Reinventing Budapest in a Post-Imperial Era: Symbolic Landscapes of the City Between the Two World Wars

Abstract

This article explores the ways interwar Budapest adapted to 20th-century challenges in a post-imperial context, highlighting the distinctive features of Budapest as a capital city during the decades following the fall of the Habsburg Monarchy and the subsequent breakup of historic Hungary. After reflecting on the historical background and making comparisons with other capital cities of the region, the investigation concentrates on the symbolic dimensions of urban space, showing how the dominant political ideologies of the interwar era were represented in the cityscape of Budapest. The designs of public spaces, street names, other toponyms, monuments, and memorials stand at the focus of the analysis, all interpreted as elements of an attempt to transform the city’s space into a coherent symbolic landscape. It is an important goal to highlight the continuities and discontinuities between the pre– and post–World War I period. Meanwhile, the study also pays attention to the factors that had little to do with the official ideologies of the day, namely, the changing paradigms of urban planning and architecture, the role of market forces and municipal endeavors, and the possibilities of public versus private real estate development. It concludes that Budapest was characterized by a striking dichotomy of tradition and modernity during the interwar period: while conservative worldviews and various shades of right-wing ideologies exerted a strong influence on the public space, radically modern architectural forms and new patterns of urbanity appeared as well, all simultaneously shaping the city.