Building an Anti-Semitic Network in Europe

This study analyses Tibor Eckhardt’s presidency of the Association of Awakening Hungarians (Ébredő Magyarok Egyesülete, ÉME) between 1923 and 1927, showing how he intended to position the movement between the far right of the Horthy era and pro-consolidation conservatives dominating the government. The ÉME quickly transformed from a base for white terror into a nationwide mass organisation and a hub for a transnational network. Involving Italian Fascism, the German Völkisch movement, as well as Romanian, Austrian and Russian partners, Eckhardt’s efforts were aimed at the transnational expansion of Hungarian racialist thinking. The process culminated in the 1925 anti-Semitic congress held in Budapest, while it also showed the movement’s limitations. Internal contradictions within the organisation, conflicts of its transnational allies, political isolation, and pressure from the consolidated authoritarian system ultimately led to the decline of the ÉME. The study points out that the ÉME was not only an important part of Hungarian history, but was also significant in the intertwined histories of the far right in (Central) Europe. Thus it serves as an example of the networked, permeable nature of early Fascism. Through the figure of Eckhardt, it also highlights the key role of political entrepreneurs in the institutionalisation of the far right.