ABSTRACT
The relationship between Germany and Hungary, or the Hungarian version of the "German Question," has never existed in a vacuum of dispassionate academic discourse. As in many other European countries, the German Question has always been fraught with emotion. At various times, it has been used politically, as in the promotion of Hungarian nationalism during the Rakoczi rebellion of 1703-1711, or in the propagation of anti-Habsburg, anti-monarchist nationalist sentiments in the 19th century. The implications of treating the "German Question" in a negative manner remained essentially the same throughout the first two decades of postwar Communist rule. For every Trabant in the East there was a Volkswagen, for every Wartburg belching fumes, a new Straßenkreuzer could be seen cruising on Hungary's main thoroughfares. A great deal has happened since the fall of Communism in Hungary, which is also reflected in the political, economic, and cultural relations between unified Germany and democratic Hungary.
