Az „oláh-verő Botond” Keleti Svájcban. Réthy László és a dualizmus kori nemzetiségi kérdés különös története
“Botond the Oláh-Beater” in Switzerland of the East. László Réthy and the Curious History of National Minorities in Post-1867 Hungary

Summary/Abstract: László Réthy, a popular obscene poet known under the name of Árpád Lőwy, published in 1911 a poem about the peace among the national groups with the title of Switzerland of the East. Since Réthy had previously frequently echoed the common contemporary Hungarian stereotypes about the national minorities, the paper explores the problem of the poem’s origins. The roots are identified before all in the history of Réthy’s family, in the uncertainties of his descent, the multi-lingual environment that surrounded him in his youth, but also in his neurosis that was rooted in personal traumas, and in several accidental circumstances. Taken together, these factors show how extraordinary it was in the latter period of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy for someone to adopt the perspective of another national discourse, to accept the national sentiment of non-Hungareians or even to acknowledge it as legitimate.

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