Hungary’s Nobel Triumph

Abstract

The article examines the scientific potential of Hungary and other Central European countries through the prism of international recognition of the achievements of the scientific and cultural elite of the region. The author comes to the conclusion that, in comparison with other European countries, immigrants from the region of the former Austria-Hungary made no less important contribution to world science than their neighbors on the continent. However, a distinctive feature is that few of them have achieved such significant recognition while living and working in their country. The fate of scientists and cultural figures turned out to be dependent on many factors, including primarily political, and to a considerable extent also economic, which forced scientists to leave the country in search of freedom of scientific search and literary creativity, financing of their research. Only a few were guided solely by the desire to work at the most famous universities, but in the end, their successes led them to the leading scientific unities of the world, which allowed them to claim such a high assessment of their work as the Nobel Prize.