De Moderne Tijd - Volume 7, Issue 4, 2023

Hungary and Dutch fencing diplomacy after the First World War

In the restoration of Hungarian sovereignty after the First World War, Hungarian officers of the Austro-Hungarian Army (K. und k. Army) played an important role. They were generally trained at the Austro-Hungarian Military Academy, the Theresianum in Wiener-Neustadt, Austria, where they were required to participate in a course to become instructors of military fencing and gymnastics. These military fencers made a significant contribution to the reconstruction of the Hungarian state institutions after the First World War. This article argues that a delegation of Dutch military fencers led by one the most prominent fencers of his time, Adriaan Egbertus Willem ‘Arie’ de Jong (1882-1966) established close contact with the Hungarian fencing elite in the years after the First World War and that these fencing contacts were part of a broader Dutch diplomatic offensive to reinvolve the coalition of the Central Powers and their successor states in European political relations. The fencing activities of Arie de Jong and his team and in the background the sports diplomatic activities of Olympic fencer and sports official George van Rossem (1882-1955) were of decisive importance in restoring Hungary’s position in international sports organizations in postwar Europe.

‘Deplorable wretches’. Belgian refugees during the First World War

During the first weeks of World War I, more than one and a half million Belgians fled. Most sought refuge in the Netherlands first, others headed for France or The United Kingdom. As the war drew to a close, approximately 600,000 Belgians still remained abroad as refugees. Their reception and experiences varied significantly, influenced not only by the host countries’ attitudes but also by these countries’ differing levels of involvement in the war.

This paper delves into the history of Belgian refugees in these three countries, shedding light on the unique perspectives stemming from the involvement and neutrality of the parties in question. Additionally, it explores the impact of language on the relationship between the host country and the bilingual refugee community, a factor contributing to the complex and fragmented nature of the refugees’ sense of identity.

Robert Saudek. A shrewd chameleon on The Hague’s parquet floor, 1915-1918

Robert Saudek (1880-1935) was a versatile man of letters. He was born in Bohemia in the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy. What moved him to leave Berlin and settle in The Hague during the First World War to start a new life as a journalist? How did he manage to lead an international press agency and make it a success enterprise under difficult circumstances? What role did this press agency with the inconspicuous name Hollandsch Nieuws-Bureau (HNB) play in the news provision for Dutch and foreign dailies? How did the HNB news service distinguish itself from the competing offerings of (inter)national news agencies? What was the relationship with governments of neutral and belligerent countries? How could Saudek, as a newcomer in an existing network, organize the gathering and distribution of news from The Hague? And not unimportantly, how could he finance the technical equipment, despite the limitations of wartime telecommunications? What to think about his relationship with the Austrian-Hungarian government in Vienna and his brim over to the Czech independence movement? These questions are addressed in this article, focusing also on the context of Saudek’s activities in the years 1915-1918.

A sign of life on the Western Front. The reception of Im Westen nichts Neues in the Netherlands, 1929-1940

Shortly after its release in 1929, Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel Im Westen nichts Neues became a bestseller in the Netherlands. Though it was a novel and thus fictional, it was seen as an honest and true-to-life representation of what went on during the First World War. The novel (and its later adaptation to film) made Dutch contemporaries feel intimately connected to the experiences of frontline soldiers. This paper analyses the reception of Remarque’s novel in the Netherlands during the nineteen thirties. It shows how, in the public perception of the novel’s contents, fact and fiction became inseparable.