ABSTRACT
The ascent to power of the proto-fascist Horthy government in Hungary in 1920, followed by the fascist regimes of Mussolini in Italy in 1922, Hitler in Germany in 1933 and Franco in Spain in 1936, led to the displacement of millions of Europeans. This chapter focuses the history of displacement of the Hungarian political cabaret from its birthplace, Budapest, to London, to which it was brought by those who could not remain in Hungary or, indeed, on the European continent. It sketches the contours of the history of political cabaret on the stages of Budapest from its beginnings until its effective destruction by the Horthy regime and the German occupational forces on the eve of the outbreak of the Second World War. After turning attention to the Kleine Bhne, the cabaret of the Free German League of Culture, It focuses on the cabaret of the Hungarian migr community in wartime London.
