Weekend in Budapest
GRATZ, KURT
Two Years After the Revolution Weekend in Budapest By Kurt Gratz VIENNA ONCE UPON a time, Budapest was called the Paris of the Danube. Its ladies were known for their charm and elegance; its...
...But on the side streets there are still battered houses which show the impact of hundreds of projectiles...
...In Austria, one of them costs 8 schillings (about 35 cents...
...Uncertainty as to the whims of the rulers is reflected in the fact that nobody tries to save money...
...This meant a 16 per cent wage cut for him...
...But an East German camera sells for three times as much in Budapest as it costs in East Berlin...
...The guests look as elegant as those in a good cafe in Vienna, the orchestra plays soft music, the waiters move quickly...
...It may be worthless next week if the Government devalues it or confiscates it...
...Two Years After the Revolution Weekend in Budapest By Kurt Gratz VIENNA ONCE UPON a time, Budapest was called the Paris of the Danube...
...One recalls that Budapesters-and particularly the women-have always laid great stress on good dress, and have preferred to economize in other areas of life...
...these are reserved for Communist party bosses...
...He took the photographs which appear on the cover and on the next page...
...The Government has ordered all the houses rebuilt exactly as they were before-even the ugliest old houses with all their Hapsburg-era ornaments and decorations...
...There is a feeling of despair, and a deep disappointment in the West, which failed to help the Hungarians after having aroused much hope that it would...
...The general Hungarian desire for foreign goods sometimes leads to curious consequences...
...There is a general feeling of helplessness...
...Rent, transportation and amusements are quite cheap in Budapest, and Hungarian-produced bread, meat, fruit and other foods cost about as much as in a Western country...
...There are almost no soft drinks, for example, and those available taste terrible...
...Spending a weekend in Budapest now, two years after its great and tragic revolution, the visitor is astonished to find people on the streets well clothed-not quite as well as in Vienna, but far better than anything one sees in Poland, Rumania or the Soviet Union...
...In reality, the individual Communist countries differ widely...
...Many in the West assume that the economies of the various satellite nations are integrated and coordinated, and that economically there is a single Soviet bloc...
...and, though there was much poverty, life was gay and the amiable people of the Hungarian capital relished music and dance...
...The fantastic price differences between the different countries are used to make money by people who have the opportunity to travel from one country to another...
...So people cram into overcrowded busses and the cog-wheel railroad, leaving their refuge behind to return to the drab everyday...
...The Czechs, on the other hand, buy pullovers, wine, salami and furs in Budapest...
...Why put money in the bank...
...The general impression one gets is that you do not starve or go in rags in Hungary, but all the thousands of cheap little items which make life easier in the West are either missing, very expensive, or of poor quality...
...The same kind of contrast is evident if you spend Saturday night in the expensive restaurant atop the Swabian Mountain (now Freedom Mountain) overlooking the lights of the city...
...In such respects, Budapest in 1958 is comparable to Vienna of about 1949...
...Permission to visit the border region near Austria is granted only on approved business or by invitation of a relative living there (who assumes responsibility for your return) . The border itself is heavily guarded...
...Officially, one Russian ruble equals one Czech crown equals one Hungarian forint...
...I tried a cone of the best ice cream Budapest has to offer...
...All explanations of why the West was unable to offer effective aid are rejected...
...Walking through the main streets where the revolutionary fighting was most violent, the only reminder you can see now are freshly-planted trees next to the old, thick ones...
...They are very ugly and, in my opinion, no man of taste would ever wear one...
...A Hungarian soccer player who had been in Germany brought back a dozen, and sold them for 125 forints ($5) apiece...
...British and French textiles, for example, cost two to three times as much in Budapest Kurt Gratz, a veteran Austrian newspaperman, visited Budapest on several occasions before and after World War II, again in April 1956, and last week...
...Fot the 400 crowns, you can buy 6 shirts made of silon (Czech nylon)-for which you can get 1,500 forints in Hungary...
...Only one member of a married couple, not both, can get a travel permit to East Germany (from which one can get to West Berlin and freedom...
...But anything that comes from abroad is very expensive...
...watery and tasteless, it would be completely unsalable in any Western city...
...the term "counter-revolution," the term "revolution" is dangerous, so the average Hungarian refers to "the events...
...If a worker's wages are reduced, he can only be silent and adjust...
...Suddenly, this summer, Laszlo had to sign a circular which cut the maximum bonus to 250 forints...
...Leaving Hungary Sunday night, your fellow-tourists have been taciturn and pensive...
...But then, visiting a public swimming pool, one sees only old and old-fashioned bathing suits, the kind no Western woman would wear...
...the average citizen does not plan even a week ahead...
...The Germans manufacture a type of necktie made out of plastic instead of fabric...
...its solid bourgeois homes bespoke the prosperity of its upper and middle classes...
...as they do in Vienna...
...Even within Hungary travel is not free...
...Thus, after the execution of Imre Nagy and Pal Maleter, everyone was deeply shocked, but nobody discussed it...
...Coffee costs 400 forints a kilogram (about $8 a pound), which means that the average Hungarian worker's entire monthly wage can only buy four to six pounds of coffee...
...But, when the bus crosses the frontier into Austria, they become eloquent in their denunciations of the Communist dictatorship which suppresses their friends and relatives...
...The ordinary Hungarian must accept without grumbling what the authorities order...
...The Government, too, is spending in the same manner, and Soviet aid is running out...
...But a kilogram of coffee costs 38 rubles in Russia and 400 forints in Hungary, a kilogram of pepper 40 rubles and 600 forints, a vacuum cleaner 2,500 rubles and 1,500 forints If you buy a cheap watch in Hungary for 450 forints, you can sell it for 400 crowns in Czechoslovakia...
...The Communists only use...
...Cocoa, at 180 forints a kilogram, is somewhat more reasonable...
...Strikes are impossible, so Laszlo is trying to make extra money on the black market...
...But, when the time comes to leave, there are no automobiles...
...If you buy 100 handkerchiefs with your 400 Czech crowns, you can get as much as 1,600 to 1,800 forints for them in Hungary...
...How do the Hungarians feel two years after "the events...
...This consisted of a basic salary of 1,600 forints and bonuses up to a maximum of 600...
...Thus, every forint is spent as fast as possible...
...it seems that the Budapest ladies can just about afford good street clothes, but not bathing suits...
...For the average Hungarian to go to another Communist country is quite difficult...
...My friend Laszlo, for example, had a comparatively well-paid job with a monthly income of 2.200 forints (about $88...
...A weekend in Budapest is an impressive reminder of the meaning of freedom...
...Certain goods which are available very cheaply and in huge quantities in one country cannot be bought in another, or else must be bad at high prices in the black market...
...there are watchtowers with search-lights, machine guns, barbed wire and minefields...
Vol. 41 • November 1958 • No. 40
