Article ‘Duties for her race and nation’: Scientistic racist views on sexuality and reproduction in 1920s Hungary Sexualities 2016, Vol. 19(1/2) 190–210 ! The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1363460715614243 sex.sagepub.com Attila Kund University of Pécs, Hungary Abstract This article aims to give insight into the 1920s’ scientific racist discourse in Hungary with a special emphasis on sexuality and reproduction. Post-First World War Hungary saw new developments in nationalist discourse, notably a new language of race and nation. In this context of nationalism, a new wave of racial scientism appeared that was based on concepts of racial purity and biological reproduction. Reviewing the publications of a group of academic and medical professionals who dominated the scientistic racist discourse, this article analyses how sexuality was represented in their framework as a crucial aspect of the reproduction of the ‘Magyar race’. It argues that such ideas on the one hand, were influenced by contemporary racist theories from Western Europe and North America, but on the other hand, the argumentation of Hungarian contemporary right-wing political rhetoric is also detectable in this discourse. The article also explores the intersection of racial anti-Semitism and sexism that appears in the works of these scholars and argues that their anti-Jewish claims were significantly shaped by suppositions about gender and sexuality. Keywords 1920s, biopolitics, Hungary, Eastern/Central Europe, reproduction, scientific racism, sexual science The history of eugenic and racial thought in Central, Eastern and south-eastern Europe has gained significant scholarly attention during the last decade. In the first instance, the work of Marius Turda, who has contributed a large body of research concerning the history of eugenic thought in the region, with a special emphasis on Corresponding author: Attila Kund, University of Pécs, Interdisciplinary Doctoral School, H-7624 Pécs, Rókus u. 2. Hungary. Email: kundattila@gmail.com Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 191 Kund Hungary (Turda, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2013), should be underlined. Other authors as well have studied the eugenic history of the region, such as Maria Buccur (2002), who focused on Romania, or other scholars who have published work in volumes co-edited by Turda (Turda and Weindling, 2007; also Promitzer et al., 2011). However, despite the importance of the problem, the field of racial discourses in interwar Hungary is still an insufficiently researched area. Apart from the broader subject of eugenics, most of the literature on this narrowly focused topic – that is, the expressly racial theories of the interwar period – has concerned the views of Professor Lajos Méhelÿ, the most prominent Hungarian racial theorist. When considering this material, it is necessary to take into account the work of János Gyurgyák, who has discussed Méhelÿ’s views in three of his monographs (2001: 387–397, 2007: 261–266, 2012: 244–248). Méhelÿ’s works have also been examined by Zoltán Paksy (2011), Krisztián Ungváry (2012: 337–341), and Attila Kund (2012). Since research concerning this field is still in its initial stages, in most cases assessments of Méhelÿ’s works have dealt with his theories in general, and issues of gender, sexuality and reproduction have not been examined – in spite of their fundamental importance for racial theory as a whole. On the other hand, other figures of the race biology1 scene in Hungary – János Bársony, János Gáspár, Sándor Keltz, Mihály Malán, Pius Koller, and Zsigmond Ritoók – have attracted even less attention.2 Thus, monographic works concerning these issues are yet to come. In spite of the significance of the question – since sexuality and reproduction are among the most crucial issues of racism – there is no effective literature on the gender and sexual consequences of the race biology theories of interwar Hungary. Therefore, this article is the first attempt to understand this chapter of the intellectual history of Hungary’s Horthy regime, and to give an introduction to the debates of the race biologists centring around issues of purity, heredity, and reproduction; it also provides an opportunity to understand the era by the examination of the intersections between racial anti-Semitism and gender hierarchies. The racist vocabulary of these authors was defined by the terms ‘degeneration’, ‘miscegenation’, or several examples of supposedly pathological states. Through their work, a biopolitical agenda was established to ensure the racial purity of the Magyar by preventing their marriage with the most ‘inferior’, and by improving the ‘biological quality’ of the children of those already corrupted. As they discussed desirable and undesirable sexual relationships, these authors presented a characteristic view on sexuality which was completely subordinated to efforts to contribute to the racially defined Magyar nation through the production of children of high racial quality. Racial anti-Semitism was connected to the ‘woman question’, and claims about women’s role were legitimized by racial argumentation that women’s only task was the biological reproduction of the pure Magyar race. Any other ambitions of women were condemned as unnatural. In the same framework, non-reproductive sexualities – including homosexuality or even the one-child practice – were considered unnatural and damaging to the Hungarian nation. This is why ‘the Jew’ is represented in this discourse as a figure Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 192 Sexualities 19(1/2) with abnormal sexuality. I thus argue that the idea of a pure nation determines how sexuality and race are theorized and connected in these works. The goal of this article is to demonstrate the significance of the ideas about race and sexuality of this small group of scientists for Hungarian intellectual history, and to place these ideas in the matrix of contemporary Hungarian circumstances and western influences. The scope of interest of the article is limited to the 1920s. This periodization is of course arbitrary, because these racial discourses went on throughout the 1930s and until the end of the Second World War, by which time racial claims already influenced legislation. Participants of these discourses were partially the same figures who contributed to the debate of the 1920s, or new ones who in most cases came from the circle of those who had been dominant during the discourses of the earlier decade. The decision to exclude sources from 1930 onwards from this discussion is, on the one hand, a practical issue; any attempt to analyse the whole Horthy era from this point of view would transcend the dimensions of a journal article. On the other hand, the political climate in the 1930s changed so much both internationally and domestically that racial thoughts of the 1930s and 1940s must be interpreted in terms of a significantly altered context. As the focus of this article is the race biologists’ thoughts on gender and sexuality, there are large portions of the contemporary literature not discussed here. A large amount of medical literature lacking explicit political claims is disregarded here, despite the fact that dealing with aspects of health issues in ways shaped by eugenic considerations was common amongst physicians.3 Here I will only focus on authors who attached their supposedly scientific views on races to right-wing political goals. Therefore, the most significant element of the absent sources – both primary sources and secondary literatures – is psychoanalysis.4 And while it should be noted that during the Christian–national period, both of the biggest Churches – whose relationship was an on-going issue during the era5 – had figures affiliated to the eugenic cause,6 this aspect will not be discussed here either because of lack of space. The political context To give a more detailed insight into the aforementioned political circumstances, it is useful to draw a picture of the political background. Austria-Hungary finished the First World War defeated and collapsed, the newly independent Hungary suffered huge territorial losses. The Treaty of Trianon fundamentally changed Hungarian national identity, and the effects of the ‘Trianon trauma’ – which became the central issue of the following decade – are still obvious. The new regime under the regency of Admiral Miklós Horthy came into power through a right-wing counter-revolution after months of turbulence including two revolutions – the so called Aster Revolution in 1918 and a communist one the next year, which was followed by the brief period of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Horthy’s regime defined itself as counter-revolutionist and Christian–national, and remained in power until the final chapters of the Second World War. Its political Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 193 Kund elite not only opposed the ideologies and policies of the revolutionary governments, but also objected to those of the liberal governments of Austria-Hungary. The new era was thus shaped by an anti-liberal nationalism. Growing anti-Semitism was a significant feature of this time. In contrast to the governments of the AustriaHungary era, which considered Jews to be Magyars of the Israelite faith, the new regime excluded the Jews from the ethnic community. For instance, the infamous numerus clausus law of 1920 aimed to limit the participation of Jewish students in higher education. Although the situation eased later in the decade during the premiership of Count István Bethlen, the agenda of the ‘Jewish question’7 continued to emerge from time to time. In the political discourse of the time, race became a key notion, widely used within nationalistic debates. The history of Hungarian racial thought may seem confusing. The Hungarian term for race, ‘faj’, had been very commonly used since the mid-19th century as a synonym for nation, but without necessarily biological connotations. After the First World War, however, the use of this term became even more frequent. Moreover, it has been argued that the anti-Semitic zeitgeist of the early 1920s took advantage of the lexical differences between race and nation, and changed them into semantic differences. (Szabó, 1995: 152). Additionally, the far right opposition to the government – first as the internal rightist opposition within the ruling party and later in their own party – were called ‘race protectors,’ ‘fajvédo00 k’ in Hungarian. The dissident party, the Hungarian National Independence Party, was commonly known as the Racial Protection Party.8 The party should not be regarded as scientific-racist, although Lajos Méhelÿ was a member of the party and was held in high esteem. The ideology of the party was heavily shaped by the Trianon-trauma and explicit anti-Semitism (Paksa, 2012: 73– 83.). As could be seen from the views of party leader Gyula Gömbös, they were indeed influenced by biological racism, but did not exclusively rely on it (Vonyó, 2005: 30), and Gömbös – like other party members – distanced himself from exclusively biological interpretations (Kund, 2012: 246–248). A conservative approach to social questions was also characteristic of this era. The official line of ideology strongly condemned both popular culture and elite culture, as well as ‘progressive’ social approaches, including feminism. The situation of women in Hungary in the 1920s was shaped by the aforementioned conservative line, yet at the same time a partial political emancipation took place. Although extensive suffrage rights – granted under pressure by the western powers after the First World War in order to secure the greatest possible legitimacy for the government signing the peace treaty – were later considerably reduced, they still had a significant impact (Gyáni, 2010: 18). Nonetheless, in the Christian– national ideology, the proper setting for the ideal woman was the family, the social status of which was defined by her husband. The breadwinner was contrasted with the mother (Nagyné Szegvári, 2001: 141). In the Horthy era, feminism was denounced by the official elite: it was seen as an example of the rejected ideology of the defeated liberal pre-World War era. This attitude was shared by the prominent pro-regime conservative women’s associations, which did not oppose equality of Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 194 Sexualities 19(1/2) rights but condemned the approaches of feminists allegedly seeking the ‘masculinization’ of women (Sipos, 2009). Racial discourse in Hungary The reception of modern racist thoughts in Hungary corresponded with Western European and North American developments. Count Gobineau’s infamous ‘Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines’ was mentioned as early as 1856, although in a critical and sarcastic way (Hunfalvy, 1856: 283). In the early 20th century, Houston Stewart Chamberlain also attracted much interest (Erdélyi, 1909; Jankulov, 1912). Social-Darwinist elements are also said to have appeared during debates about Hungary’s different ethnic groups in the second half of the 19th century (Németh, 1976; Turda, 2004). Eugenics gained great interest amongst intellectuals in pre-First World War Hungary. A small but very influential circle of authors – both academics and independent scholars – discussed the novelties of eugenic research, as they had also done with theories like Spencerian evolutionary theory or, later, Durkheim’s sociology. Not only did they embrace the latest eugenic achievements; they also made their own contributions to the field. Amongst them was Géza von Hoffmann, the most famous eugenicist from Hungary, who enjoyed an international reputation and whose works are often discussed in scholarship on eugenics history (Turda, 2007: 199–200). But other figures – though only known in Hungary – also contributed influential works. The experience of the First World War induced enormous changes in eugenics. Eugenicists – apart from some who argued for the benefits of selection, or war’s strengthening of virtue and discipline – generally feared the catastrophic consequences of the war. The reason for this change was that huge masses of young and healthy men died on the battlefield, before they could father children, while those who were unfit for conscription would produce descendants. Coping with this challenge, eugenicists of the belligerent countries worked on eugenic frameworks for national regeneration (Turda, 2010: 40–63). It was during the war that two of the significant figures among the racial thinkers of the next decade published their thoughts on the topic for the first time: Lajos Méhelÿ (1915) and János Bársony (1915, 1917). When considering the influence of the teachings of the race biologists, we should not underestimate it. Although they seem to have played a marginal role in the policymaking of 1920s Hungary, and were not dominant in public discourse, it should be taken into consideration that their thoughts reached important sectors of the government. Two-times Prime Minister Count Pál Teleki – a vocal anti-Semite and advocate of eugenics himself, but an opponent of scientific racism – was, for example, in all likelihood a reader of A Cél (The Goal), the journal of the race biologists (Ungváry, 2001: 75). The periodical constantly increased its readership during Méhelÿ’s editorship, jumping from 120 subscribers in 1926 to 1800 by 1940, when he retired from the position (Dósa, 1967: 5). Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 195 Kund The narrative of racial decline – the basic thoughts of the race biologists The characters in this article are the so-called ‘race biologists’. As this is a loose category, some additional remarks are needed. While these authors often called their theory race biology, and while they established and maintained their own scientific network (with, for instance, its own periodical), it would not be accurate to label their movement a distinct association, as they all also exercised commitments towards other (although ideologically closely related) groups, from professional organisations of physicians to other academic bodies. The common features of these men, almost without exception,9 were that they all had a formal scientific education – in many cases in Western Europe – and had also published on scientific subjects other than race biology. In most cases they had scientific careers. The most noted race biology author, Lajos Méhelÿ, was a renowned zoologist, with an especially distinguished career. His primary interest – until he started to focus on human races in his late 50s – was herpetology, but he also published in other fields of zoology, writing, for example, about bees. A member of several scientific associations including the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, he also served for one year as the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Budapest University. He headed the Department of Anthropology of Budapest University between 1920 and 1930, and changed the department into a centre of scientific racism (Farkas, 2000: 62). The other significant author, János Bársony, was also a successful scientist. A professor of gynaecology and director of the Gynaecological Clinic of the Budapest University, for one year he also served as the university’s rector. Most of the other authors discussed here also had close connections with academia. The mere fact that these young race scientists – who were in their 20s and 30s during the 1920s – achieved such distinguished academic careers in their later lives shows that this movement was embedded into Hungary’s scientific elite. The ideas of Hungarian race biology were based on western theories. Amongst the influences there were classical eugenicists like Francis Galton, but also figures like Arthur de Gobineau, who was in fact cited surprisingly often. Hungarian race scientists also regularly referred to works of contemporary authors like Eugen Fischer. But the favourite author – at least of Méhelÿ and of his students – was probably Swedish eugenicist Herman Lundborg, who may have inspired the Hungarian authors to use the term ‘race biology’. Before developing my main argument, I will attempt to summarize the views of these race biologists, in order to make clear the context in which their specific thoughts on gender, sexuality, and reproduction appeared. In considering this context, it should be noted, once again, that views on eugenics changed substantially after the First World War (a change which was a Europe-wide phenomenon). [A]lthough the nationalisation of eugenics intensified during the war, it was only with the political and territorial transformations introduced by the peace treaties of 1919– 1920 that eugenicists changed strategy by turning their attention to political agitation Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 196 Sexualities 19(1/2) and aggressive nationalism. International credibility was certainly very important to eugenics, but it was not an end in itself. Above and beyond the universal recognition of their respective scholarly fields, eugenicists – like most scientists – were driven by a genuine commitment to improve the health conditions of their own countries and nations. (Turda, 2010: 72–73) In Hungary, developments occurred in a similar fashion. Given the fact that after 1919 Hungarian politics became considerably more right wing, a number of eugenic concepts came to be attached to racial theories. Author Houston Stewart Chamberlain was celebrated as a figure comparable to Beethoven, Newton or Michelangelo (Altenburger, 1922); despite his irrationality and mysticism (Mosse, 1978: 108), his works were often cited by allegedly scientific authors. Given that anti-Semitism became a vital force in Hungary, authors with scientistic racist views attempted to justify anti-Semitism with their own contributions. Other issues were occasionally also discussed, like germanophobic claims against the ethnic German minority,10 as well as topics from classical eugenics (i.e. social stratification11 and concern over the hereditary diseases of the poor). The starting point of the diagnosis by the race biologists was the biological decline of the ‘Magyar race’. They argued that illnesses such as tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, and alcoholism were on the rise, as were various moral deficiencies (Bársony, 1922: 13). Among the main symptoms of this decline were those linked to reproduction, such as the above-mentioned STDs, or the increase in the number of women with narrow pelvises (Bársony, 1922: 18). Even Hungary’s defeat in the Great War was explained as the result of racial decline. The real cause of this tragic tendency, the race biologists argued, was not the reproduction of the lower classes, as classical eugenics assumed, but rather miscegenation. According to this theory, mixed marriages between Jews and gentile Magyars would result in descendants with Jewish features, because racist principles implied that the genes of the ‘inferior’ parent would be inherited.12 As a result, Méhelÿ argued, mixed marriages would result in the vanishing of Magyardom (Méhelÿ, 1923: 305).13 He added, ‘Jewry is not only the carrier of different diseases, but is mixed with inferior races. Thus, embracing them leads to an impact of racial proteins that can cause the ultimate corruption of our race’ (Méhelÿ, 1924: 9). Besides racial mixing, ‘civilisation’ was claimed to be another cause of decline. Although this approach was also anti-Semitic, since several phenomena of modern life were attributed to the Jews, such ideas were also attached to broader perceived problems of reproduction by supporting them with arguments of reproductive health. ‘Secularisation is an example of the consequences of modern civilisation, which is followed by immorality, and then syphilis and the other venereal diseases’ (Bársony, 1922: 19–20). The ideal woman of the race Nationalist discourses always direct special attention to reproduction, and especially women’s reproductive role, since nations are constructed on the basis of the Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 197 Kund principle of birth as the almost exclusive criterion of belonging. In the case of racist ideologies, one has no other way to be a member of a certain national group but birth (Yuval-Davis, 1998: 26–27). Race biologists’ theories were even more focused on reproduction and on women’s roles. Women were seen by them as defined by the duties of childbirth and childcare, and race biologists firmly rejected any other, supposedly ‘manly’ ambitions for women, as well as the habits and attitudes of a modern lifestyle. While drawing his picture of the ideal woman, Méhelÿ contrasted two types of women. The first – the wrong one – smoked cigarettes, visited theatres and cinemas, and wore a bob haircut. The other type – the desirable one – was a woman who lived for her home, her family, who was a wife and mother, and was not only responsible for her family, but ‘imbued with the duties for her race and nation’ (Méhelÿ, 1926b: 291). Thus the undesirable female role – with the typical features of the then modern urban lifestyle, including a rather relaxed approach to sexuality – was against nature, Méhelÿ argued, and such women should be ‘shepherded back to their function’ by a ‘healthy resistance’ (1926b: 291–292). He argued that women’s role in race preservation was more than just personal responsibility for their own children. It primarily meant duty for the race. Méhelÿ stressed that ‘the intimacy and purity of family life is not sufficient. Keeping the purity of the race is also an important factor’ (Méhelÿ, 1926b: 301). ‘First of all, the need for adequate marriages is stressed on the grounds of racial consciousness’ (Ritoók, 1924: 37). When reconstructing the arguments of race biology authors in Hungary, we can see that the promotion of ‘racial purity’ or ‘racial consciousness’ was an anti-Semitic claim, an anti-Semitic claim that in this medicalized interpretation intersected with the medicalized approach to sexuality. Thus, the race biologists were more interested in racial purity than in other factors like hereditary diseases.14 Ambitions of women other than motherhood were vehemently discouraged. Employment for women, especially their entering jobs that were considered to be ‘manly’, had the potential of masculinization, Sándor Keltz warned, and threatened to transform society into a condition he defined as characteristic of ‘barbarian races’: sharp features, the loss of tenderness and other feminine values (Keltz, 1924: 68). Bársony underlined the risks of women working during puberty: it drained vitality, and later it could negatively affect their descendants (Bársony, 1922: 28–29). The race biologists’ aversion towards working women was not limited to physical work, but concerned intellectual professions as well. Méhelÿ stated that women naturally lacked the intellectual capacity to carry out significant scientific work. ‘But in the field of intellectual life, and even more in the scientific professions, the woman will not find her place, because of the incontestable truth: women – even the most intelligent ones – do not possess sufficient discernment’ (Méhelÿ, 1926a: 294). Women, Méhelÿ argued, can only fulfil the requirements of pedagogical work, and then only at the elementary level, because this function is associated with motherhood (Méhelÿ, 1926b: 296). Besides the question of employment, the topic of women in higher education also remained a controversial topic throughout the Horthy era. The issue divided Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 198 Sexualities 19(1/2) the establishment. Notably, at the same time as the aforementioned numerus clausus law came into force, the former restrictions on women’s rights to higher education – abolished in 1918 by the Aster Revolution – were re-established. True, such limitations were also anti-Semitic, since Jews were overrepresented amongst female university students (Kovács, 2012: 43). The influential Minister of Culture, Kuno von Klebelsberg took a more liberal position by pressing for the cessation of the restrictions, and faced firm opposition from Christian–national intellectuals and university leaders. The liberalizing measures opened the door for more female students, although their number increased very slowly due to several restrictive regulations that remained in force, and the proportion of female students never reached that of countries that had no such restrictions (Ladányi, 1996: 381). The arguments against women’s right to higher education were similar to those known from debates in the 19th century (Müller, 2006), but they were all reinterpreted in a biological framework, repeating the arguments of the supposed natural intellectual deficiency of women compared to men with biological emphases. Méhelÿ stated, for example, that even the most unintelligent boys are smarter and more capable than the most diligent girls (Méhelÿ, 1926b: 294–295). Those race biologists who dealt with this issue unanimously ruled out not only the political ambitions of women but almost every political right as well. In this effort, Bársony strongly denounced feminists, claiming that they aimed to masculinize women and therefore went against their natural (both physiological and mental) functions. He criticized feminists, from the position of a scientist, for disregarding gynaecology, the exact science that most legitimately dealt with women. By this he meant that they ignored the fact that the legal and social aspects of gender differences are not subject to change because they are determined by natural laws (Bársony, 1922: 26–27). When denouncing women’s emancipation, he also referred to Jewish emancipation as ‘so-called emancipation’ (Bársony, 1922: 32). Apart from this remark, other authors shared parallel concerns regarding the political role of women. Méhelÿ argued that women who appeared in the public eye – even for good causes – were victims of ‘physiological aberration’ (Méhelÿ, 1926b: 297). Further aspirations would lead to grave danger for the whole society, argued race biologists. Méhelÿ warned that the supposedly unnatural tendency of modern female roles undermined society (Méhelÿ, 1926b: 291–292); Keltz stated that political rights for women are against the ideas of family and the concept of ‘woman’, therefore such demands are unnatural as well. He even lamented the possibility of female domination. ‘Female domination is always a symptom of decline, a concomitant phenomenon of male degeneracy’ (Keltz, 1924: 68). Women’s bodies as racial resource As the reproductive discourse produced by race biologists laid greater emphasis on women’s health in general and on their reproductive health in particular than on health, women were often discussed in relation to the race issue. Women’s lives were only seen from the perspective of reproduction. ‘The actual valuable age of a Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 199 Kund woman is the fertile phase, which is only intended to engender the race. The organism of women is designed for this and only for this’ (Bársony, 1928: 13). And he justified his claim by citing ‘the law of nature’ (Bársony, 1928: 13), which supposedly determined women’s role in society. In his already cited influential keynote address to the Budapest (of which he was then rector) Bársony, after describing the declining biological condition of the Magyars, proposed a eugenic solution. In this programme women were given special attention. He even declared the need for a special ‘women’s eugenics,’ based on the notion of the supposedly vast difference between men and women (Bársony, 1922: 26). Zsigmond Ritoók, long-time chairman of the Christian–national medical association (National Association of Hungarian Physicians, Hungarian acronym MONE), and a contributor to racial scientism himself, stressed during the foundation of the association in 1919 that it was the race and population that physicians should represent, rather than individual patients (Avarffy, 1939: 13). Similarly, according to Bársony’s gynaecological credo, addressed to his fellow colleagues, the medical profession in general and gynaecology in particular were practices of national significance. Women’s reproductive health was a national question, and he argued that any gynaecological practice should only be carried out from the perspective of obstetrics (Bársony, 1928: 13). Characteristically, apart from reproduction no further importance was attached to the issue of female sexuality. The anti-Semitic numerus clausus law – which limited the admission of Jewish students to higher education – was even more crucial in the field of medical education, Bársony argued, because the task of ‘upgrading the hygiene of the country’ could not be fulfilled by Jewish doctors. This position led him to go even further: calling – in an implicitly anti-Semitic remark – for doctors ‘in whom it is only their name that is Hungarian’ to be excluded from the profession (Bársony, 1920: 428–429). This shows that the concern of Hungarian race scientists for the individual wellbeing of women was suppressed by the requirements of the biologized population. See, for instance, Méhelÿ’s above-mentioned objection to women’s smoking. In contrast to contemporary opinions against women’s smoking, which cited moral problems, he listed health hazards. But the ultimate problem was not that smoking harms individual women’s bodies, but rather its effect on reproductive health. Therefore his main arguments were the collective well-being and reproduction of the nation (Méhelÿ, 1926b: 291). This pattern repeatedly appeared in discussions by the race biologists on women’s health. Race in population discourse and the biopolitical initiatives When discussing women’s role and responsibility in the ‘survival of the race’, Hungarian race biologists shared the concerns of their foreign counterparts, that is, concerns about declining racial qualities and their exposure to threats, including those known from classical eugenics, and more specifically, those associated with Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 200 Sexualities 19(1/2) miscegenation, as explained before. However, there is another aspect of the problem, deeply rooted in the Hungarian intellectual history that comes from the eve of Hungarian nationalism, which made the situation even more acute in the eye of the race biologists: the topos of the nation’s death. From the early 19th century onwards, poets, historians, and other intellectuals lamented over the possible disappearance of the Magyars. This sentiment was catalysed by the remarks of German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, who raised the idea of the probability of the loss of the Hungarian language because its speakers were outnumbered by populations speaking German, Slavic and Vlach (Romanian) (Gal, 1995). This concern was a very characteristic, although not unique, constituent of Hungarian nationalism, and even influences the current discourses regarding the nation and the population. In the early 20th century, this fear was fuelled by new social developments. This discourse of the nation’s death re-emerged, and attracted a much wider range of intellectuals, transforming into a biopolitical discourse centred on demographics and triggered by the widespread practice of the one-child system that had emerged in certain regions of rural Hungary (see Bodó, 2001; Vasary, 1989). The ‘egyke’ question – an only child in Hungarian – and the more general population-related discourses affected the thoughts of the race biologists as well. This phenomenon was especially bitter for the race biologists because they believed – like others on the Hungarian political Right – that the rural peasantry represented the real Magyar race, while those living in the cities, and especially in Budapest, were Jewish-influenced and biologically corrupted. Bársony, because he considered them to be pure, healthy, and unaffected by the degenerating influences of the cities, even proposed that peasants could correct the biologically degenerated urban population (Bársony, 1922: 18–19). Therefore the main concern was the low level of births. For instance, while discussing illegal abortions, Bársony did not call for contraception or even sex education to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, since the supposed interest of the race is a larger population. Instead, he argued for the development of state sponsored orphan care that he hoped would be financed by increased extra taxes willingly paid by patriots (Bársony, 1924). Gáspár went further when he diagnosed members of one-child families as already degenerated and incurable. He proposed a plan to repopulate deserted villages. The new families, he stressed, must be ‘racially’ Magyar and healthy, approved by medical examination, and must have children. Another aspect of this claim was a clear stance against ethnic Germans, whom he blamed for evicting the Magyar peasants from the land. He found his idea doubly beneficial: encouraging more births for Magyardom and the rolling back of minorities (Gáspár, 1926: 813–814). The problem of gender and sexuality often appeared in the context of the ‘Jewish question’. Feminization as ‘Jewish degeneration’ and the Jewish woman As racial anti-Semitism was the basic common ground of Hungarian race biologists, reviewing how gender and sexuality infiltrated into their anti-Semitic Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 201 Kund argumentation can illuminate new aspects of their suppositions and presuppositions on these issues. In this I review those types of ideas that, in most cases, were intended to portray Jews in a negative way and were connected to the problems of gender and sexuality. To portray Jews negatively, as was common amongst anti-Semites, race biologists presented a catalogue of disorders that were allegedly widespread amongst them. Various diseases and mental disorders were listed to prove Jewish inferiority. It was very characteristic that apparently positive features – for instance, the lower level of tuberculosis-related mortality amongst Jews compared to that of gentiles, often seen as a remnant of ghetto conditions – were also said to be further proof of the ‘pathological nature of Jews’ (Malán, 1928: 218). Méhelÿ also presented numerous physical features that were, according to the common anti-Semitic stereotypes of his time, seen as typically Jewish, and attempted to legitimize them by the authority of science. He claimed that such features – from flat feet to Roman nose – were present as scientifically verifiable proofs of Jewish inferiority (Méhelÿ, 1924: 2). Amongst the aforementioned symptoms, which were allegedly common amongst Jews, there was a catalogue of sexual and gender-related disorders as well. The attachment of gender hierarchy to the dimension of racial order becomes visible when we see how the discourse of feminization of Jewish men was part of anti-Semitic argumentation. The alleged feminine nature of Jews goes back to premodern times. Allegations about menstruating Jewish men arguably appeared as early as the age of the Christian church fathers, later such narratives of Jewish femininity indisputably found their place in blood libel accusations, and finally such claims reappeared amongst the arguments for Jewish otherness of modern anti-Semitism (Gilman, 2012: 147–148). Like other pre-modern anti-Jewish ideas that were later reinterpreted by modern anti-Semites, medieval claims of Jewish bodily otherness – like the so-called pathological features already mentioned – also re-emerged in the late 19th century in a modern form (Gilman, 1991: 39). The topos of feminine Jews was famously reinterpreted by Otto Weininger, but it also found its place amongst supposedly scientific claims, therefore such ideas were meant to be based on the authority of science. To support this argumentation, both Méhelÿ and Gáspár mentioned the high percentage of Jewish men who allegedly suffered from the definitive female disorder, hysteria (Gáspár, 1927: 1526; Méhelÿ, 1925: 17–18). This supposition implicitly stated that being female or sharing female features was a somewhat negative quality, as these claims of the femininity of Jewish men were listed among other undesirable characteristics, like those already mentioned. Combining this revelation with the other thoughts of the race biologists on women (i.e. that they supposedly lacked moral and intellectual capacity to achieve the real and exclusively male human condition), the goal was to dehumanize Jews per se. From this standpoint, Jewish femininity posed another great threat to gentile Magyars through mixing, a threat that, as Méhelÿ argued, to some extent had already come true. He claimed the ‘masculine values’ of the Magyars had been replaced with ‘unmanly’ concepts like ‘world liberty’ or ‘world revolution’ (Méhelÿ, 1926c: 8). Thus, his statement demonstrated the Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 202 Sexualities 19(1/2) connection between hegemonic masculinity and modern nationalism (see Nagel, 1998). Gáspár also claimed that Jews were racially ‘intersexual’ using this term in the sense of androgyny. Besides feminine Jewish men, whom he described as womanly, he also denounced Jewish women for allegedly lacking feminine qualities (Gáspár, 1927: 1526). Besides the previous anti-Semitic claims regarding the alleged characteristics of Jews, sexuality was also part of the anti-Semitic agenda of Hungarian race science. That is why Gáspár asserted that ‘various sexual drive disorders including homosexuality’ were significantly more common among Jews (Gáspár, 1927: 1526). His colleague, Pius K Koller hinted at the topos of Jewish hypersexuality and perversion, and claimed that these were among the corrupting factors that Magyardom suffered from due to mixed marriages (Koller, 1926b: 149). These ideas conform to the general tendencies of the field. The attachment of racial issues to sexual ones reflects the analogous nature of the medicalized approaches to the two areas, and medical inquiries into sexuality – especially homosexuality – from the mid-19th century onwards shared the same principles and categories as scientific racism (Somerville, 1994). Views of Jewish women touched upon different aspects of gender and sexuality. As previously discussed, features of modern, urbanized life were often labelled Jewish in interwar Hungary. This included bourgeois values, but leftist political ambitions as well. Allegorical portrayals of the ‘Jewish woman’ were common in the literary works of popular authors with anti-Semitic tendencies. In these novels, this woman represented the decadent, oversexed lifestyle of the cities – especially Budapest. This immoral situation was contrasted with the pure, healthy sexuality of the peasantry (Konrád, 2007: 208). The oversexed, decadent Jewish woman found her place in the discourse of the Hungarian race biologists too. In the context of sexuality, Jewish women also appear as the subjects of exoticized sexuality, as even Méhelÿ commented on the appearance of certain young Jewish females in a picture: ‘I myself find these ladies very attractive with their oriental charm’ (Méhelÿ, 1926a: 51–52). When he came to the exotic beauty of Jews, he did not avoid discussing the Sephardim either. Considering Sephardic Jews to be racially superior to their Ashkenazi counterparts was not uncommon at this time. From the 19th century onwards, Sephardic culture was perceived with romantic admiration in Europe. This sentiment converged with racial perspectives, and Sephardic Jews were seen as racially pure and physically superior. This view was shared by anti-Semites like Chamberlain (Biale, 2007: 183), but also by Philosemites and intellectuals of Jewish origin (Efron, 1993). Méhelÿ joined this discourse by voicing the same opinion. He also underlined the attractiveness of Sephardic women (Méhelÿ, 1926a: 51–52). Ambiguous ideas about the West The geographical aspect of the thoughts of race biologists has a special significance. This dimension is crucial in interpreting their thoughts. One of the most important Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 203 Kund chapters in the history of modernity in Hungary is the widely shared perception of Hungary’s backwardness relative to the West, and the call for political programmes to narrow the gap. The discourse of an idealized West has been present among intellectuals since the end of the 18th century. Alternative, sceptical or even hostile approaches were always present, but mostly in minority, if not marginal, positions. Post-First World War Hungary was something of an exception. Generally speaking, the right-wing discourse during the Horthy regime showed an ambiguous attitude towards Hungary’s orientation. While the political establishment, especially during the 1920s, did not question Hungary’s western orientation, in influential intellectual circles the commitment to the West was seriously challenged. It was the time when ‘Turanism’ – an ideology calling for an eastern orientation and alliance with Asian peoples instead of following western patterns – gained popularity (Ablonczy, 2007). The most vocal proponents of these claims were the race protectors, the closest political allies of the race biologists. One might expect that the latter joined the turanists because of their common political affiliation. In fact, however, their position is much more complicated. Although they referred to the Magyars as members of the Turanian race, they made it clear that the scientistic racist theories and policies – like segregationist legislation in the USA (Méhelÿ, 1926c: 14) – were cases of the western progression that the allegedly underdeveloped Hungary should follow. Thus, interestingly, race biologists’ argumentation follows the paths of the discourse of westernization. The other aspect of the race biologists’ standpoint on the East–West problem is quite the opposite. When discussing characteristic phenomena of modern lifestyle often associated with the West, race biologists become strongly hostile. Amongst these phenomena, there is the aforementioned popular culture, female higher education and employment as well as political movements like feminism. In this second perspective, the West symbolized decadence and corrupting forces. Amongst the features of this rejected world, sexuality was in the centre. Western influences on everyday sexual ethics and the way sexuality appeared in popular culture – which they perceived as over-sexualized – were firmly rejected and labelled as degenerating. It should be noted that one of the factors of hostility towards such phenomena was anti-Semitism. In Hungary as well as in other countries of the region, Jews were seen as the orchestrators of the anomalies of modernity,15 the proponents of the disapproved bourgeois values. Through this anti-Semitic lens, capitalist entrepreneurs, leftist radicals, pulp authors, and avant-garde artists were essentially seen to be the same, with the result that the undesirable phenomena were explained by anti-Semitic answers rather than anti-western ones. Nevertheless, this dichotomy dissolves at one point. Reading the works of these race scientists, it is obvious that for them liberalism was an example of Hungarian backwardness and provincialism while segregationist and racist policies were ‘progressive’. In terms of sexuality, concerns for individual liberty were ignored while the adoption of modern eugenic methods – from the West – was demanded for the sake of the Magyar race. Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 204 Sexualities 19(1/2) Conclusion The 1920s saw radical changes in Hungary. The collapse of Austria–Hungary and its aftermath transformed the entire society. But, despite the new political climate, social changes indicated the emergence of new phenomena opposing the ideas of the ruling Christian–national ideology, including a shift in gender roles, and new, more relaxed norms of sexuality. The impact of the thoughts of the Hungarian race biologists who emerged in such circumstances should not be underestimated. Due to the influence they, and especially their senior, well-connected figures, enjoyed, racial scientism found its way into political discourse in Hungary. The claims they stressed although, not shared by contemporary mainstream academic, were intended to be scientific. By referring to their scientific knowledge, race biologists attached their theory to Hungary’s dominant right-wing ideology, especially those of the far-right ‘raceprotector’ faction, and supported it in very important ways. Together, they ultimately sought a racialized concept of Magyardom, and to this end they demanded racial legislation. By creating a racist understanding of society, reproductive concerns gained special interest for Hungarian race scientists. Purity and quality of race became crucial to their theories. In the effort to secure such requirements, implicitly or explicitly they called for intervention into private life, showing that in their eyes it was not private at all. The views of sexuality of race biologists were partly determined by their racist principles, but the contemporary conservative perception of sexuality – which looked on the change of sexual morality of the 1920s with disapproval – also left its mark, and they attempted to legitimize these ideas by a supposedly scientific discourse. Notes 1. By a ‘race biology’ point of view I mean a claim – supposedly based on scientific facts – of an alleged causal relationship between race and ethnic identity. In such a view, every individual, regardless of his or her desire, is classified as a member of one or other racial groups. 2. The considerations on eugenics of János Bársony – another influential professor – have been briefly analysed by Kund (2011). Bársony’s views have also been discussed by Kovács (1994: 66–67). 3. The issue of the discourse and practice of marriage counselling in Hungary has been analysed by Gábor Szegedi (2012). 4. The influence of the members of the ‘Budapest School of Psychoanalysis’ extended beyond Hungary’s national borders and played a great role in the history of psychoanalytical theory. The reason why they were excluded was the position of the movement in the political sphere of interwar Hungary. Advocates of Christian–national ideology – from pro-government forces to far rightists – saw psychoanalysis as something entirely alien, a decadent conception. Such views were often fuelled by anti-Semitic sentiment. Generally speaking, right-wing intellectuals had very little knowledge of psychoanalysis at all, which had no place in academia or in any other official institutions. 5. For a detailed inquiry into the question of the relation between Christian churches and nationalist politics during this era, see Hanebrink, 2006. Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 205 Kund 6. There were Catholic personalities who shared such views, like Jesuit Ferenc Zborovszky (1927), bishop Arnold Marosi (1924) or even Pius Koller – categorized here as a race biologist – who was a Benedictine monk. On the other hand, the Magyar Fajmento00 Misszió (Hungarian Mission for Race Saving), an initiative to cope with the one child practice, was affiliated with the Calvinist Church. 7. By the ‘Jewish question’ I mean ‘the public debate on the current and desired legal status, economic standing, political position, and cultural activities of Jewry’ (Laczó, 2010: 24). 8. For a detailed inquiry into the race protector ideology, see János Gyurgyák’s work (Gyurgyák, 2012). This ideology extended far beyond the party. 9. The only exception was Sándor Keltz, who was a royal chamberlain and a landowner. Apart from his racial material, he also published in other, non-scientific fields such as philosophy and legal theory. 10. For a typical example, see Méhelÿ, 1929b. 11. The class issue was eclipsed by racial thinking. And when class was discussed by the race biologists, they interpreted it according to their racial ideas. For instance, Méhelÿ claimed that social stratification was the result of natural selection (Méhelÿ, 1928: 210). With regard to Hungarian society, he even emphasized the ethnic-racial differences between classes: he alleged that Hungarian nobility was of Turkic origin while the common folk were Finno-Ugric (Méhelÿ, 1929a: 22). He even called for restrictions to be imposed against the overgrowth of the ‘disease-laden’ underclass, (Méhelÿ, 1927: 16) – although this topic was not his focus of interest, unlike racial issues. Perhaps Zsigmond Ritoók was the most outspoken proponent of the social-Darwinist interpretation of Hungarian society, when he attached talent to social status (Ritoók, 1927). On the other hand, János Bársony firmly rejected the correlation between high social status and good ‘racial quality’, and even contrasted vulnerable rich children with vigorous, poor ones (Bársony, 1922: 16). 12. For instance, Méhelÿ did not hint at a system of inferior and superior races, yet he nonetheless firmly suggested that Jews represented an inferior race. 13. In his doctoral thesis submitted to Méhelÿ’s department, Pius Koller attempted to justify this idea. In the dissertation – later published (Koller, 1926a) – Koller used hair samples to demonstrate the ‘jewishisation’ of the Magyars through mixed marriages. 14. However, the set (though never an association) of the race biology authors did not hold unanimous views. For instance, Bársony put more emphasis on health issues than Méhely. Nevertheless – as discussed in this article – he too linked the problem to race. 15. Bunzl (2004: 18–22) discusses this question for the Viennese context. References Ablonczy B (2007) ‘Lándzsahegy’, néprokonság, small talk. Turanizmus és keleti gondolat a két világháború közötti magyar külpolitikai gondolkodásban (‘Spearhead’, related peoples, small talk. Turanism and eastern thoughts in interwar Hungarian foreign political thinking). In: Pritz P (ed.) Magyar külpolitikai gondolkodás a 20. században. (Hungarian Foreign Policy Thinking in the 20th Century). Budapest: Magyar Történelmi Társulat, pp. 87–106. Altenburger Gy (1922) Beethoven, Houston Stewart Chamberlain és a magyar jövo00 (Beethoven, Houston Stewart Chamberlain and the Hungarian future). A Ce´l 12(4): 112–121. Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 206 Sexualities 19(1/2) Avarffy E (1939) A Magyar Orvosok Nemzeti Egylete, a MONE megalapı´tása 1919-ben (The Foundation of the National Association of Hungarian Physicians, MONE, in 1919). Budapest: Stephaneum. Bársony J (1915) Eugenika a háború után (Eugenics after the war). Orvosi Hetilap 59(34): 451–454. Bársony J (1917) Eugenika a háború után (II) (Eugenics after the war (II)). Orvosi Hetilap 61(38): 511–514. Bársony J (1920) Orvosi erkölcstan (Medical ethics). Orvosi Hetilap 64(44): 427–429. Bársony J (1922) Rectori besze´d a Budapesti Kir. Magyar Pázmány Pe´ter Tudományegyetem 1922. e´vi szeptember hó 29-e´n tartott megnyitó dı´szünnepse´ge´n, elmondta Bársony János Dr. egyetemi tanár (Speech of the Rector, Professor Dr János Bársony, delivered to the Convocation of the Royal Hungarian Pázmány Pe´ter University of Budapest, 29 September 1922). Budapest: M. Kir. Tudományegyetemi Nyomda. Bársony J (1924) A magzatu00 zés útján elkövetett bu00 nözésro00 l és azok korlátozásának módosı́tásáról (On the crime of abortion and on the modifications of its restrictions). Orvosi Hetilap 68(23): 335–337. Bársony J (1928) Bársony János elnöki megnyitója. (Opening Speech of Chairman János Bársony). In: Berecz J and Lehoczky–Semmelweis K (eds) A Magyar No00 orvosok Társasága 1925 szeptember 8. ¼ e´s 9. ¼ e´n tartott nagygyu00 le´se´nek Jegyzo00 könyve, Alapszabálya és tagne´vsora (Protocols of the Congress of the Society of Hungarian Gynecologists, held on 8 and 9 September 1925, Charter and Roster). Budapest: Magyar No00 orvosok Társasága, pp. 11–14. Biale D (2007) Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol Between Jews and Christians. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Bodó B (2001) Progress or national suicide: The single-child family in Hungarian political thought, 1840–1945. Hungarian Studies Review 28(1–2): 185–208. Buccur M (2002) Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar Romania. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. Bunzl M (2004) Symptoms of Modernity: Jews and Queers in Late-Twentieth-Century Vienna. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Dósa R (1967) A fajbiológia a magyar fasizmus szolgálatában (Race biology in the service of Hungarian fascism). Tudományos Közleme´nyek – Budapesti Orvostudományi Egyetem Marxizmus Leninizmus Tansze´k 1(1): 1–22. Efron JM (1993) Scientific racism and the mystique of Sephardic racial superiority. Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 38(1): 75–96. Erdélyi G (1909) A zsidók bete´vede´se a törte´netbe: Chamberlaine nyomán (The wandering of Jews into history: After Chamberlain). Esztergom: Buzárovits Gusztáv Kvny. Farkas GL (2000) The Past of Hungarian anthropology and future objectives. Acta Biologica Szegediensis 44(1–4): 61–69. Gal S (1995) Linguistic theories and national images in 19th century Hungary. Pragmatics 5(2): 155–166. Gáspár J (1926) Hozzászólás az egyke kérdéséhez (Remarks on the question of the only child). Ne´pege´szse´gügy 7: 812–814. Gáspár J (1927) A Fajok Összehasonlı́tó Pathológiája (The comparative pathology of races). Ne´pege´szse´gügy 8: 1518–1536. Gilman SL (1991) The Jew’s Body. London and New York: Routledge. Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 207 Kund Gilman SL (2012) Whose body is it anyway? Hermaphrodites, gays, and Jews in NO Body’s Germany. In: Baader BM, Gillerman SL and Learner P (eds) Jewish Masculinities: German Jews, Gender, and History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 138–151. Gyáni G (2010) Gender, nationalism and individualisation. In: Lähdesmäki T (ed.) Gender, Nation, Narration. Critical Readings of Cultural Phenomena. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, pp. 9–23. Gyurgyák J (2001) A zsidóke´rde´s Magyarországon. Politikai eszmetörte´net (The Jewish Question in Hungary. A History of Political Ideas). Budapest: Osiris. Gyurgyák J (2007) Ezze´ lett magyar hazátok. A magyar nemzeteszme e´s nacionalizmus törte´nete (This is what your Hungarian Homeland has become. The Hungarian National Idea and History of Nationalism). Budapest: Osiris. Gyurgyák J (2012) Magyar fajve´do00 k (Hungarian Race Protectors). Budapest: Osiris. Hanebrink PA (2006) In Defense of Christian Hungary: Religion, Nationalism, and Antisemitism, 1890–1944. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press. Hunfalvy P (1856) A Dakota Nyelv (The Dakota language). Magyar Academiai Értesı´to00 16(5): 226–290. Jankulov B (1912) A talaj és a faj viszonya a történethez (The relationship of soil and race with history). Magyar Társadalomtudományi Szemle 5(7): 534–551. Keltz S (1924) Konzervativ világrend II. kötet (Conservative World Order, Volume II). Nagykanizsa: Nagykanizsai Nyomda és Lapkiadó Vállalat. Koller KP (1926a) Faj és haj. Doktorátusi e´rtekeze´s (Race and Hair). Doctoral Thesis, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda. Koller KP (1926b) Fajvédelem és Katholicizmus (Race protection and catholicism). A Ce´l 16(5): 147–151. Konrád M (2007) The Jewish woman as an allegory: The portrayal of Jewish women in Hungarian literature at the turn of the century. In: Gazsi J, Peto00 A and Toronyi Z (eds) Gender, Memory, and Judaism. Budapest and Herne: Balassi Kiadó and Gabriele Schäfer, pp. 193–212. Kovács MM (1994) Liberal Professions and Illiberal Politics: Hungary from the Habsburgs to the Holocaust. Washington, DC and Oxford: Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Oxford University Press. Kovács MM (2012) The Hungarian numerus clausus: Ideology, apology and history, 1919– 1945. In: Karady V and Nagy PT (eds) The Numerus Clausus in Hungary. Studies on the First Anti-Jewish Law and Academic Anti-Semitism in Modern Central Europe. Budapest: Pasts Inc. Centre for Historical Research, History Department of the Central European University, pp. 27–55. Kund A (2012) Méhelÿ Lajos és a magyar fajbiológiai kı́sérlete (Lajos Méhelÿ and the experiment of Hungarian racial biology (1920–1931)). Múltunk 57(4): 239–289. Kund A (2011) Eugenika és fajvédelem: Bársony János professzor nézetei (Eugenics and race protection: The views of Professor János Bársony). In: Szappanyos M (ed.) A 9. Országos Interdiszciplináris Grastyán Konferencia elo00 adásai (Presentations of the 9th National Grastyán Conference). Pécs: Pécsi Tudományegyetem Grastyán Endre Szakkollégium, pp. 265–275. Laczó F (2010) Hungarian Jewish intellectual discourses in the shadow of Nazism. PhD Thesis, Central European University, Hungary. Ladányi A (1996) Két évforduló. A no00 k felso00 oktatási tanulmányainak száz éve (Two anniversaries. A hundred years of women’s higher education). Educatio 5(3): 375–389. Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 208 Sexualities 19(1/2) Malán M (1928) A Tuberkulózis és a Zsidóság (Tuberculosis and Jewry). A Ce´l 18(5–6–7): 211–218. Marosi A (1924) Átörökle´s e´s nemzetve´delem (Heredity and National Defence). Budapest: Szent IstvánTársulat. Méhelÿ L (1915) A háború biológiája (The biology of war). Terme´szettudományi Közlöny 47: 2–28. Méhelÿ L (1923) A magyar tragédia élettudományi okai V. közlemény (The biological causes of the Hungarian tragedy, Part V). A Ce´l 13(10–11–12): 290–306. Méhelÿ L (1924) A Magyar Tragédia Élettudományi Okai. VI. Közlemény (The biological causes of the Hungarian tragedy, Part VI.). A Ce´l 14(1): 2–11. Méhelÿ L (1925) A Magyarság legnagyobb baja (The greatest problam of Magyardom). In: Méhelÿ L and Keltz S (eds) Fajunk ve´delme´ro00 l. Ke´t besze´d (On the Protection of our Race. Two Speeches). s.l.: Ébredo00 Magyarok Egyesülete. Méhelÿ L (1926a) A magyar fajve´delem irányelvei (The Principles of Hungarian Race Protection). Budapest: Held Nyomda. Méhelÿ L (1926b) A no00 feladata a fajvédelemben (The woman’s task in race protection). A Ce´l 16(10): 291–302. Méhelÿ L (1926c) Ne´hány szó a magyar fajve´delemro00 l. A Gödöllo00 i Mu00 velo00 de´si Egyesület 1926. e´vi augusztus hó. 10-iki közgyu00 le´sen tartott ünnepi elo00 adás (Some Remarks on Hungarian Racial Protection. Ceremonial address to the General Meeting of the Cultural Association of Gödöllo00 , 10 August 1926). Budapest: Held Nyomda. Méhelÿ L (1927) Az okszeru00 ne´pesede´spolitika e´lettudományi alapja (The Biological Foundations of Reasonable Population Policy). Budapest: Held Nyomda. Méhelÿ L (1928) Fajve´delmi Gondolatok (Reflections on Race Protection). Budapest: Held Nyomda. Méhelÿ L (1929a) A Magyarság Anthropológiája (The Anthropology of Magyardom). Budapest: Held Nyomda. Méhelÿ L (1929b) A ne´metek Magyarországon. Fajbiológiai Tanulmány (The Germans in Hungary. A Race Biological Study). Budapest: Stephaneum Nyomda és Könyvkiadó RT. Mosse GL (1978) Toward a Final Solution: A History of European Racism. London: JM Dent & Son. Müller I (2006) Vélemények a no00 k felso00 fokú képzéséro00 l a dualizmus ido00 szakában (Opinions on the higher education of women during the Dualist period). In: Gyáni G and Nagy B (eds) No00 k a modernizálódó magyar társadalomban (Women in the Modernizing Hungarian Society). Debrecen: Csokonai Kiadó, pp. 227–236. Nagel J (1998) Masculinity and nationalism: Gender and sexuality in the making of nations. Ethnic and Racial Studies 21(2): 243–269. Nagyné Szegvári K (2001) A no00 i választójog külföldön e´s hazánkban (Women’s Suffrage Abroad and in Hungary). Budapest: HVG-ORAC. Németh GB (1976) Létharc és nemzetiség (Az Ðirodalmi’ értelmiség felso00 rétegének ideológiájához, 1867 után) (The struggle for life and ethnicity. On the ideology of the higher strata of literary intellectuals after 1867). In: Németh GB (ed.) Le´tharc e´s nemzetise´g. Irodalmi e´s mu00 velo00 de´störte´neti tanulmányok. (The Struggle for Life and Ethnicity. Literary and Cultural Historical Studies). Budapest: Magveto00 , pp. 7–14. Paksa R (2012) A Magyar sze´lso00 jobboldal törte´nete (The History of the Hungarian Far– Right). Budapest: Jaffa Kiadó. Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 209 Kund Paksy Z (2011) A numerus clausus meghaladása: Méhelÿ Lajos és a tudományos fajvédelem Magyarországon az 1920-as években (Exceeding the Numerus Clausus: Lajos Méhelÿ and scientific racial protection in Hungary in the 1920s). In: Molnár J (ed.) Jogfosztás – 90 e´ve. Tanulmányok a numerus claususról (Disenfranchisement 90 years ago. Studies of the Numerus Clausus). Budapest: Nonprofit Társadalomkutató Egyesület, pp. 121–134. Promitzer C, Troumpeta S and Turda M (eds) (2011) Health, Hygiene, and Eugenics in Southeastern Europe to 1945. Budapest: Central European University Press. Ritoók Z (1924) Fajtaság és magyarság (Race and Magyardom). Napkelet 2(1): 25–37. Ritoók Z (1927) A tehetségek szelekciója (The selection of talents). MONE Orvostársadalmi Szemle 4(5): 77–80. Sipos B (2009) A no00 ke´rde´s a Horthy-korszakban (The Women’s Question During the Horthy Era). Available at: http://www.rubicon.hu/magyar/oldalak/a_nokerdes_a_horthy_ korszakban/ (accessed 3 March 2014). Somerville S (1994) Scientific racism and the emergence of the homosexual body. Journal of the History of Sexuality 5(2): 243–266. Szabó M (1995) Az etnikus gondolat a Horthy-kor nemzetfelfogásában (The ethnic idea in the national conception of the Horthy era). In: Némethy S and Somogyi Z (eds) Múmiák öröksége. Politikai e´s törte´neti essze´k (The Heritage of Mummies. Political and Historical Essays). Budapest: Új Mandátum, pp. 152–161. Szegedi G (2012) Dangerous liaisons. Marriage counselling as an early discourse and practice of biopolitics in Hungary. Kaleidoscope 3(5): 286–306. Turda M (2003) ‘The Magyars: A ruling race’: The idea of national superiority in finde-siècle Hungary. European Review of History – Revue europe´enne d’Histoire 10(1): 5–33. Turda M (2004) The Idea of National Superiority in Central Europe, 1880–1918. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press. Turda M (2006) A new religion: Eugenics and racial scientism in pre-First World War Hungary. Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 7(3): 303–325. Turda M (2007) The first debates on eugenics in Hungary, 1910–1918. In: Turda M and Weindling P (eds) ‘Blood and Homeland’: Eugenics and Racial Nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900–1940. Budapest: Central European University Press, pp. 185–211. Turda M (2010) Modernism and Eugenics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Turda M (2012) Nationalizing eugenics: The Hungarian public debate of 1910–1911. In: Ash MG and Surman J (eds) The Nationalisation of Scientific Knowledge in the Habsburg Empire. London; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 183–208. Turda M (2013) Imagined geographies of race: Hungary and Romania, 1900–1940. In: Blomqvist AEB, Iordachi C and Trencsényi B (eds) Imagined Geographies of Race: Hungary and Romania, 1900–1940. s.l.: Peter Lang Gmbh, pp. 293–300. Turda M and Weindling P (eds) (2007) ‘Blood and Homeland’: Eugenics and Racial Nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900–1940. Budapest: Central European University Press. Ungváry K (2001) Értelmiség és antiszemita közbeszéd (The intelligentsia and anti–Semitic discourse). Besze´lo00 6(6): 74–92. Ungváry K (2012) A Horthy-rendszer me´rlege. Diszkrimináció, szociálpolitika e´s antiszemitizmus Magyarországon 1919–1944 (Measuring the Horthy Regime. Discrimination, Social Policy and Anti-Semitism in Hungary 1919–1944). Pécs and Budapest: Jelenkor Kiadó and OSZK. Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016 210 Sexualities 19(1/2) Vasary I (1989) ‘The sin of Transdanubia’: The one-child system in rural Hungary. Continuity and Change 4(3): 429–468. Vonyó J (2005) Gömbös Gyula és a zsidókérdés (Gyula Gömbös and the Jewish Question). In: Paksy Z (ed.) Az antiszemitizmus alakváltozatai. Tanulmányok. (The Metamorphoses of Anti-Semitism. Studies) Zalaegerszeg: Zala Megyei Levéltár, pp. 18–43. Yuval-Davis N (1998) Gender and Nation. London: SAGE. Zborovszky F (1927) Nemzetvédelmi feladatok az örökléstan és a fajegészségtan világánal (Duties of national deffence in the world of heredity and racial hygiene). Katholikus Szemle 44(8): 465–470. Attila Kund was born in Budapest, Hungary. He was educated at ELTE (Eötvös Loránd University) in Budapest and at the University of Pécs. His research interests and his publications are focused on the racial discourses and scientific racism of interwar Hungary. His most recent publication is ‘Méhelÿ Lajos és a magyar fajbiológiai kı́sérlete (1920–1931)’ (Lajos Méhely and the Experiment of Hungarian Racial Biology, 1920–1931) in the Hungarian journal Múltunk (Vol. 57, pp. 239– 289.). Currently, he is working on his PhD thesis at the University of Pécs. Downloaded from sex.sagepub.com by guest on September 3, 2016