Boundless history: 1858 - The enforced amendment of the statutes and the first General Assembly after defeat in the War of Independence

Following Hungary’s defeat in the War of Independence of 1848–1849, the President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, József Teleki (1790–1855), did not forget his duty or the Academy’s mission. As early as January 1850, he sent a circular letter to the members, urging them to continue their scientific work.

The Academy’s operations were further hampered by the imperial decree on associations issued on 26 November 1852, under which the institution was required to apply for an operating license. Teleki was reluctant to comply, as he believed the decree did not apply to the Academy, since it was not an association and already had an imperial charter. The court, however, rejected his argument, and he was therefore required to apply for a licence in German, in triplicate. Concerned about the Academy’s autonomy and national character, Teleki established a special committee to draft new statutes adapted to the prevailing circumstances. In doing so, he left the essential elements of the Academy’s statutes unchanged, including the reforms that had already been implemented. The revised statutes were submitted for approval in spring 1854, and until approval was granted, the institution was placed under the supervision of a government commissioner. Emperor Franz Joseph finally signed the statutes, as amended by the court, in February 1858. Under the new provisions, the cultivation of the sciences in Hungarian was excluded from the Academy’s mandate, and the institution came under the government’s organisational control. The Academy’s Directorate disagreed with this amendment, as it deviated from the founders’ intentions and the Academy’s purpose. The petition objecting to the amendment was drafted by Ferenc Deák, who emphasised that the Academy was not a state institution. The monarch, however, did not change his February decision.

At the election of officers held in spring 1855, following Teleki’s death, Emil Dessewffy became the Academy’s first President, with József Eötvös as Vice-President. While awaiting approval of the statutes, both men contacted István Széchenyi in Döbling to keep him informed him of developments, which the Count was also following with concern. He expressed his views in a letter addressed to the Academy’s Directorate on 6 November 1858. Széchenyi’s main grievance was that, through this measure, the court was depriving the Academy of the opportunity to fulfil its purpose, which was “to raise our native language to a higher level”. However, the Academy’s leadership left Széchenyi’s appeal unanswered and, in an effort to reopen the scope of action available to the Academy, accepted the statutes approved by Emperor Joseph at a meeting of the Directorate on 20 November 1858.

After an eleven-year hiatus, the Academy’s 17th General Assembly convened on 20 December 1858, opening with a speech by Emil Dessewffy. In his address, the president spoke about the Academy’s role before and after 1848 and emphasised that the institution “can be nothing other than an intellectual battleground, on which […] the task set before us is to promote the Magyarisation of higher culture through the dissemination of knowledge”.