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Ivan T. Berend - ein Leben für die Südosteuropa-Forschung
Ivan T. Berend - A Lifetime for the Research on Southeast Europe

Author(s): Roland Schönfeld
Subject(s): Cultural Essay, Political Essay, Societal Essay
Published by: Südosteuropa Gesellschaft e.V.
Keywords: economic development and modernization in East Central and South Eastern Europe; economic reforms in Hungary;

Summary/Abstract: Using the limited freedom offered to scholars in Kádár’s Hungary, Berend succeeded early in establishing an outstanding international reputation as an economic historian. In numerous books and research articles he focussed on the comparative approach to the conditions of economic development and modernization in East Central and South Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th century. Disappointed by the realities of socialist mismanagement, distrust and suppression he was involved in the repeated attempts to launch Hungary’s economic reforms. In the 1980s, as president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, he sided with the forces trying to liberalize not only the economy but the political system of the country as well. In 1988 he was appointed chairman of the sensational commission to analyze the events leading to the traumatic 1956 popular uprising. After having accepted the offer of the UCLA’s distinguished chair of economic history in 1990 he continued his immense scholarly activity to this day. The tragic history of his and the other peoples of the region haunted him. In 2005, the Southeast Europe Association, to which he had rendered remarkable services as a Corresponding Member since 1989, honored his lifework by awarding him the Konstantin-Jireček-Medal.

  • Issue Year: 2005
  • Issue No: 04-05
  • Page Range: 50-60
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: German