your sweet homeland in your evening prayers".

The dream couple finally divorced in Mexico in 1963, but the divorce was later annulled. They were together for a few months after the birth of Mariska, who would go on to have an acting career before the divorce was finalized at Mansfield's urging. A few years later, the actress died in a tragic car accident in which her beautiful body was mangled beyond recognition. Her lover and all three of her children were traveling in the car with her, but they escaped the tragedy with minor injuries and were raised from then on by their father. Of her three husbands, Mickey Hargitay was the only one to attend Jayne Mansfield's funeral.

"A few years ago, Miklós Nyitrai, who is now the dean of the university's medical faculty, supported a tender, which allowed us to start planning the 3D project with the funds we received", says Attila Péntek, the professional coordinator of the PTE 3D Printing and Visualisation Centre, after my arrival, showing me around the Pécs laboratory. He adds that it was then that they decided which printers to buy, which topics to focus on, where to place the equipment they had purchased through the tender and started looking for competent staff.

Back then, the biggest problem was the latter: finding people who understood the technology or at least wanted to learn it.

Initially, they were given a room in the biophysics faculty but soon moved to a new building. They started with ten simple printers, based on so-called FFF technology, which were used to print a very rudimentary version of medical prostheses. Sometimes a device was printed for more than fifty hours. (The simpler, cheaper machines, based on the FFF technology mentioned above, costing between 300 and 400,000 HUF, are still in use on the upper floor of the laboratory, where they were printing continuously when we visited. The SLA printers cost more than that, between 2 and 3 million HUF, but - in general - still serve the average user and companies engaged in small series production.)

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This is what a 3D printed heart looks like - Photo: PTE 3D Visualization Center

During this period, they explored the potential of machines with medical and engineering students. With their involvement, they began to build and test various simulators. They began to understand what materials had to be put into what form to make a sellable, usable simulator that was a little more capable than its competitors on the market. This was helped by the medical students' continuous testing of the prototypes.

For example, the various bones that help students to get hands-on training. They make a 3D printed model and then pour silicone around it to make a mould for mass production. The outer, hard part of the "bone" is then made first, and then the softer "marrow" material is poured into the silicone mould.

Many hours of work are spent on experiments, Attila explains, sawing, drilling, screwing, and continuous (medical) feedback to make the bone material resemble the real human bone as much as possible, as this is the best way to help education.

Help for surgeries

In addition to training medical students, they also print "practice bones" for certain surgical procedures. The resulting CT scan is scanned and the bone is printed. This helps the doctor to "practice" before surgery, rehearsing where and how to perform the procedure.

This option can shorten the operation time and reduce the risk because the doctor can be more confident about the procedure.

We spend a long time in this room, where they also make elbows with "skin", "flesh", and "nerves", and they also print hearts, which can even imitate the heartbeat and breathing.

Then we stop by a pile of "bleeding skin", one of the lab's most successful simulators. It bears a strong resemblance to human skin: a cross-section of the human body with different layers, and a small container hiding under the "skin" containing "blood" so that medical students can practice surgical laryngectomy on it.

A lot of experimentation went into making the surface of the device most like the feel of skin. They use a mixture of silicone and foam to try to recreate human skin in a way that doctors believe is most similar to the real thing. This recipe is a secret, completely unique development. It also required a lot of experimentation on how to glue the multiple layers together, how to place the blood pouch below the surface.

Meanwhile, we walk on to the moulding room where the demonstration instruments (bleeding skin, bones, organs) are made, one by one or in small series. János Mendler, who has decades of experience in modelling and injection moulding, is designing a model on his computer. Among other things, his experience has helped the PTE 3D Printing and Visualisation Centre to turn towards simulators that are competitive.

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Artificial hand - Photo: PTE 3D Visualization Center

Hope for people with arms or legs

Attila Péntek picks up a prosthesis from one of the tables. This device is another success story of the lab. Inside it are two surface signal sensors that detect mechanical signals from two main muscle groups.

These muscle groups retain the ability to move the wrist and fingers even after amputation.

Thus, when the case, which is equipped with so-called myoelectric sensors that use electrical signals from the muscles, is attached to the remaining arm, the muscle groups can move the fingers of the 3D-printed prosthetic hand at the end of the case. (The prosthetic case is made by the medical device producing company Corvus-Med, with which the lab works in symbiosis.) Due to working principles, the case must of course be made separately for each patient.

Printing, designing and the production of a prototype are all done in the lab. Many versions of the prostheses have been developed, many of them just to see how the different parts and mechanics behave in real life, and then to see how and on what path to take for further work. In the second round of investment, which will be launched in the near future, the Centre expects to be able to attract further funding to make further improvements.

In addition to printing and education, research is also carried out in the lab. They can print teeth, braces and even the pliers used to pull them. The latter device has been tested with dentists, some of which had to be reinforced with glass fibre to make it more usable.

The university also generates income from the many products. For example, the bleeding skins are sold to research centres in hospitals. In addition to medical developments, there are also ongoing orders from industry, such as the automotive industry.

The future lives here with us

On the lower level of the building, there's more excitement, with huge printers serving industrial needs. The Stratasys J750 polyjet printer is priced at well over 100 million HUF, but it can now print in colour. The principle of operation is similar to that of conventional printers, except that in 3D, in the ink cartridges plastic (photopolymer) is used instead of ink powder.

The machine builds up the print layer by layer, and where a small part of the model protrudes, it prints a support from the tray level, which can be removed from the model later. We can imagine the function of the support material as the support pillar in a house under construction, which supports the vault.

The machine sucks the materials into the print head under vacuum, then the head mixes and drops the coloured plastic onto the tray. The top of the drop is cut off by a blade to allow the next drop to fit precisely. Finally, the machine firms the print with UV light. At the end of printing, the support material is washed off with water.

A smaller brother of the printer is ideal for dental printing. Based on a CT scan, the model is segmented and the denture is printed.

Its use helps when making braces, as the dental technician can rehearse the most ideal position and prefabricate the restoration, which can then be fitted into the patient's mouth. A silicone gum is also created to the printed denture in the lab, shows Attila Péntek.

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3D printed head - Photo: PTE 3D Visualization Center

In the lab you will find a room that looks more like a space base. Here you will find a printer that prints from polyamide in an insulated chamber. The inside of the chamber is heated to a temperature of 160 degrees Celsius, and then a laser is used to melt the injected material, which is more porous than flour. This process forms the object to be printed, with the printer also moving from layer to layer. At the end of the process, a large block of dust is created, from which, like Indiana Jones in the desert, the print must be carefully extracted by the technicians.

My favourite of the poet, Dezső Kosztolányi's letters are the pieces written in 1915, in which he tells his wife about his son Ádám. His wife, Ilona Harmos was being treated for pneumonia in the Tátra mountains at the time, so she was forced to take some time away from her five-month-old son. I wonder how they managed to feed him? What did children eat at that time? We can read about it in our old cookbooks.

Where did the milk come from?

"Even mothers are healthier if they breastfeed, which makes the milk more abundant", wrote Peter Pázmány in the 1600s. The promotion and appreciation of breastfeeding were typical of the Catholic Church (we might recall paintings of Mary breast-feeding the baby Jesus), while wet nurses became fashionable in the Enlightenment period. Of course, if a mother was unable to breastfeed her baby for some reason, relatives or wetnurses came to her aid. And when the district nurses’ service was organized, the collection and distribution of breast milk began. The Kosztolányi family did not take advantage of this opportunity, and five-month-old Ádám was initially given pasteurized milk from the Károlyi estate in Fót, which "worked very well". Although the cookbook of Erzsébet Hunyadi from Bánffyhunyad was published ten years later, in 1925, it still reflects the feeding habits of the time. The author wrote the principles in consultation with doctors and teachers in Budapest. As she writes, improper nutrition can cause illness and digestive disorders later on, so it is important to set aside time to get informed.

She recommends exclusive breastfeeding up to six months of age (refuting later misconceptions, she makes it clear that neither water nor tea is needed as a supplement), but not on demand, but every 3-3.5 hours.

Ilona Harmos was also breastfeeding, and they were worried that the illness might have affected the milk the baby was receiving. It was only after her admission to a sanatorium that cow's milk came. We know from Hunyady's cookbook, cow's milk was diluted with water or tea and enriched with flour (the so called ‘children's flours’, such as Kufeke,  Szitmaltin,  Maltosit or Demaltos contained milk powder, malt extract, egg yolk and were flavoured with sugar or cocoa). The Kosztolányi family gave the baby tea in addition to milk, first with saccharin (also mentioned in the cookbook), then switched to sugar on doctor's orders.

The first spoonfull of food

At first, the baby's menu was supplemented with oatmeal soup, and then on 9 October 1915, "he was given his first apple preserve, carefully boiled and warmed twice", his father wrote in a letter (the apple's phosphorus content is a bone-strengthener). On October 15, "Baby gets toast-bread  (he loves them) soaked in hot milk, and carrots, etc. Baby is very greedy. He just shakes for his food. But he digests everything very well, even the toasts!" Ilona Harmos must have thought this was premature because Kosztolányi wrote several times to reassure her that the baby had no problems with the toast. But the mother must have been right, because later on the baby had to have an enema and visits to the doctor, and after that little Adam could only have half of a toast.

In the Hunyady cookbook, milk-soaked buns, sponge cakes, or toast are only mentioned from the age of one.

The Kosztolányi's son, however, was already eating bread at the age of six months, and from the end of the month onwards the father, who always wrote with loving care about his son, could report increasing success. "He is getting fatter. The other day we gave him a little raspberry juice. How he loves it! He's a gourmet. His father's son. [...] Baby is having lunch now: mashed potatoes and applepurée. He likes applepurée, but he doesn't like potatoes at all. He blows it back into the spoon!" – a note from November 1915. This is in line with Hunyady's instructions. She also says that the first thing to try is the broth. Then you could add grits and tapioca to it, and then purées - first of all of the soup vegetables, spinach and potatoes. Then came orange juice, apple and plum purée, and mashed bananas. From the age of ten months onwards, it was milk-based semolina pudding. The meat was not recommended until the second year in Hunyady's book, and whole eggs until the third year - yolks were allowed earlier.

Soups, stews, light soufflés, sponge cakes and some meats (chicken, veal, venison, rabbit, for example) are recommended for three-year-olds, while the earliest age at which a child can fully adopt the family diet is four years, according to the 1925 recommendation.

Roux is only used from the second year onwards, and before that, you can read about puréed stews made with butter and milk in the cookbook, for example, peas, cauliflower, lentils, beans, carrots, spinach. So there is no sign of stuffed cabbage or pig’s feet and tripe. After the Second World War, sugar-sweetened water, baby formula, and semolina pudding were only given as a last resort. But exclusive breast milk, fresh vegetables, and selected, high-quality meats were already important foods for babies in the 1920s. 

The documentary presents Attila's story, more precisely a phase of his life, in a mosaic of different situations. Each scene is separated by a chorus of songs, parables, and communal prayers. "Above" and "below", silence and noise, sin and purity, dirty streets and beautiful statues in the Archabbey of Pannonhalma - these are the oppositions the authors build on and reinforce the struggles that take place in the protagonist's soul.

While Attila was living at home with his parents, he had to steal in order to have enough to eat and to buy drugs for his parents.

He later became an addict himself, served time in several prisons, and spent a total of six and a half years in prison. After graduating from high school with excellent grades as an ex-con, he was accepted to university, but before he could start, he started using again after a breakup. He went to prison as a homeless in the Kálvin Square underpass and was released as a converted Christian. He decided never to sin again, to stop using drugs, and to give up crime. In the meantime, he has learned carpentry, served his community service sentence, enrolled in a driving course, and visited the Archabbey of Pannonhalma to learn about monastic life.

The story of his conversion is told through conversations with monks, prisoners, friends, and his mother. He never speaks in full about the crimes he committed, but he does make one exception and tells in detail how his brother, whom he found and cut the rope, committed suicide. It is a truly poignant and heartbreaking confession all the more because Attila is not acting for the cameras, his pain and remorse are sincere.

Halfway through the documentary, he recites a poem - and that's when we realize how much pain and warm feelings there must be in his heart. And maturity. Because Attila is actually a very intelligent, empathetic, respectful man. He became one over the years.

The filmmakers do not absolve him of his sins, yet we come to love this lost man who is in constant search of God and happiness.

Why do people always want to destroy themselves? - he asks a monk in a scene with the innocence of a child. He does not hesitate to ask further questions about God and monasticism. Questions that most people would not dare to ask.

It is very good for the film that the filmmakers also bring in the symbol of the road - we see Attila walking towards Pannonhalma or learning to drive a car. He tries to steer his own life as best he can, but sometimes he gets weak and admits:  Life is much harder than prison.

One question weighs heavily on his mind: should he become a monk or start a family.

The title of the work can be interpreted in several ways. It could refer to the people who helped him and paved his way, it could refer to his departure from prison, or it could refer to his faith that helped him to quit using drugs.

In this age of superhero movies, it's nice to finally see a film where the protagonist's superpower is "merely" the ability to repent.

Where the emphasis is not on the loud and noisy scenes, but on silence and the natural. The "enemy" our protagonist has to fight is everyday life itself, not a CGI monster with supernatural powers.

The documentary, made with the support of the National Film Institute, premiered at the Uránia National Film Theatre on 1 June 2022 - it will tour festivals over the next year, and the filmmakers plan to continue screening films among the vulnerable.

Watch the trailer of the film here.

How do you remember your first really exciting underwater job?

When the Tropicarium was still being built, I applied as a marine biologist. I was there when it was still a concrete jungle, I was the one who brought in the alligators from Sweden, and received the sharks from Florida. At night I had to carry them under my arm and swim around with them because when they arrived they were so stressed that they couldn't come around immediately, and if they didn't swim they would sink to the bottom of the pool and drown.

Is it dangerous to swim with sharks under your arm?

No. I was bitten by one once, but that was my fault. We had the attraction of feeding them in front of the visitors. Three sharks came from different directions and I let go of the fish too late, so one bit my finger.

Did it have to be sewn back on?

No. He only sank his tooth in it, I couldn't feel my finger for a few months.

I went to the doctor, and when he asked me what had happened, I told him the truth: I had been bitten by a shark. He said I "must be kidding ", and should rather tell him how I had really got hurt.

Lake Balaton is often referred to as the Hungarian sea, but it is still unusual for someone to become a marine biologist in Hungary. How did you decide to choose this profession?

I swam competitively as a kid, then became an adult national team diver, won world championships and European championships, and because I was interested in biology, I decided to become a marine biologist.

Were you filming back then too?

The first global marine survey was carried out in 1997. I was working as an industrial diver in Germany and read the ad there. I went to the Maldives with a group of Swiss biologists. At that time, the area was not so popular among tourists, so when my daughter was at kindergarten and the kindergarten teacher asked her where her daddy was and she told her that he was on Maldives Island, the kindergarten teacher corrected her by saying "that's not Maldives Island, Eszter, it's Margaret Island" (laughs). We had to assess the health of the coral reefs and the damage caused by human activity. At the end of the nineties the reefs were relatively healthy, and then when we returned there was the first big natural disaster that caused serious damage. El Nino came, and it warmed the water so much that ninety percent of the coral died.

When I first saw it, it was full of life, and then it was a Martian landscape.

I got into filming when I took an underwater camera as a hobby with a German colleague and we filmed what we were doing. I took the footage to a film studio and they were very interested in the subject. They said, here's an apprentice editor, sit in the editing room and do what you want. We sat there for a month, I had no idea what I was doing, but then we made a 25-minute film that won two festivals. A couple of years ago I was involved in a special production: we made an interactive program underwater, which was broadcast online. The concept was to have two Australian and one Scottish presenters talking about the local coral reef life. To make it work, I had to drag a 300-meter-long optic cable with me underwater.

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Cayman Islands - Photo: Emil Karáth

How far away from civilization are the areas where you are filming?

In some places, there’s really just us and nature. Just before the pandemic broke out, I was in Papua, where we were filming a documentary. We were warned not to get hurt because there were no telephones, no internet, and no medical help. There are a lot of tiny islands in this area with small, sugarloaf-shaped mountains, and the one with the 'dented center' has a lake in the center of the island. To reach the water, however, we had to climb the mountain, through the jungle, in the pouring rain, over razor-sharp rocks, carrying our torches, cameras, and tripods.

Did everyone survive the adventure?

When my other cameraman colleague dived down to the bottom of the lake, he may have swallowed a drop or two of water.

It must have been poisonous because he was dying for four days and we didn't know what was going to happen to him, but he survived.

I just got an ear infection. They threw us into a pod of 400 dolphins, and it's very exciting to see these animals charging towards you, but they're defecating into the water, and the camera got very dirty. And their faeces are full of bacteria, which caused the infection in my ears, but I got some drops from the captain and after a few days I was back diving again. When we returned with the boat, we found out that a pandemic had broken out. We hadn't even disembarked when a team came on board with masks and a thermometer, and we just watched what was happening. Then we were going to Komodo to film dragons, but that didn't work out because of the virus. However, last August, I found out that they were looking for volunteers for Tanzania and I was involved in a coral repatriation program in Africa.

Has the pandemic made travel difficult?

You could go to Tanzania with a vaccination and a negative PCR test. There we travelled to an island where we shared the area with monkeys only. We had to be careful with them because if we left our clothes outside, they would steal them. They didn't take our shoes, but it was not advisable to leave them outside either, because they liked to poop into them. We lived on top of the baobab tree.

In what condition have you found the corals in Tanzania?

There they fish with dynamite, which leaves behind a lunar landscape. There are pieces of coral, a few centimetres long, which are broken off but still alive, to be collected from the sea floor. The local women weave ropes of coconut fibre to string them on. In nine months, the coral pieces grow so large that they can be taken off the ropes and then, using cement that binds underwater, the divers stick them to the bottom to grow.

Life may come back there in a few decades, but if the fishermen carry on like this, they won't be able to feed their children. That is what they need to be made to understand.

You talk about your dives as calmly as if it was the most natural thing in the world to encounter sharks and alligators. I can't imagine the adrenaline not working in you when you're filming...

Of course it works, but if you know how to behave, no harm will be done. I've dived with sharks many times, and humans are not on their menu. Sometimes they attack them by mistake, but the victims of shark attacks usually die from their wounds, not because the animal ate them. It's not even the dangerous-looking animals that are the most hazardous, but rather the ones that you often don't even notice and still can kill you. For example, the tiny blue-ringed octopus, or the tentacle of the box jellyfish. Clothes protect me for the most part, of course I still often have stings all over my hands and mouth, but they only itch for a few days.

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Maldives - Photo: Emil Karáth

Living the Indiana Jones lifestyle, there must have been times when you were glad to get out of the water alive...

(Thinks about it) There was one. When I was six, I was on holiday at my grandparents' place and I got into the drain of my grandfather's pool. I was glad to get out of the water then because you don't usually survive that.

What happened?

The drainpipe sucked me down. By that time there were not many visitors in the swimming pool, but they let us in and I was curious to see how the water went down, I got too close - and I went down. The pipe ends in a stream, but there's a settling pit in between.

I was lucky that the sluice was raised enough for me to get under it because if I couldn't get under it, it was all over. I thought I was going to die.

Luckily I was able to stand up in the pit, the water was up to my chest, and I was shouting from under a cover. Two ladies pulled me out, and since I was floating in a concrete pipe, I had practically no skin left, I was dripping blood, and they took me to my grandparents. I spent the whole summer like a mummy, wrapped in gauze.

And yet you jumped back in the water...

The following year I swam in the same pool (laughs). Water is my life.

You sound like that’s the reason you're determined to do all you can to save wildlife.

I want to involve the next generation in the work so that they understand that this has to be dealt with. I'm currently working on my own website with which we can get involved in marine conservation projects that children can actively contribute to.

Could the damage be reversed then?

Maybe, but only if everything worked as it should. But that's very difficult. Climate change is warming the waters, changing the currents, putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is being absorbed by the sea, and acidifying the water, making it much harder for calcified organisms to build their bodies. On top of that, overfishing, dynamite, litter, and water from the land carrying too many nutrients into the sea causes algal blooms, which drown everything else in the area. But that doesn't mean we are completely helpless. My children really enjoyed taking part in coral restoration on the tiny island of Velaa in the Maldives, where the largest such program in the country is taking place. It's true that they can't see as much as I did thirty years ago, but their generation still has a chance to improve the situation.

Throughout history, politics has influenced the development of women's and men's fashion. This was also the case in 19th century Hungary, where as early as 1830, at V. Ferdinand's coronation celebrations, the members of the aristocracy wore the ‘díszmagyar’, i.e. the national ceremonial attires.

From this date is reckoned the spread of the Hungarian ceremonial attire. This was the way the Hungarian nobility showed their separation from the Austrian court during the years of passive resistance.

On Ferenc Deák's advice, they cultivated Hungarian traditions and the mother tongue in their private lives, and wore the ‘díszmagyar’ (Hungarian ceremonial attire)  equally at family events such as weddings, private parties, and at official functions, court receptions and balls.

Apron and veil

The upper part of the women's ceremonial national dress consisted of a ‘pruszlik’, i. e. a tight, close-fitting vest with a corset in the front, and a white blouse with puff sleeves. This was matched by a large skirt with a train, usually made of expensive, heavy silk material decorated with embroidery. A typical accessory was the apron and veil, usually made of tulle or lace. Aristocrats' gowns were usually decorated with flowers and vines embroidered with gold and silver thread. Married women wore lace bonnets, to which they attached a veil with jewelled clips, which consisted of two parts, one slung over their left shoulder and the other reaching to their waist at the back. Unmarried women wore a chaplet of velvet and flowers, pearls and precious stones on their heads.

Dolmány and spur boots

The men's ‘díszmagyar’ (ceremonial national attire) consisted of a fur-trimmed outer coat, the ‘mente’, a fitted jacket, the ‘dolmány’ made of coloured velvet, trimmed with gold or silver braid, tight trousers, fine leather spur boots, a bejewelled belt, a sword and a cap with an eagle or heron feather. Famous historical figures of the period were often painted or photographed in this costume. Thus, we can still see István Széchenyi, Gyula Andrássy or Mór Jókai in their díszmagyar.

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Portrait of Géza Andrássy by Gyula Benczúr

Women in jewellery and diamonds

Prime Minister Gyula Andrássy hired an English governess, Mary Elizabeth Stevens, for his children, who was always happy to detail in her letters home what men and women wore in Hungarian villages, castles and in the higher society.

Reading her letters makes you realise how people who lived 150 years ago actually felt and dreamt as we do, and how dressing was just as important in the life of a young woman then as it is today.

Mary was very enthusiastic about telling her family about the dresses she wore to the ball at the Vigadó in Pest, and she was always amazed to describe the Hungarian attires of the members of the Andrássy family. Gyula Andrássy's mother, for example, wore a green silk dress with a white lace apron, a diamond necklace and diamond bracelet, a white lace bonnet and a white veil fastened with a diamond clip. In January 1866, Gyula Andrássy's wife Katinka presented herself to the Empress in Buda in a white moiré silk dress during an official visit of the imperial couple Franz Joseph and Elisabeth. The dress was decorated with black lace and the lace apron was black, too. On her 'pruszlik' were diamond pins, and on her head was a diamond crown with three emeralds, from one side of which fell a black veil, which reached almost to the ground at the back. Her skirt ended in a heavy four-metre-long train, which was the standard length at the time. It was not only her dress that made Katinka a success at the reception, she was also the one the Empress, who already spoke Hungarian by that time, had the longest conversation with. She asked her about her children and when she had been to Vienna.

Grandeur at the coronation

The díszmagyar also played a leading role at the coronation ceremonies in 1867, when the Hungarian aristocrats attending the coronation, and even Franz Joseph and Elisabeth herself, dressed in this ceremonial Hungarian national dress. Letters home from the English governess and newspaper reports of the time tell us what expensive garments the guests appeared in. The cavalry regiments of the royal guard were lined up between the castle and Matthias Church, and behind them was a line of distinguished citizens. The citizens of Pest were resplendent in blue and white, wearing velvet cloaks trimmed with fur on their shoulders, and feathers fluttered from fur hats in their hands. Even their saddlebags were made of blue cloth trimmed with silver. But the citizens' dress was nothing like the magnates’. Form the plume-shaped jewellery of Baron Wenckheim's hat huge emeralds were dangling, while both the horse's saddle and saddle-cloth of Prince Esterházy’s horse were full of precious stones.

Of course, Franz Joseph and Queen Elizabeth were not far behind.

Sisi was already given a ‘díszmagyar’ at the time of her wedding, which she loved very much, wore often both at official Hungarian events and at functions in Vienna, and in January 1866 she received the Hungarian delegation in a new Hungarian ceremonial dress.

However, for the coronation, she had to wear an outfit she had never worn before, so she had a skirt which had lilac flowers embroidered in it with silver thread, an apron and a veil, all three sewn in Brussels. In her book Queen Elizabeth and the Hungarians - Friendship or Love?, Barbara Káli-Rozmis says that Elizabeth did not want to burden the court treasury, so the dress was not too expensive for the occasion, costing around 5,000 francs. But when she learned that her attendants, the twelve Hungarian ladies of the palace, were going to wear sumptuous toilets, several of them with silver threads, while Mrs. György Majláth, the wife of the country judge, was to wear a gown embroidered with gold threads, she had to consider how she could dress herself up, since it would not have been proper for her to appear in a less expensive and less splendid gown than her ladies. So she took the diamonds from her jewels and sewed them on her dress, in the centre of the lilac flowers. The end result was a dress sparkling with thousands of diamonds.

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Ida Ferenczy on the occasion of the Millennium

We can also see at the ceremonial dresses

We can admire Queen Elizabeth's coronation gown thanks to the dress designer Mónika Czédly, who created the most original and most accurate copy of the costume for the anniversary of the coronation, the 8th of June 2017. It is decorated with real hand-made lace, which lace-maker Túrós Istvánné worked on for eight hours a day for a whole year.

More than 4,000 Swarovski crystals have been used to replace the brilliants in the reconstruction, with real pearls sparkling on the top part.

The dress has been exhibited in several cities abroad and in our country. The next exhibition will be in Szombathely, where you can see the works of Mónika Czédly, including a copy of Queen Elisabeth's first díszmagyar from 1854, and another Hungarian ceremonial attire based on a painting by Sándor Wagner, the upper part of which is identical to the upper part of the coronation dress. The exhibition Sisi - Queen in Black and White is open from 24 March to 28 August at the Savaria Museum. And in Austria, a major exhibition on Queen Elizabeth will open at Halbturn Castle on 8 April, featuring more than 20 of the dress designer's dress reconstructions, including all the díszmagyar dresses. In addition, the Hungarian ceremonial dress of Ida Ferenczy, Sisi's lady-in-waiting, which was redesigned in 1896 for the Millennium celebrations, will be on display too and was reconstructed by Mónika Czédly.

The aforementioned Mrs György Majláth, née Stefania Prandau-Hilleprand, whose golden thread-embroidered dress she wore at her coronation can be admired in the original at the Ars et Virtus exhibition in the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest. This 19th-century gown is one of the most spectacular artefacts in the exhibition, which runs until 15 March. For those who cannot visit the program in person, you can view the dress virtually from home here.

Literature:
Fábri Anna: Hétköznapi élet Széchenyi István korában
Káli-Rozmis Barbara: Erzsébet királyné és a magyarok – Barátság vagy szerelem?
Podhorányi Zsolt: Dámák a kastélyban
Stevens, Mary Elizabeth: Levelek az Andrássy-házból (1864-1869) – Egy angol nevelőnő levelei
Wéber Anikó: Az ellenállók vezére

We talk to János Árpád János Potápi, Secretary of State for National Policy, in Kakasd, Bonyhád, and Mecseknádasd - he takes me on a tour of his favourite local landscapes with a real local patriot bias. This area is a good example of the subjective concept of ‘nation’ mentioned above: during the reign of Maria Theresa, German-speaking settlers arrived here, during the traumas of the 20th century, Szekler families from Bukovina found a home here, and then Hungarians from the Highlands arrived. Kakasd's famous village hall, designed by Imre Makovecz, reflects this community: one of its towers is in the tradition of old Swabian architecture, while the other is modelled on the wooden churches of Transylvania. The five Szekler gates in front of it symbolize the five Szekler villages of Bukovina, from which the ancestors of the Szekler community living here today fled: Istensegíts, Fogadjisten, Hadikfalva, Andrásfalva, and Józseffalva, who first came to Bácska and then, in April 1945, to South Transdanubia, including Kakasd. "Perhaps our grandparents had confidence in the Tolna region because this hilly and varied landscape reminded them of Bukovina, the landscapes of their homeland," says Árpád János Potápi, himself a Szekler from Bukovina. So the State Secretary responsible for the national policy comes from a multi-ethnic and complex community.

This visceral knowledge is indeed needed for this work because as complex as the situation of the ethnic groups in this one district is, it is just as complex in the whole Carpathian Basin.

What do nationalities have in common? - I ask the Secretary of State. "The ordeals of the twentieth century have affected the whole of Europe, and the two world wars and the subsequent peace treaties have redrawn the map, especially in Central Europe. It was the time when the saying "Enjoy the war, because the peace will be much worse" was widespread. Think of Trianon, that is indeed what Hungarians, too experienced. The punishments, perceived as unjustly severe, also destroyed the mental health of the people living here, and affected families and ethnic communities. I live and work in a district where, until 1945, there was a predominantly German-speaking population. They were deported in large numbers and then replaced by other ethnic groups who were also driven from their homes. To our area, mainly Szeklers from Bukovina and a small number from Transylvania came, and today there are about fifteen thousand of them. Then came the Hungarians from the Highlands (“Felvidék”), Slovakia, who had the only sin of being born Hungarian. The Czechoslovakian martyr-politician János Esterházy asked the Czech criminal judge during the show trial against him what his real crime was - and the judge's honest answer will ring in all our ears: that you are Hungarian.

This policy was bad for everyone: those who had to leave, those who stayed, and those who were separated. Nationality ratios were broken. This is what I grew up with. It was decisive the way my grandparents told stories about what it was like in Bukovina, how they lived, what would have happened if... All families can tell of a similar fate, whether they were Szekler or Swabian. This trauma affects all of our families. It would be nonsense to pretend that we should not do something with it, that we should not heal this trauma. In fact, this is what today's Hungarian National Policy is all about: healing from the trauma, strengthening Hungarian identity and Hungarian self-esteem, primarily in the Carpathian Basin, but also everywhere where Hungarian communities live."

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Árpád János Potápi - Photo: Tamás Páczai

The Secretary of State does not fear primarily for the countless programs, investments, and subsidies that Hungarian communities abroad have received in the past decade, nor does he fear for the abolition of strategically important institutions such as dual citizenship - or not primarily of this. What is really important, and what we must not destroy, is the sense of belonging that has been the result of all these nation-building and nation-strengthening measures among the Hungarian communities living apart.

Today, after a whole century, Hungary is once again thinking in terms of the Carpathian Basin area, moving beyond the fact that the borders of the state are inalterably not in favour of the Hungarian people, and looking for areas where there is some degree of leeway.

The territory of a country can be fragmented, but a nation is connected mentally, culturally, linguistically and historically. These ties may have become loosened over a hundred years, but once you look for them in an organised way, you’ll find that they are strong, tight and resilient.

János Árpád Potápi does not consider the estimate of fifteen million Hungarians living in the world to be unrealistic. In the Carpathian Basin, there are still two and a half million Hungarians living outside the borders and the same number in the diaspora. Some of them no longer speak Hungarian, but they know their roots, keep track of their family ancestors, and still cook Hungarian food at home on holidays - in short, they have family and cultural ties to the Hungarian nation. "It is good that we have given these people the opportunity of dual citizenship, thus strengthening the ties between them and Hungary." In total, more than a million Hungarians living beyond our borders have been granted citizenship in recent years, some of whom also regularly exercise their right to vote. Most of them have taken it up on an emotional basis, not for perceived economic benefits or social support.

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Árpád János Potápi and Kata Molnár-Bánffy - Photo: Tamás Páczai

The State Secretariat's staff studied the national policies of many countries before developing ours. They looked for good examples that could be adapted. Today, we have reached the point where others are taking examples from Hungarian programs. The twentieth century has not only ravaged our nation; everyone has a job to do, to a greater or lesser extent. "Perhaps the strongest national policy program is that of the Jewish people, whatever difficulties they have faced, we see that they have stuck together and looked out for each other, they have pulled together. After two thousand years, they were able to create a country, a modern state-building nation, it's almost unbelievable. But it works well for the Irish. There are four million Irish people in Ireland and another seventy million everywhere else. The number of higher-generation Irish people, scattered around the world, is so numerous that in the USA, for example, they are a power to reckon with in the presidential election. It is also worth looking at the national politics of Armenians and Russians."

Strengthening national identity in minorities can be a life-saver, says János Árpád Potápi. He cites as a good example the Hungarians of Vojvodina, who 25-30 years ago were the hardest hit.

"The war, the post-war conditions, bombed factories, devastation, hit them hard too. They had to recover from that situation, economically, morally, and politically. The Hungarians handled this crisis better because of their solidarity and national identity. Now the Hungarians of Transcarpathia (Ukraine) are in a similarly difficult situation. They are victims of a great power political game that is not about them. Although Transcarpathia was indeed part of the Hungarian state for 1100 years, Hungarian history began here, and it is not even a separate historical region, having been named less than a hundred years ago, the physical existence of the 150 thousand Hungarians living here is now at risk. On the other hand, where there are no problems, where there is prosperity, and where there is peaceful coexistence with the majority nation of the country, assimilation is often faster. For example, in the area around the Mura River (present-day Slovenia), where we realized too late that bilingual schools are not a good solution, they accelerate assimilation."

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Árpád János Potápi - Photo: Tamás Páczai

We are talking in the first days of December, and we cannot help but recall the shocking day, 17 years ago, on 5 December, the day of the referendum on dual citizenship. Hungarians living beyond our borders had good reason to feel denied by some voters and by the government campaigning against dual citizenship. Secondary shame has haunted us ever since. But, the State Secretary adds, it may have been precisely what we needed to start thinking very strongly about our national policy. "We got a kick in the head. Is that really what we want? That's when we decided to radically oppose this idea. If we get the chance - and we did! - we will make a national policy that will remedy both this recent trauma and the deep-rooted, century-old wounds. So that Hungarians beyond our borders can feel that, despite all this, we are one nation. I believe that we have succeeded. I am particularly proud of the Unlimited program because it is one of the guarantees of a long-term solution. Almost every seventh-grade child in the program will spend 4-5 days in one of the Hungarian regions beyond the border."

"They see and hear that there are Hungarians living in distant regions, they make friends and keep in touch with them - we hope that these children will grow up to be adults who will no longer call the Szeklers Romanian or think of  the Hungarians of the Highlands as Slovaks."

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Árpád János Potápi and Kata Molnár-Bánffy - Photo: Tamás Páczai

The first of December, which Romanians celebrate as the birthday of modern Romania, is not a day we like to remember. But there is one thing that Árpád Potápi does mention in connection with this day: our own cowering. It is a well-known fact from history books that the Hungarian railway company MÁV carried the participants to this particular Romanian National Assembly in Gyulafehérvár free of charge with the permission of Hungarian Prime Minister Mihály Károlyi. "We are the most permissive and accepting people. A self-respecting state does not support those who want to break away!"

Instead, we remember Mihály Vörösmarty, whose birthday is on the first of December. He was the private teacher of the Perczel family in Bonyhád, his muse Etelka was also a Perczel girl, and we visit the family graves and the statue of the poet in Bonyhád. “Let fortune bless or fortune curse” (a line from the national Appeal, written by Mihály Vörösmarty, translated by Wattson Kirkconnel) is a self-fulfilling prophecy hovering over our sense of history. Although the tasks are always new and every generation has its own struggles, the last ten years have been a time of blessing in national politics. 

Képmás magazine has launched a new series called Public Treasure, in which Kata Molnár-Bánffy, the publisher of Képmás, talked to dedicated people whose successful work can be of interest to many, and is a Public Treasure, as the title of the series suggests: a common issue, something we want to take care of.