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Hungary Interwar Period
Until World War II, striking inequalities distinguished
the
distribution of wealth, power, privilege, and opportunity
among
social groups. The various social strata had different
codes of
behavior and distinctive dress, speech, and manners.
Respect
showed to persons varied according to the source of their
wealth.
Wealth derived from possession of land was valued more
highly
than that coming from trade or banking. The country was
predominantly rural, and landownership was the central
factor in
determining the status and prestige of most families. In
some of
the middle and upper strata of society, noble birth was
also an
important criterion as was, in some cases, the holding of
certain
occupations. An intricate system of ranks and titles
distinguished the various social stations. Hereditary
titles
designated the aristocracy and gentry. Persons who had
achieved
positions of eminence, whether or not they were of noble
birth,
often received nonhereditary titles from the state. The
gradations of rank derived from titles had great
significance in
social intercourse and in the relations between the
individual
and the state. Among the rural population, which consisted
largely of peasants and which made up the overwhelming
majority
of the country's people, distinctions derived from such
factors
as the size of a family's landholding; whether the family
owned
the land and hired help to work it, owned and worked the
land
itself, or worked for others; and family reputation. The
prestige
and respect accompanying landownership were evident in
many
facets of life in the countryside, from finely shaded
modes of
polite address, to special church seating, to selection of
landed
peasants to fill public offices.
On the eve of World War II, about 4 percent of the
population
owned more than half the country's wealth. Landowners,
wealthy
bankers, aristocrats and gentry, and various commercial
leaders
made up the elite. Together, these groups accounted for
only 13
percent of the population. Between 10 and 18 percent of
the
population consisted of the petite bourgeoisie and the
petty
gentry, various government officials, intellectuals,
retail store
owners, and well-to-do professionals. More than two-thirds
of the
remaining population lived in varying degrees of poverty.
Their
only real chance for upward mobility lay in becoming civil
servants, but such advancement was difficult because of
the
exclusive nature of the education system
(see Education
, this
ch.). The industrial working class was growing, but the
largest
group remained the peasantry, most of whom had too little
land or
none at all.
Although the interwar years witnessed considerable
cultural
and economic progress in the country, the social structure
changed little. A great chasm remained between the gentry,
both
social and intellectual, and the rural "people." Jews held
a
place of prominence in the country's economic, social, and
political life. They constituted the bulk of the middle
class.
During the first four decades of the twentieth century,
Jews made
up more than one-fifth of the population of Budapest. They
were
well assimilated, worked in a variety of professions, and
were of
various political persuasions.
Data as of September 1989
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