Attracted by Chile (1973–2023) the perspective of a Hungarian historian

Abstract

A brief look back half a century: on 11 September 1973, I was a 20-year-old student at the University of Szeged. My tutor, Ádám Anderle, advised me to choose the Prussian-German military influence in Chile as the topic for my future thesis. In 1977, I won the Main Prize at the National Conference of Scientific Students with my work. In the following decade, I had the opportunity to continue researching this topic in the archives of East and West Germany. I have visited Chile on three occasions. In 1999, I presented my book –El modelo militar prusiano y las Fuerzas Armadas de Chile, 1885-1945– in the Andean country. The work was a real novelty for Chileans. In 2000, I travelled with the rector of the University of Pécs at the time to sign a bilateral agreement with three Chilean universities, which is still in force today. On my third trip, I was able to resume my scientific research and, as a result, in 2003 I defended my doctoral thesis and obtained the title of Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (DSc).