The Fate of Western Hungary 1918-1921 - Corvinus Library ...

ackground of this institution because its students – in continuous meetings
during these days – would soon play an important role in the events of Western
Hungary, in the anti-Austrian insurrection. The last lectures in Selmecbánya
began on October 6, 1918. The vast majority of the 400 enrolled students (with
the exception of 30 younger ones) fought in the war and almost all demobilized
with the rank of second or first lieutenant. The students selected from among
themselves, on November 2, 1918, a military commander in the person of
Zoltán Szikorszky, a mining engineer student and former first lieutenant of the
artillery. Afterwards, they marched to the building of the local military-mine
security and demanded the handing over of arms and ammunition.
The students soon came up against the senseless pacifist, impotent policies
of the Károlyi government, which gave up, without military resistance (in fact,
prevented such initiatives), the 60,000 km 2 of Northern Hungary. The Mining
and Forestry students disarmed the 38 th Czech Artillery Regiment, a unit of the
Monarchy and garrisoned in Selmecbánya, and took over the security of its
barracks, armories and other buildings in the town. 281 The students thus
provided, until the middle of December 1918, Hungarian public order in
Selmecbánya, which the Károlyi government was unable to do, here as in many
other places. When Czech forces advance in strength, the last group of approx.
300 students was forced to abandon the town. In the meantime, the head of the
Academy looked for a new location inside the mutilated mother country to
relocate the school, as it was their wish to continue to lead a Hungarian
institution. The Hungarian government – bowing to the insistence of Mayor
Mihály Thurner – designated Sopron (in directive 52,935) and the first group
arrived on March 4, 1919, headed by Rector Géza Réz (1865–1936). The group
consisted of four delegates from two ministries, the rector, five assistant
professors and 22 students with the task of making preparations for the
relocation. 282 The rest of the teaching staff, now under Czech occupation in
Selmecbánya, was only able to make their move starting April 26, 1919. A
larger group of students, lacking the means, was only able to travel to Sopron in
July. In the meanwhile, the salvaged equipment, collections, schoolrooms were
temporarily housed by the end of April in the buildings of the King Charles
Barracks, where instructions according to the former curriculum carried on. In
fact, the cafeteria for the feeding for about 300 students was also arranged. 283
281 Krug, 1930, op. cit., pp. 10, 14–15.
282 Hiller, István: Sopron harca a hajdani selmecbányai főiskola idetelepítésért 1919-ben
[Sopron’s battle for the relocation of the former academy of Selmecbánya in 1919]. In:
Soproni Szemle, 1969, issue 2, pp. 99, 102; Hiller, István: A soproni egyetemi hallgatók
mozgalmai a két világháború között. Fejezetek a Soproni Egyetem történetéből. 1919–
1945 [The movements of the Sopron University students between the two wars.
Chapters from the history of Sopron University 1919-1945]. Sopron, 1975. The entire
academy, students and professors, relocated to Vancouver, Canada in the aftermath of
the 1956 Revolt, to become part of the University of British Columbia.
283 Papp, 1969, op. cit., pp. 29–31.
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