The Role of the Body in Horthy era Education Policy

Abstract

The global movement of our time, body positivity, points out that throughout world history certain bodies have been deemed less beautiful and valuable than others. This approach dominated 20^th century Hungarian history, both in the Horthy era and in the socialist decades that followed. The bodies of the country’s population was assembled into a collective body concept, the system extended its right of surveillance to the bodies of its citizens, and it imposed expectations on them. In the Horthy era, the reason for this was the defeat in the world war and the maximisation of the army’s numbers, thus indirectly part of the country’s moral recovery. For the first time in Hungarian history, the authorities also realised that the school, as an institution and a stage, was an excellent opportunity to reinforce the ideology of the regime. The physical education was reformed, following the Danish model, militaristic youth movements and other sports circles appeared.