Budapest 1900 [antikvár]

IntroductionIn 1900 Budapest was the youngest of the great metropohses of Europe (perhaps, except for Chicago, of the world). In twenty-five years its population had trebled and its buildings had doubled, and the city was pulsing with physical and mental vigor. Among other things, this provides a certain contrast to its then twin capital of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy, to Vienna in 1900, about which so many books have been published in English during the last twenty-five years. Most of these have concentrated on certain themes; they are, therefore, fairly selective portraits of a city. Most of these, too, have been liberal not only in their selection of themes but also in their chronological treatment. I have been more rigorous: except for the last chapter, which is a kind of coda for English-speaking readers who may wish to know what happened "Since Then" (the tide of that chapter), this book is centered on 1900 at the most, on the ten years 1896 to 1906. This was not difficult, because by a historically unusual coincidence the year 1900 was a zenith and a turning point in the history of Budapest in more than one way, and on more than one level (and so was that year of crisis,