192 Sodobna pedagogika/Journal of Contemporary Educational Studies Let./Vol. 70 (136)
 Št./No. 1/2019
 Str./pp. 192–205
ISSN 0038 0474 András németh  
and Andrea nagy
Life reform and reform pedagogy in 
Hungary
Abstract: Since the end of the 19th century , the modernisation processes of urbanisation and industria-
lisation taking place in Europe and the transatlantic regions have transformed the traditional societies, 
lifestyles and private lives of individuals and social groups. It is also characteristic of this period that 
social reform movements have appeared in large numbers – as a ‘counterweight’ to offset unpreceden-
ted, rapid and profound changes. Life reform is an umbrella term used to describe movements critical 
of modernisation whose main features have been the desire for a return to nature and naturalness, 
self-healing and the reclaiming of lost integrity . These movements were particularly active in the Ger-
man and Austro-Hungarian monarchies after the end of the 19th century. New historical pedagogical 
research shows that a relatively close connection between the concepts of the major schools of reform 
pedagogy and life reform is discernible; furthermore, these close ties are evident in the educational 
reforms of the time. Thus, reform pedagogy is linked to life reform – and vice versa. Our work ties in 
with this stream of pedagogical research. To provide the necessary background, the first part of the 
study is a long-term project aimed at exploring relationships between life reform and reform pedagogy 
in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and later in Hungary. In the second part of the study, we analyse 
connections between life reform and reform pedagogy after the First World War.
Keywords: life reform, reform pedagogy, Austro-Hungarian monarchy, independent Hungary
 
UDC: 37.014
Scientific paper 
András Németh, PhD., full professor, Selye János University, Bratislavská cesta 3322, SK-94501 Komárno, 
Slovakia; e-mail: andras.nemeth@ujs.sk
Andrea Nagy, Eötvös Loránd University, Egyetem tér 1-3, H-1053 Budapest, Hungary;  
e-mail: nagy.andrea.ppk@gmail.com

 Németh, Nagy    193
Introduction 
Life reform movements unfolded in the last third of the 19th century. The 
main ideas of these movements were the return to nature and naturalness, auto-
therapy and wholeness (Németh 2013, pp. 11–12). The movement, which combined 
multitudinous spiritual influences, initially focused on healthy eating and lifestyle, 
but after a prelude of several decades, it expanded to include alternative medicine, 
spiritual orientation and vegetarianism (for details on the major international 
proceedings, see Krabbe 1974, 2001; Linse 1977; Conti 1984; Baumgartner 1992; 
Kerbs and Reuleche 1998; Farkas 2008, 2010) Up until that time, behind the reform 
efforts had been widespread institutional infrastructure such as clubs and associ-
ations, media outlets, hospitals, communes, reform shops and reform restaurants.
Unique features of the movement were communal communities that tried to 
find ways to escape the depersonalisation of modern industrial society by focusing 
on community life (Németh 2014, p. 22). The rapid social and economic changes 
not only consolidated progress and continuous development but also brought a 
critical approach which was first reflected in fin-de-siècle intellectual-philosoph-
ical circles and, later on, in political-social movements. The communal movement 
which unfolded as part of life reform can be understood as a particular form of an 
approach to criticising modernisation. This approach – characterised by visions of 
social utopias – focused on an idealised community life and expressed itself in a 
romantic longing for a return to nature and natural living conditions as sources of 
salvation and autotherapy. The communal productive communities and co-oper-
ative societies which appeared in the second half of the 19th century – as was the 
case with similar efforts of previous ages – were particular ways of surviving social 
stress as the return to unspoiled nature allowed people to achieve purification and 
search for a missing wholeness and an Eden in this world. 
New foreign research on this theme also shows that in the concepts of the large 
schools of reform pedagogy (Landerziehungsheime, Waldorf- and Jenaplanschool, 
etc.) a relatively close connection to life reform is apparent. Numerous life-reform 
sociotopes had their own schools, for how better than through education could one 
contribute to the ideal reproduction and continuity of one’s own group? Life-reform 

194 Sodobna pedagogika/Journal of Contemporary Educational Studies Németh, Nagy
ideas influenced numerous leading personalities, who often became spokespeople 
for various social and educational reform movements (Oelkers 1989; Bilstein 2000; 
Scholz 2002; Mietzner 2002; Skiera 2003, 2006, 2017; Baader 2005).
According to Skiera (2003, 2006), periods of uncertainty provided a fertile 
ground where a multitude of quasi-religious world views and secular doctrines 
of salvation that fed on numerous motifs of mythological, spiritual, political and 
pseudoscientific origin could grow. Reform pedagogy has now been closely linked 
to similarly inspired movements through a common background critical of civil-
isation and the vision of salvation. Reform pedagogy could only unfold its effect 
by harnessing this impulse and directing it towards the reform of life as a whole. 
In addition, as we will see, many aspects of life reform are reflected in concepts 
of pedagogical reform. Life reform thus prepared and then supported reform ped-
agogy in many ways. This is still true today, as witnessed by the upswing of the 
anti-authoritarian alternative school movement since the early 1970s in connection 
with the ecological movement of the Greens within and outside the parliaments. 
Reform pedagogy itself can also be seen as a movement for life reform because, in 
almost all of its branches, the motive of salvation can be found. Reform pedagogy 
was, in its context of origin at the turn of the 20th century , and continues to be, in 
its weakened form today, ‘rescue pedagogy’.
The ‘world movement’ also has its ‘world saviour’, namely the ‘child’, which 
is the epitome of a better world in the future or even a world that will heal as a 
whole. This quasi-religious thought is repeated in the discourses of reform ped-
agogy . According to Montessori, the child is assigned the role of the ‘new Messiah’ 
and the teacher, in servile devotion, is assigned to the development of himself or 
herself together with the future ‘new’ human being developed in the child as they 
pursue the advent of the ‘New Age’ (of peace, harmony and general happiness). 
Talk of the creative power or the ‘genius of the child’ was especially frequent in 
the art education movement. This thought can be found especially in the work of 
Ellen Key , Maria Montessori, and in traces and remnants of Pawel Blonskij’s work, 
but also in almost all other educational concepts of reform which have a far higher 
ambition, namely the salvation of humanity (see Skiera 2006, pp. 29–30). 
Our paper ties in with this research into pedagogical history . In what follows, 
we will examine the establishment of life reform in the Austro-Hungarian mon-
archy and its links to educational reforms and reform pedagogy after the turn of 
the century. The study follows on from our earlier Hungarian-Austrian research 
on this topic, which examined the points of contact between life reform and reform 
pedagogy in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (Németh 2005; Németh, Mikonya 
and Skiera 2005; Hopfner and Németh 2008; Németh and Pirka 2013; Németh, 
Pukánszky and Pirka 2014; Németh, Stöckl and Vincze 2017; Németh and Vincze 
2017; Vincze 2017), the background of which is a long-standing international project, 
supported by the Hungarian National Research Fund, which aims to investigate 
links between life reform and reform pedagogy in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy 
and later in Hungary . In the second part of the study , we analyse these connections 
between life reform and reform pedagogy after the First World War.

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Life reform and reform pedagogy in Hungary
 
life Reform in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
As the processes of modernisation accelerated in the last third of the 19
th
 
century, they radically transformed the natural and social environments of the 
people of the day. The Austro-Hungarian Compromise (1867) and the creation of 
the German Empire (1871) not only brought about political stability and wide-
ranging social and economic prosperity in the Central European region but also 
reinforced the negative effects of industrialisation and urbanisation. Among these 
were the sudden, unchecked growth of metropolises, an increase in social conflicts 
and economic inequalities, the break-up of traditional communities, and the atom-
isation of people in the cities. Changes took place in the way people worked, their 
housing, social relationships, leisure time, diet, clothing, and traditional community 
customs and religious practices. A common complaint against modernisation voiced 
by contemporary cultural critics was that the dramatic economic developments 
and subsequent profound social shifts had not been accompanied by substantial 
reforms in world view, art or aesthetics. In response, artists with a desire to make 
change happen set about creating a new culture that would represent a ‘unity of 
artistic styles expressing every aspect of people’s lives’. 
The life-reform (Lebensreform) movements that emerged in the late 19th 
century saw the transformation of everyday lifestyles and farming conditions as a 
means of overcoming the crises of the age. Such movements expected the improve-
ment of society to come from individual and collective actions performed on a day-
to-day basis, leading to the creation of the harmonious world of the ‘new person’, 
free of physical and mental diseases. The ‘salvation theories’ articulated by the 
movement follow the paradise-fall-redemption scheme, where redemption is found 
in a back-to-nature lifestyle that eliminates and cures the maladies of civilisation. 
According to the teachings of its ‘prophets’, paradise on earth will be open to those 
who follow the three basic principles of healthy living: a vegetarian diet, natural 
medicine and adherence to the principles and practice of ‘body culture’. 
Cafés and bourgeois salons played a conspicuous role in the social life of the 
monarchy’s capital cities. These informal gathering places offered an excellent 
opportunity to discuss new intellectual and artistic trends as well as scientific res-
ults, and they contributed to the dissemination of fashionable ideas, movements 
and reform endeavours of the period. New ideas also surfaced in the burgeoning 
cafés of Vienna and Budapest, which were important public fora of the age. The 
movement’s meeting place in Vienna was Café Griensteidl, an art café at Michael-
erplatz, while the regular haunt of Hungarian Gnostics and theosophists used to 
be Akadémiai Kávéház (Academy Café) in Budapest, where Henrik Schmitt Jenő, 
a well-known gnostic proselytiser of the time, often made an appearance (Németh 
2017, pp. 78–79).
The teachings of modern esoterica are based on ‘ancient knowledge’ and the 
occult belief systems of old (Gnosticism, Kabbalah, alchemy , astrology), the traditions 
of ancient Egypt, ancient Europe (Celtic, Germanic, mediaeval Cathar, Templar, 
Freemason, Rosicrucian) and various Eastern religions (Hindu, Buddhist, Tibetan). 
Theosophy is a relatively recent occult movement that was created in response to the 

196 Sodobna pedagogika/Journal of Contemporary Educational Studies Németh, Nagy
materialism and positivism of 19
th
-century natural science. To distinguish it from 
earlier but similar occult doctrines, the movement is also referred to as Anglo-In-
dian Theosophy (Peters 2005, pp. 16–43). The Hungarian Theosophy Society of 
Budapest was formed in 1906. The popular public talks given at the Academy of 
Music and other prestigious venues, the two Theosophy congresses held in Budapest, 
and visits by pioneers of the movement – including Annie Besant, Rudolf Steiner, 
Charles Webster Leadbeather, George Sidney Arundale and Jiddu Krishnamurti 
– also attracted many well-known public figures to the discipline. Anthroposophy , 
founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), is an esoteric spiritual belief system built 
on evolutionary foundations, a lifestyle and path to life reform in the narrower 
sense; it is also one of the trends that helped to define other movements that are 
based on these principles. Anthroposophy combines the various endeavours of the 
life-reform movement (regarding diet, clothing, agriculture, education, healing, and, 
indeed – together with the reforming of society as a whole – the establishment of 
new forms of religion) but shapes them into a coherent, closed and unique system 
in which the various motifs gain new meaning. Steiner’s holistic world view is 
built on the principles of Theosophy as articulated by Helena Blavatsky while also 
distancing itself from many aspects of them (Irtl and Komár 2017, p. 121).
The central idea of the life-reform movement is to return to nature and to a 
natural way of life. To serve this purpose, health resorts were created where people 
were provided help to recover from their illnesses in natural ways. These places 
brought about changes in people’s way of life necessary for self-healing by adapting 
it to the rhythms of nature. Natural cures were based on patients’ natural will to 
recover and the healing powers of nature. Practitioners of natural medicine pro-
fessed that people could be cured by natural procedures with the help of the four 
ancient elements of light, water, air and earth. Numerous spas, sanatoriums and 
medicinal centres were opened throughout Europe in this spirit, where a healthful 
unification of body and soul was helped by various means: traditional medicine; 
hot, hot and cold, and medicinal baths; herbal treatments; light, air and mineral 
baths; and a natural diet. The sanatoriums of Vincenz Priessnitz (1799–1851) and 
Sebastian Kneipp (1821–1897), Arnold Rikli (1923–1906), and Adolf Just (1859–
1936) provided the most important models for health resorts, which mushroomed 
in Europe, where, in addition to classical medical techniques, therapies integrated 
healthy diets, natural movement and – a little later – artistic group activity , which 
had a simultaneous impact on the body, the soul and the intellect and promoted 
the development of a healthy and harmonious order of life. Kneipp’s and Just’s 
resorts became very popular in the countries of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy  
as well. 
The Central European model for rural farming communes was provided by 
the Obstbausiedlung Eden (fruit-growing settlement of Eden), established in 1893 
in Berlin Oranienburg. Various types of similar communities were formed across 
Europe in its wake, with the most frequent ones including communities pursuing 
self-sufficient horticulture, a close-to-nature lifestyle on the edges of towns and 
self-sufficient rural agricultural activity . Besides the slogans of the lifestyle reform’s 
health cult, the ideological elements of the producer and consumer cooperatives 

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Life reform and reform pedagogy in Hungary
 
and land-reform movements were also present. The chapter of Hungarian veget-
arian producer communes was opened by Béla Bicsérdy (1872–1951), who founded 
a short-lived community with his wife and followers on the small island of Ada 
Kaleh in the Lower Danube. These settlers took cold baths all year round, wore 
light and loose reform clothing, and were eager readers of books on sociology and 
the natural sciences as well as writings about biology , natural diets and Buddhism. 
The other farming commune in Hungary, which had a somewhat longer lifespan, 
was the Bubán colony in Szentendre, which started its operation on a plot of land 
owned by painter Sándor Markó (1902–1993). By 1935, the community had 24 
families and 90 members. Each family farmed one or two acres of land on which 
they grew the plants needed for their diet. They even published a periodical from 
1932 titled Life Reform, in which they published articles about the subject (Nagy 
and Németh 2017, pp. 58–64).
The reform endeavours of the 19th century, most of all the idea of returning 
to nature, to a traditional way of life and fine craftsmanship, which was first for-
mulated by John Ruskin (1819–1900), William Morris (1834–1896) and members of 
the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, found followers among a number of other artists 
as well. Attracted by the unspoilt countryside, many artists in France, England, 
the United States, Northern and Eastern Europe and in Hungary, too, moved out 
of the towns and set up colonies. The artists who chose to live in the country were 
hoping to find a simple and pure life. Based on the congeniality of their artistic 
and intellectual attitudes and their similar habits, they developed a new com-
munal way of life. In their works, they often portrayed nature with symbolic and 
metaphysical connotations. Their houses were frequently designed by an architect 
who lived in the same commune, they were appointed with furnishings which they 
made themselves, and they used objects in their households that were handcrafted 
in their own workshops. In Hungary, such creative communities were founded 
in Nagybánya (Baia Mare), Kecskemét, Szolnok and Gödöllő. The most compre-
hensive programme was implemented by the colony of Gödöllő. The artists and 
their families there gathered around two leading figures, Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch 
(1863–1920) and Sándor Nagy (1869–1950). All shared a common attitude, which 
was closely connected to life reform, and they carried out creative activity in the 
community . These artist colonies endorsed the development of close relationships 
between different national cultures. The members of the artist colony at Kalotaszeg 
thought that they had discovered the living tradition of the ideal world of the Middle 
Ages. With their artwork closely related to folk art, their attitude influenced the 
national architecture of Károly Kós (1883–1977) and other architects, the extensive 
research work on folk art initiated by Dezső Malonyai (1866–1916), who published 
his five-volume seminal work on the art of the Hungarian people [A magyar nép 
művészete] in 1907, and the collection of folk songs by Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) 
and Béla Bartók (1881–1945) (Németh 2017, pp. 75–77).

198 Sodobna pedagogika/Journal of Contemporary Educational Studies Németh, Nagy
life Reform, Reform Schools and Educational Reforms
In addition to the appearance of elite, residential ‘new schools’ in Hungary , the 
different ideas of life reform also influenced the activities of forest and ‘open-air’ 
schools aimed at the healthy development of children and the prevention of diseases. 
The tradition of forest schools, regarded primarily as health-care institutions, dates 
back to the 1860s. That was the decade when the Lutheran pastor Lion Walter 
initiated summer holiday activities for school children. As a result, parallel to the 
unfolding of life-reform movements, these ideas also spread throughout the cities of 
the Austro-Hungarian monarchy: Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Ljubljana and Zagreb. 
Several residential homes were set up near cities, where needy children had the 
opportunity to spend their holidays (Németh 1996, 2014). 
The life-reform-inspired forest school movement initiated by the Hamburg 
educator Anton Reé was founded in order to fight tuberculosis, an endemic problem 
of the era. Similar institutions spread after the turn of the century, initially spe-
cialising in the treatment, post-treatment and subsequent prevention of illnesses. 
Primarily , children with poor health and other issues, such as anaemia or vulnerable 
family conditions (which made them difficult to educate), were assigned to these 
institutions. In forest schools, beyond medical treatment and care, the benefits of 
out-of-school education were utilised to apply modern methodological solutions 
and take advantage of the educational effects of direct natural experiences and 
activities on children. 
By the turn of the 19
th
 century, there were a number of forest schools in 
Central Europe and also in Hungary. Sanatorium school institutions providing 
medical care and the prevention centres were also established. In parallel with 
the healing activities of the forest schools, the European movement for open-air 
education (open-air school, école de plein air, Freiluftschule) was developed.  
A feature of this type of school was that students did most of their work outside in 
the open air and – in inclement weather – in airy halls and covered terraces. These 
institutions aimed to serve primarily the personal development of their students 
as well as the training of the body with all the tools of modern physical education. 
They were designed to provide classes with near-natural education during school 
time and school breaks. Children could take advantage of the new circumstances 
and lifestyle to gain knowledge and experience, play a lot, do sports, move about 
and relax. The exchanges between schools allowed students to become acquainted 
with other regions and even foreign countries (cf. Németh 2014).
The other area in which life reform in Hungary played an important role 
was in educational reforms in Budapest. István Bárczy, a liberal mayor, headed 
the capital between 1906 and 1918. During this decade, known as the Bárczy era, 
the city developed into a cosmopolitan city . The majority of the ‘building mayor’s’ 
buildings, schools, public buildings and apartment buildings still stand today . This 
period saw the expansion of the city administration, public transport, lighting 
and the municipal system. As part of the social and cultural policy programme, 
numerous small apartments and schools were constructed. Significant steps were 
taken to expand adult education, and under the leadership of Ervin Szabó in the 

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Life reform and reform pedagogy in Hungary
 
1910s, a modern network of libraries was established in Budapest. After 1909, 
the extensive construction of schools formed an important part of Bárczy’s cul-
tural-political programme, in the course of which 36 new schools were built and 
numerous school buildings renovated within three years. At that time, 55 schools 
and 967 new classrooms were built in Budapest. The schools also included official 
housing. In addition, Bárczy’s programme also took care of the heating systems 
for the buildings, the classroom furniture and the design of the schoolyards and 
roof terraces. In 1913 the curriculum for the Budapest schools was published and 
workshops were established for the production of teaching materials. As a result 
of these actions, the equipment of the public schools in the capital was upgraded 
considerably (Németh 2006, p. 81).
In the development of reform and experimental pedagogy as well as child 
research in Hungary, primary school teachers and teachers from teacher-training 
institutions played an important role. From this time onwards, this professional 
group also demonstrated ever-stronger professional competence in Hungary . Their 
outstanding execution of their tasks was above all reflected in the reception of the 
modern psychological-pedagogical movement, which experienced its heyday after the 
turn of the century . Furthermore, the results of their pedology were disseminated 
in Hungary. László Nagy (1857–1931), a teacher at the Budapest State Teacher 
Training Institute, and his colleagues founded the Hungarian Society for Child 
Research in 1906. They became the organisers of the Society and expected, based 
on the dissemination of modern pedagogical-psychological methodologies – which 
were similar to those of foreign proponents of the same educational perspectives 
(Depaepe 1993) – the consequent establishment of educational science on an ex-
perimental, empirical basis. In order to disseminate the child-centred pedagogical 
view, training courses were held for practicing teachers and books and magazines 
were published: in 1907, the independent journal of the Society, A gyermek (The 
Child), was published under the editorship of László Nagy . Outside the capital, new 
centres for children’s studies were also established. As one of the most outstanding 
personalities of theoretical pedagogy in Hungary , Ödön Weszely did much to spread 
the movement and to make the results of child studies and reform pedagogy ac-
cessible to other teachers (Németh 1990, 2006, pp. 82–87).
Based on László Nagy’s theory of the development of the child, the ‘New 
School’ for 6–14-year-old boys and girls of the Pedological Society in Hungary was 
founded in 1914 under the leadership of Mrs. Domokos Lászlóné. The school wanted 
to provide basic education in the first four classes and lower secondary school over 
the next four years. For those who wanted to continue their studies in a commercial 
or art school, it ensured a completed education. The school operated in Budapest 
until 1949, when it was closed by the communist regime.
An important rallying point for the proponents of Hungarian life reform and 
reform pedagogy was the magazine Népművelés (National Education), the press 
organ of the educational reform, which was founded in 1906 with the support of 
the mayor. It was published until 1918 (after 1912 under the title Új Élet [New 
Life]). It served not only as a forum for educators in the capital but also as a press 
organ of cultural policy and education for the Bárczy programme. The magazine 

200 Sodobna pedagogika/Journal of Contemporary Educational Studies Németh, Nagy
Népművelés provided opportunities for publication not only for representatives 
of Hungarian pedology and experimental psychology but also – in addition to the 
magazines Twentieth Century and The West – for the various directions of the Hun-
garian life-reform movement, from anarchist, syndicalist and Tolstoyan aspirations 
(Ervin Szabó,
1
 Jen ő Schmidt,
2
 Ervin Batthyányi
3
) to numerous approaches of the 
Hungarian secession. In the first period of the magazine, the leading figures of the 
artistic community in Gödöll ő also played an important role. Among the contributors 
to Népművelés were scientific lecturers of the Pedagogical Seminary and members 
of their audience as well as members of the Society for Children’s Research in the 
1910s. These included representatives of the different directions of the Hungarian 
Secession, the Hungarian art movement, and the new musical and artistic education 
as well as the Sunday Circle (Németh 2006, p. 85).
The representatives of these initiatives had the opportunity to express their 
opinions on the pages of the magazine about the new urban culture, the new dir-
ections of urban modernisation, the relationship between art and education, the 
new tasks of popular education and schools, the new man and the new society, 
the changed relationship between man and woman, the new morality and the 
new education, the art of the child, the importance of the return to folk art as the 
natural way of life and the ‘third way’ to the renewal of Hungarian culture and 
society (Németh 2004).
life Reform and Reform Pedagogy in the Horthy Era
With the end of the revolutions, the first exciting phase of the relationship 
between Hungarian life reform and reform pedagogy comes to an end. This phase, 
which was not free of extremism, was characterised by the vibrant symbiosis of two 
movements. The new initiatives of reform pedagogy spread in the following period 
of Hungary’s economic, social and political development, the so-called Horthy Era, 
which began in 1920 and was primarily and decisively defined by the consequences 
of the peace treaty of a lost war, the Treaty of Trianon (1920), which shook all 
layers of Hungarian society. 
Therefore, the development of education in the era of the Bethlen consolida-
tion, which began in 1921, became a strategically important task. The background 
to this cultural policy was the so-called idea of ‘cultural superiority’, the ideology 
which came from a prominent cultural politician, the then conservative Minister 
of Culture Kuno Klebelsberg (1875–1932). In his opinion, neonationalism, a Chris-
tian-national ideology with a redesigned content, was an important means to this 
end. With its help, the formation of a highly qualified (but filled with national and 
revisionist thoughts) ‘intelligence elite’ was realised, and furthermore, the general 
raising of the cultural level of the population was urged.
1
 Ervin Szabó (1877–1918): Hungarian social scientist, library director, and anarcho-syndicalist 
revolutionary.
2
 Jen ő Henrik Schmitt (1851–1916): Hungarian gnostic philosopher and anarchist.
3
 Ervin Batthyányi (1877–1945): Hungarian landowner, publicist, and school founder.

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Life reform and reform pedagogy in Hungary
 
It was to further these interests that Klebelsberg had the country’s unified 
institutional system organised during this period. The academy received support 
from the state, the museums and archives were united in a unified organisation, 
and the university foundations, which began in the 1910s (Debrecen, Szeged, Pécs), 
were continued and their institutes expanded. In addition, between 1924 and 1926, 
Klebelsberg finally began the modernisation of the secondary schools, a project which 
also included building a large number of elementary schools (Ladányi 1999, p. 51).
From the 1920s onwards, the enthusiasm of the earlier movements that was 
decisive for social and human change was replaced by synthesising, preserving 
unaltered, and absolute-seeking aspirations. The social themes now tended to re-
main at the national level. More and more in research, national peculiarities and 
the Hungarian soul appeared as objects of investigation. The social theme, which 
was again formulated in a broad context in the 1930s, now appeared less on a the-
oretical than on a practical level, appearing in sociography , in village research and 
in the popular movement. The new rhetorical means, which were dominant in the 
tenor of the Hungarian life-reform movement, were at that time fundamentally 
influenced by utopian ideals in accordance with the third way of László Németh
4
 
(‘Garden-Hungary’, ‘family’, ‘Falanster’, ‘the new nobility of the spiritual elite’, 
‘quality socialism’) and by the national radicalism of Dezső Szabó (new Hungarian 
land seizure). It was at this time that Zoltán Kodály’s music pedagogy, rooted in 
folk music, developed, and János Karácsony
5
 acknowledged in his works that there 
was a special Hungarian way of thinking (a wonderful one), and thus, a special 
Hungarian world view. In his works, the life-reform movements are related to the 
rhetoric of the popular movement, and the various pedagogical and psychological 
conceptions of reform are mixed in a special way with the ideas that support the 
rebirth of Protestantism (Németh 2006, p. 88).
Until 1943, the second most famous Hungarian Reform School, founded in 1915 
by Mrs. Nemes Müller Márta, continued to operate. Its theoretical conception and 
practice were connected with international efforts of reform pedagogy in the 1920s. 
The founder of the school lived in Belgium for a long time at the beginning of the 
century , where she became acquainted with the most important early reform-ped-
agogical efforts. The pedagogy of the important Belgian reform pedagogue Ovide 
Decroly had a great impact on her ideas. Her experiences in Belgium led her to the 
decision to found a reform school where the focus was on ‘work for society, where 
moral theses and feelings can be put into practice’. Based on these basic principles, 
she developed the theoretical basis and the curriculum of her school between 1907 
and 1912 and then opened her first school for 6–14-year-olds in Brussels in 1912. 
This free school experiment lasted until the outbreak of World War I, and when 
she had to return home, she founded a new private school in Budapest in 1915, the 
Családi Iskola (Family School) (Németh and Pukánszky 1999, p. 252).
Montessori’s pedagogical ideas quickly attracted the attention of Hungarian 
pedagogues. The first Montessori Kindergarten was founded in 1912 in the convent 
of the Missionary Sisters of Mary of the Franciscan Order . Some Italian members of 
4
 László Németh (1901–1975): Hungarian doctor, essayist, writer, and pedagogue. 
5
 Sándor Karácsony (1891–1952): Hungarian pedagogue and theoretician.

202 Sodobna pedagogika/Journal of Contemporary Educational Studies Németh, Nagy
the order were trained by Montessori in Rome and received a diploma. One of the 
sisters then taught the Hungarian sisters the Montessori method. The most famous 
personality of Hungarian Montessori pedagogy was Erzsébet Burchardt-Bélavári 
(1897–1987), who, between 1924 and 1944, also directed kindergartens and, from 
1928 to 1941, a school according to the method of the Italian pedagogue. When 
she became acquainted with Montessori’s work, she went to Holland, where, 
between 1923 and 1924, she acquired the right to teach in a Montessori children’s 
home during a course in Amsterdam. Afterwards, she worked for a short time in 
Vienna in a Montessori kindergarten. When she returned to Budapest, she opened 
a kindergarten and then a school. From 1930 onwards, she gave education courses 
and practice-oriented lectures for kindergarten teachers, teachers and parents 
at her institution and at the Budapest Educational Institution for Kindergarten 
Teachers (Burchard 1987, p. 1187).
Among Rudolf Steiner’s Hungarian followers, one can mention Dr. Mária 
Göllner (1894–1982), who, as Steiner’s personal pupil, came to know Anthroposophy 
and became a member of the Goetheanum in Dornach in 1924. She founded the 
first anthroposophical group in Hungary in 1926, and in September of that year, 
she also opened her bilingual (German-Hungarian) Waldorf School, which operated 
in a garden district of Budapest (Kis-Svábhegy) until 1933 (Vámos Nagy 1991).
Conclusion
Looking at the link between the aspirations of the life-reform movement and 
reform pedagogy , we can state that their community motive is the most fundamental 
element of the various concepts of reform pedagogy. This was complemented by 
equality in social and educational relations and emphasis on friendship, fraternity , 
and partnership. A common feature is the emphasis placed on nature, its proximity 
and naturalness, which is reflected in the pedagogical conception of children and 
the methods of education. The great impact of the life-reform movement is high-
lighted by how the various reform-pedagogical aspirations strongly emphasise the 
priority of the soul to the vitality of life, the importance of creative intent, artistic 
aspirations, developmental effects, personal experiencing, personal activities and 
the importance of sensory and physical dimensions. 
The topos of the pure child in progressive education (Reformpädagogik) is the 
guarantee of a better world for the future. This suggests that reform pedagogy had 
its own redeemer . This ‘child’ is the embodiment of a better future and the architect 
of the healing new world. Consequently , the discourses of reform pedagogy-utopia 
involve many cases of quasi-religious motifs related to the rhetoric of life reform. 
The most common topos is the replacement of the teacher, deprived of traditional 
authority, by the new Messiah, the child. Therefore education, assuming a role 
similar to life reform, exceeds the specific relations of the given age and becomes 
the preparer of a better future for the whole of humanity . Thus, the ‘new school’ is 
the foundation of the yearned-for ‘new world’, the ‘earthly heaven’ where one can 
reach one’s full potential and live, and where the child can finally be a ‘real’ child.

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However, the new era of the 1930s provided little comfort to the abso-
lute-good-seeking idealists or lonely revolutionaries who had dedicated themselves 
to the salvation of the deprived. This new way became a political constraint which 
determined the development of Hungary and the states newly emerged from the 
ruins of the Monarchy and even in the regions of Central and Southern Europe. 
Instead of reaching a highly developed political and social stance, racial or class-
based commune phalansteries were evolved and offered by authoritative regimes 
in the 20
th
 century . This development also led to totalitarian dictatorships in which 
new political prophets, as infallible tribunes, offered collective salvation.
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András	NÉMETH	(Univerza	Selye	János,	Komárno,	Slovaška)
Andrea	NAGY 	(Univerza	Eötvös	Loránd,	Budimpešta,	Madžarska)
REFORMNA GIBANJA IN REFORMSKA PEDAGOGIKA NA MADŽARSKEM  
Povzetek: Vse od konca 19. stoletja smo v Evropi in v transatlantskih regijah priča procesom moder-
nizacije in industrializacije, ki so vplivali na spremembe tradicionalne družbe, življenjskih slogov in 
zasebnega življenja posameznikov in družbenih skupin. Za to obdobje je značilen tudi pojav večjega 
števila reformskih gibanj, ki so nastala kot protiutež naglim in globokim družbenim spremembam. 
Življenjska reforma (angl. life reform) je krovni termin, s katerim opisujemo gibanja, ki so bila kritična do 
modernizacije in katerih ključna značilnost je bila težnja po iskanju izgubljene integritete ter zavzemanje 
za vrnitev k naravi. Omenjena gibanja so bila dejavna zlasti v Nemškem cesarstvu in v Avstro-Ogrski 
monarhiji po koncu 19. stoletja. Novejše zgodovinsko-pedagoške raziskave ugotavljajo, da je obstajala 
razmeroma tesna povezanost med njimi in ključnimi gibanji reformske pedagogike, kar je očitno tudi v 
šolskih reformah, ki so potekale v istem obdobju. Reformska pedagogika je torej povezana z gibanji za 
življenjsko reformo – in obratno. Tudi sami se pridružujemo tej liniji pedagoških raziskav: v pričujočem 
prispevku najprej v prvem delu raziskujemo povezanost med gibanji za življenjsko reformo in reformsko 
pedagogiko v Avstro-Ogrski monarhiji in kasneje na Madžarskem. V drugem delu besedila pa analizira-
mo povezave med gibanji za življenjsko reformo in reformsko pedagogiko v času po prvi svetovni vojni. 
Ključne besede: gibanje za življenjsko reformo, reformska pedagogika, Avstro-Ogrska monarhija, 
neodvisna Madžarska
E-naslov: andras.nemeth@ujs.sk