1920 Emich Irredentist Mechanical Map of Hungary

This is a 1920 mechanical paper map of Hungary, produced in the Interwar Period, by the Hungarian Women's National Association. This fascinating and ingeniously constructed postcard - here including its original protective envelope - is an exemplar of post-World War I Hungarian Irredentism (referring to a policy of advocating the restoration to a country of any territory formerly belonging to it.) It is propaganda in protest of the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, known in Hungary as the Dictate of Trianon.

The Deconstruction of Hungary

The punitive treaty, primarily engineered by France, defined Hungary's borders as those reflected in the 1918 cease-fire lines, with the result that Hungary lost two thirds of the territory it had occupied prior to the First World War, with 1.2% passing to Austria, 19.1% to Czechoslovakia, 19.4% to Yugoslavia, and 31.7% to Romania. The card also notes, for each lost piece of territory, the size of the ethnically Hungarian population alienated.

This change in territory is illustrated on this card by the manipulation of a paper dial on the left side of the card: by moving the dial, the portions of pre-war Hungary move away from the remaining part in the center, illustrating dramatically the dissection of the country.

National Poem of the Horthy Era

The onionskin sleeve accompanying the card is printed, in six languages, with the poem Magyar Hiszekegy, written in 1920 by Elemérné Papp-Váry Szeréna Sziklay at the call for submissions by Magyarország Területi Épségének Védelm Ligája (the League for the Protection of the Territorial Construction of Hungary) for poems and prayers reflecting the goal of recapturing the parts of Hungary lost in the Treaty/ Dictate of Trianon. This three-line prayer would become the national prayer during the Horthy Era, the period from 1920 to 1946 in which Hungary was ruled by Regent Miklós Horthy. Characterized by its conservative, nationalist and fiercely anti-communist character, Horthy's government pressed for the total or partial revision of the Treaty of Trianon, capitalizing on a national resentment continuing until the present.

Publication History and Census

This object is scarce: we see only four in institutional collections, dated 1920; we see one example in the trade speculatively dated c. 1934; the National Library of Scotland dates an example c. 1938. It was produced on behalf of the Hungarian Women's National Association; the mapmaker is given as Emich, which institutional cataloguers have taken to refer to Gusztáv Emich: a distinction less illuminating than one might think, as the name could as easily apply to Gusztáv Emich the 1920 minister of trade (1866 - 1927) as it could to his son, Gusztáv Emich (1897–1932.) The elder Emich's father Gusztáv (1843-1911) can be eliminated from our search, as can his father Gusztáv (1814-1869.) The 1920 minister of trade is nevertheless probably the best candidate: he did produce the 1920 'Magyarország gazdasági térképekben/ The economies of Hungary in maps', which mirrored the present document in its Irredentist sentiment.