ABSTRACT
Many articles in the Hungarian periodical Turistaság és Alpinizmus (Hiking and Alpine Climbing) dealt with Western Hungary after the plan to annex the German-occupied territories to Austria came to light. This was how the Hungarians mourned their territorial loss, which was a natural reaction from them, 1 albeit this feeling was soon to be replaced with revisionist spirit. The magazine was founded in 1910 by the Budapesti Egyetemi Turista Egyesület (Budapest University Hiking Association), and further additional associations chose it as their main publication channel. Apart from the Turisták Lapja (Letters of Tourists) this periodical, which focused on tourism and regional and cultural matters and was edited and published by János Vigyázó and his staff, became the most important factor in the golden age of the Hungarian hiking movement. The reason for this was that the promotion of hiking was linked to the presentation of the Hungarian landscape and its attractions, which obviously contributed to the reinforcing of the Hungarian identity, and to its basis in the romantic landscape. In other words, the motivations in this respect did not differ too much on either side of the border. Co-editor Román Komarnicki published his thoughts at the beginning of the only issue published in 1921 and gave a compelling description of the mystery of the Hungarian landscape, and of the changing mission of the creative community behind the publication in the context of a Hungary after the Treaty of Trianon.
It was always the land of our beautiful country that stood closest to our hearts – the Hungarian plain with its deceiving mirage, the hill country with its whispering forests and the immense rampart of the Carpathians that has braved all the storms of a millennium for us, protected us with its rocky shoulders, with the flag-holding majestic peak, the Tatra at its forehead. For this wretched homeland, to which we cling with even stauncher loyalty in its sad fate, and which when robbed and torn apart remains unified and indivisible for us, — for this old, great Hungarian homeland we will devote the best of our work, the soaring momentum of our words of laudation at the beauty of the Hungarian land, the noblest of feelings of our love for nature enriched with deep love for our country.
