A magántisztviselő a német és a magyar kortárs és történeti diskurzusban a 20. században
Private clerks in contemporary and historical discourse in Germany and Hungary in the twentieth century

Summary/Abstract: The paper surveys German and Hungarian works on the clerks of private offices [Privatbeamten ]. Surveying the German sociological and sociographical literature in the first half of the twentieth century, the paper introduces the problematic issues concerning the social group in question. This is followed by an overview of the German sociohistorical literature after World War II. The history of Privatbeamten has been emphasized as one of the elements in the discussions on the special way of German social development, treated by extensive literature. The second part of the paper discusses the literature on the significantly smaller group of Hungarian private clerks, first the contemporary works before World War II, then the historical literature since the war. A comparison of German and Hungarian works generates questions on the picture of Hungarian society in the first half of the twentieth century, closely associated with the work of Ferenc Erdei. While the descriptive tradition on Hungarian society regards private clerks as belonging to the bourgeoise part of society and free from feudal legacy, the German literature discusses the „vorbürgerliche ”, „vorkapitalische ” nature of this group and the role of feudal behavioural patterns. The paper, which is a chapter from a PhD dissertation in progress, discusses the possible questions resulting from the different contents of the discourses.

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