Waiting for „the Nearest High Day”. The Royal Question in Hungary and Austria, 1922-1938

Abstract

The political leaders of the legitimist movement and the advocates of the legitimist thought believed that by reviving some form of the former monarchy of the Danube, and by the necessary and (through the diplomatic persuasion of the great powers and the Little Entente countries) possible return of the Hapsburg dynasty, which was considered legitimate, integer Hungary can be restored and reformed at the same time. They were convinced the constitutional „social people’s monarchy” that was to be created would have presented a chance of recovering from the social and economic crisis, of peace between the peoples of the Danube valley, and the cessation of the German and Slavic expansion.
    They imagined, even though the failed to always openly take this goal on, that their historical vocation was to revive the Hungarian–Austrian Monarchy, which would take the place of the Austro–Hungarian Monarchy, in order to establish peace in Europe and reorganise the region. However, their strategists, who had partly been forged in the foreign affairs apparatus of the Monarchy, proved themselves efficient in the making of unorthodox theories of foreign affairs and legal continuity as well as in background negotiations, but they could not make use of the possibilities that arose either in Hungary in the early-1920’s or in Austria in the mid-1930’s despite the eerily similar slogans and phrases.
    Gyula Andrássy Jr, Albert Apponyi, János Zichy, József Károlyi, Antal Sigray, Gusztáv Gratz, Sándor Pethő and Iván Lajos all proved to be éminences grises. This way the legitimist policy of „beliefs, hopes, the law and honour”, which „could have meant a more European path for the country”, could only be an alternative of the Horthy era, moving along the line separating reality and fiction.