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Magyarization or Magyarisation is the common designator applied to a number of ethnic assimilation policies implemented by the Hungarian authorities at various times in history. These policies aimed at the enforcement of the Hungarian ethnic group by compelling (often by forcible means) people of other ethnic groups to adopt the Hungarian language and culture, and to develop a Hungarian identity.

The term generally applies to the policies that were enforced in the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary in the 19th century and early 20th century, especially after the Ausgleich. The term is also used for similar yet more far-reaching policies, which were applied by the Hungarian authorities in Northern Transylvania during the course of World War II, which in some cases led to egregious atrocities.

When referring to personal and geographic names, Magyarization stands for the replacement of an originally non-Hungarian name with a Hungarian one. For instance, the Romanian name "Ion Negru" would become "Janos Fekete".

By extension, the term is also sometimes used to refer to broader ethnic discrimination, which was used as a rationale for Magyarization. As is often the case with ethnic engineering policies, Magyarization was perceived as an aggression or active discrimination by ethnic minorities such as the Romanians, Slovaks, a.s.o.

In a broader sense, Magyarization can refer to an identity shift, which would compel someone to identify with the Hungarian ehnicity, while having no Hungarian ancestors. For instance, Sandor Petofi was a Hungarian of Slovak descent. Matthias Corvinus of Hungary is a seen as a Hungarian of Romanian descent. From the Hungarian point of view, both of these historically notable personalities came from Magyarized families and were therefore Hungarian.

Magyarization in the Austrian Empire and in Austria-Hungary

The term Magyarization is usually used in regards to the national policies implemented by the government of the Kingdom of Hungary, which was part of the Habsburg Empire. The onset of this process dates to the late 18th century and was intensified after the Ausgleich in 1867, which increased the autonomy of the Hungarian government within Austria-Hungary.

The Kingdom of Hungary (also called Transleithania) was a multi-ethnic country inhabited by Magyars, Germans, Slovaks, Romanians, Serbs, Slovenians, Rusyns, Jews, Roma and other ethnicities. According to the 1910 census, Hungarians represented the largest ethnic group with 54% of the total population. However, there were large minorities in many regions of the kingdom. In Transylvania Romanians formed an ethnic majority and in north Slovaks and Ruthenians formed an ethnic majority in their respective ancestral lands.

The process of Magyarization effectively did not succeed to impose the Hungarian language as the official language in all territories in the Kingdom of Hungary. The policies of Magyarization wished to make the fluency in Hungarian language a requirement for access to basic government services such as local administration, education, and justice. Schools funded by churches and communes had the right to provide education in minority languages as well. In practice, however, the majority of minority students were instructed exclusively in Hungarian language. Moreover, the number of minority-language schools was steadily decreasing: in the period between 1880 and 1913, when the number of Hungarian-only schools almost doubled, the number of minority language-schools almost halved. Countless personal names were Magyarized in a short period of time, often forcibly or unwittingly. However, we must not forget that Transylvanian Romanians had more schools under Hungarian rule, than in the Romanian Kingdom itself. Thus, for example, in 1880, in Hungary there were 2756 schools with exclusively Romanian language, while in Romania there only were 2505. (See: Raffay Ernő: A vajdaságoktól a birodalomig-Az újkori Románia története = From voivodates to the empire-History of modern Romania, JATE Kiadó, Szeged, 1989).

The Jewish population of the Kingdom of Hungary may have been the only minority to actively embrace Magyarization, because it saw it as an opportunity for assimilation without conceding their religion. Stephen Roth writes, "Hungarian Jews were opposed to Zionism because they hoped that somehow they could achieve equality with other Hungarian citizens, not just in law but in fact, and that they could be integrated into the country as Hungarian Israelites. The word 'Israelite' denoted only religious affiliation and was free from the ethnic or national conotations usually attached to the term 'Jew', which could therefore be regarded as a derogatory. Hungarian Jews attained remarkable achievements in business, culture and less frequently even in politics. But even the most successful Jews were not fully accepted by the majority of the Magyars as one of their kind — as the events following the Nazi invasion of the country in WW II so tragically demonstrated."

Notable dates:

• 1836 - Hungarian is gradually introduced for all civil records (kept at local parishes until 1895). German became an official language again after the 1848 revolution, but the laws reverted in 1881 yet again. From 1836 to 1881, 14,000 families had their name Magyarized in the area of Banat alone.
• 1898 - Simon Telkes publishes the book "How to Magyarize family names".
• 1897 - The Banffy law of the villages is ratified. According to this law, all officially used village names in the Hungarian Kingdom had to be in Hungarian language.
• 1907 - The Apponyi educational law made Hungarian a compulsory subject in all schools. This also extended to confessional and communal schools, which had the right to provide instruction in a minority language as well. "All pupils regardless of their native language must be able to express their thoughts in Hungarian both in spoken and in written form at the end of fourth grade "

See also

• Transylvanian Memorandum
• Romanianization

Notes

• Romsics, Ignác. "Magyarország története a huszadik században" pp. 85-86
• Roth, Stephen. "Memories of Hungary", p.125–141 in Riff, Michael, The Face of Survival: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe Past and Present. Valentine Mitchell, London, 1992, ISBN 0853032203. p. 132.
• Magyarization in Banat.
• Romsics, Ignac. "Magyarország története a huszadik században" p. 85

• Cultural assimilation
• History of Hungary
• History of Romania
• History of Slovakia
• History of Austria
• History of Ukraine
• Serbian history
• History of Vojvodina
• History of Croatia
• History of Slovenia