Budakeszi ( or ) is a town in Pest County, in the

Budapest metropolitan area The Budapest metropolitan area (, ) is a statistical area that describes the reach of commuter movement to and from Budapest and its surrounding suburbs. Created by Hungary's national statistical office Hungarian Central Statistical Office, HCSO t ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. It is located beyond the

János Hill János is a masculine Hungarian given name. It originates from the Hebrew name Johanan and is thus a variant of the English name John. People Notable people with the name include: * János Aczél (mathematician) (1924–2020), Hungarian-C ...

at the western city limits of

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, about west of the Zero Kilometre Stone in the city centre. A popular recreational area, the landscape is characterized by forests, predominantly

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

s, by vineyards and by orchards.

Meaning of the name

Buda Buda (, ) is the part of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, that lies on the western bank of the Danube. Historically, “Buda” referred only to the royal walled city on Castle Hill (), which was constructed by Béla IV between 1247 and ...

is the western side of Budapest, ''Keszi'' was one of the seven ancient

Hungarian tribes The Magyar or Hungarian tribes ( , ) or Hungarian clans were the fundamental political units within whose framework the Hungarians (Magyars) lived, before the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin and the subsequent establishment of the Prin ...

History

The settlement in the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

was first mentioned about 1270, it was completely devastated during the Ottoman Siege of Buda in 1541. In the aftermath of the Ottoman defeat at the 1683

Battle of Vienna The Battle of Vienna took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna on 1683 after the city had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months. The battle was fought by the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarchy) and the Polish–Li ...

, the depopulated area was re-settled with "

Danube Swabian The Danube Swabians ( ) is a collective term for the ethnic German-speaking population who lived in the Kingdom of Hungary in east-central Europe, especially in the Danube River valley, first in the 12th century, and in greater numbers in the 17 ...

" (most of them actually descending from

Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...

, the Palatinate and

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

) immigrants by the order of the

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

King Leopold I. Budakeszi was for centuries a predominantly "Schwabian" (

ethnic German Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The constitution of Germany, implemented in 1949 following the end of World War ...

) village. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Budakeszi's history was influenced by the

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or is under sen ...

of its ethnic German population according to Article 12 of the 1945

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement () was the agreement among three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union after the war ended in Europe that was signed on 1 August 1945 and published the following day. A ...

. Though the expulsion was ordered under pressure of the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

forces, many Hungarians relished in the humiliation of ethnic Germans throughout the region and collectively took part in organized, forced deportations of German-speaking citizens to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

proper. Most of these expellees had never been to Germany before, as even their great-grand parents had been born in Hungary. Budakeszi lost a great number of its citizens due to the above and the vacuum was later filled with the settlement of families from other regions, such as

Transylvania Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...

Budakeszi today

Many inhabitants commute to work to the capital Budapest daily. With mass transportation (No. 22 bus or Volánbusz intercity bus) this normally takes about 15 minutes. Budakeszi has a historic main street and a baroque Roman Catholic church in its valley. There is also a Protestant church, the cemetery of which has largely German-named headstones, some of which date back to the early 19th century. (There are also about a dozen

WW2 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising ...

Polish soldiers buried in the cemetery). Today Budakeszi's population is mixed; Hungarians, Schwabian-Germans, and Transylvanians share this small town. Near Budakeszi there is an airfield for

sailplanes A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the leisure activity and sport of gliding (also called soaring). This unpowered aircraft can use naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to gain altitude. Sailpla ...

(gliders) and for small planes, as well as a recently established World War 2 German military cemetery.

Twin towns – sister cities

Budakeszi is twinned with: *

Balog nad Ipľom Balog nad Ipl'om (; ) (1232 ''Bolug'', 1351 ''Balogh'') is a village and municipality in the Veľký Krtíš District of the Banská Bystrica Region of southern Slovakia. History In historical records, the village was first mentioned in 1232 wh ...

, Slovakia *

Biecz Biecz () () is a town and municipality in southeastern Poland, in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Gorlice County. It is in the Carpathian Mountains, in the Doły Jasielsko-Sanockie, by the Ropa (river), Ropa River. Due to its rich history, it is often ...

, Poland *

Delbrück Delbrück () is a town in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the district Paderborn. History The first document mentioning the town dates to 1219. In 1410, the town was destroyed by fire during a conflict between the bisho ...

, Germany * Dyida, Ukraine *

Lich In fantasy fiction, a lich () is a type of undead creature with magical powers. Various works of fantasy fiction, such as Clark Ashton Smith's " The Empire of the Necromancers" (1932), had used ''lich'' as a general term for any corpse, animat ...

, Germany *

Miercurea Ciuc Miercurea Ciuc (; ; ) is the county seat of Harghita County, Romania. It lies in the Székely Land, a mainly Hungarian-speaking ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, and is situated in the Olt River valley. The city administers three ...

, Romania *

Neckarsulm Neckarsulm () is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, near Heilbronn, and part of the district of Heilbronn. , Neckarsulm had 26,800 inhabitants. The name Neckarsulm derives from the city's location where the Neckar and Sulm rivers ...

, Germany * Sankt Margarethen an der Raab, Austria

Notable citizens

Among the ethnic Germans expelled from Budakeszi in 1946 were the parents of Joseph "Joschka" Fischer, born in 1948, German foreign minister from 1998 to 2005. Fischer today holds an honorary citizenship. * András Balczó, Olympic gold medalist (

Modern Pentathlon The modern pentathlon is an Summer Olympics, Olympic multisport that consists of five events: fencing (one-touch épée followed by direct elimination), freestyle swimming, obstacle course racing, Laser pistol (sport), laser pistol shooting, and ...

, 1972) * AWS,

metalcore Metalcore is a broadly defined fusion genre combining elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk, originating in the 1990s United States and becoming popular in the 2000s. Metalcore typically has aggressive verses and melodic choruses, combined ...

band *

Gáspár Nagy Gáspár Nagy (May 4, 1949, Bérbaltavár – January 3, 2007, Budapest) was a Hungary, Hungarian poet and writer. Life He graduated from the Benedictine Grammar School of Pannonhalma where he studied Library Science in Szombathely, then Aesthet ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

Kossuth Prize The Kossuth Prize (, ) is a state-sponsored award in Hungary, named after the Hungarian politician and revolutionist Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1936, by the Hungarian National Assembly, to acknowledge outstanding personal and grou ...

winner * Zsolt Vajda, Media artist *

Csaba Pléh Csaba Pléh (born 29 November 1945) is a Hungarian psychologist and linguist, professor at the Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Academic career He graduated from the Eötvös Loránd Universit ...

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

Széchenyi Prize The Széchenyi Prize (), named after István Széchenyi, is a prize given in Hungary by the state, replacing the former State Prize in 1990 in recognition of those who have made an outstanding contribution to academic life in Hungary. Recipients ...

winner

References

External links

* in Hungarian, English and German *http://www.amikisvarosunk.hu/cikk/budakeszi-tortenete-1000-tol-1766-ig {{Authority control Populated places in Pest County Budapest metropolitan area Hungarian German communities