Dr. Viktória Muka (Andrassy Univ., Budapest) visits Leiden to talk about German minority culture in Central Europe
On October 15, 2025, Dr. Viktória Muka who recently finished her doctorate in History at the Andrassy University in Budapest presented some of her graduate research.
Her talk was entitled “Instrumentalized Traditions: Religious Identity and ‘Germanness’ in Interwar Hungary — ‘Hungarianness’ Post-War Germany.” She included in her presentation striking images and a video which documented the construction of a meters-long flower carpet in a Hungarian village that is home to many Christians with German ancestry. Muka problematized the link between cultural heritage and national belonging while introducing the Austria Centre Leiden guests the long history of German minorities (and other minorities) in Hungary. Dr. Muka first interacted with the Austria Centre Leiden at two conferences convened by the Austrian Ministry of Women, Science and Research in Berkeley and Budapest. The Austria Center Network includes centers for the study of central European history at nine different universities in Europe, North America and the Middle East.
