On 30 January 1933 Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany and the Nazi Third Reich was born. Two days later the radio station in Berlin’s Potsdammerstrasse broadcast a talk by a 26-year-old theologian. The address had the dry title of “The Younger Generation’s Altered Concept of Leadership” but it was political dynamite because it dealt with the so-called Führer principle. It was an idea, popular in Germany since the end of the First World War, that what the country needed was a new, strong leader to guide it back to greatness. The young theologian explained how such a leader inevitably becomes an idol and a “mis-leader”. Before he could finish, the speech was cut off. Continue »

One could listen for hours to Anna Zaboeva as she talks with animated gestures and laughs readily. The lively 26-year-old Russian shoe designer with cropped blonde hair plays with crayons as she tells us about hitchhiking from Siberia to Budapest and establishing her own shop in Wesselényi utca.  Continue »

A temporary exhibition on the massacre of ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina in 1944 and 1945 was unveiled at the House of Terror Museum last Tuesday. Some 15,000-20,000 of the 500,000-strong Hungarian population were killed by Yugoslav communists with another 84,000 fleeing for their lives. Continue »

Hungarian National Gallery Nation and Art, Portrait and Self-portrait runs until 3 April. Pictured is Pál Jávor’s Vásárfia (Fairing), circa 1910. Mihály Munkácsy’s Christ Trilogy is on show until 30 April. Continue »

Tickets for Shakira’s The Sun Comes Out World Tour 2011 show in Budapest on Thursday, 5 May went on sale last Friday. Superlatives are the norm for the international star, who has won ten Grammy Awards, 15 Billboard Music Awards and four MTV Music Awards. Continue »

A38 Ship at 8pm on Friday, 4 March: Jazz/electronic band Bin-Jip celebrates its first birthday, supported by Czech band Lesni Zver.  Continue »

Exceptional American jazz drummer and composer Brian Blade will perform at the Palace of Arts on Sunday, 6 March. Blade is the very opposite of all the clichés about drummers. His latest production Mama Rosa is intimate and subtly crafted. He not only plays drums but also sings and plays acoustic guitar. Backing will be provided by his Fellowship Band (Jon Cowherd, Chris Thomas and Kurt Rosenwinkel).  Continue »

The by-now traditional Budapest Spring Festival will take place from 18 March to 3 April with close to a hundred music, theatre, dance and exhibition events awaiting visitors.  Continue »

In addition to the many well-known problems of a largely economic nature such as the excessively high state debt and too-low employment rate, Hungary has serious political problems, not least the inability and unwillingness of the various camps to openly debate their differences of opinion in a civilised manner directly with one another. Continue »

Although the revenues and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) of Hungary’s biggest telecommunications service provider, Magyar Telekom, were down by 5.3 and 5.5 per cent respectively, the decline was smaller than expected by the company and analysts.  Continue »