Márk Németh is Budapest-based political and social scientist who focuses on electoral systems, political campaigns, political marketing, and political philosophy.
Recent Articles by Márk Németh
How George Washington came to have a statue in Budapest
The year 2017 saw a raging debate in the United States over figures from its history. This especially concerned whether statutes of even the most important figures in U.S. history should be left standing, if those people held views that society now disapproves. In the U.S., this debate has left no figure unscathed, including George Washington himself. Therefore, it may surprise Americans to know that a statue of Washington stands proudly in the heart of Budapest, Hungary.
How did a statue of George Washington come to stand in Budapest?
On December 4, 1851, Lajos Kossuth – perhaps the most famous Hungarian politician – landed in the harbor of New York City. More than 200,000 people awaited for the arrival of the one dubbed the “Great Hungarian.” The New York Times wrote that no similar event in national history could compare to his visit. After his arrival, Kossuth stayed in the U.S. for seven months to gain political and diplomatic influence for his motherland. So successful were his efforts that newspapers compared him to great patriots like Lafayette and Washington.
(Photo credit: Márk Németh. Used by permission.) In 1902, to honor this great Hungarian freedom fighter, a group of Hungarian-Americans started building a monument to Kossuth in Cleveland...
