Külügyminisztérium, Sajtó és Kulturális Osztály
- Records of the Press and Cultural Department, Foreign Ministry
Extent and Medium
4 boxes, 658 fasc., 67 vols., 98,21 linear metres
Creator(s)
- Press Department of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry
Biographical History
The Press Department of the Foreign Ministry was established in 1918 and its competence concerned press-related issues with foreign policy relevance, information on the press and its control in different countries, matters related to foreign press organs and news agencies, compilation of reports on foreign press releases, and the directing of the library and press archive of the Ministry (the latter became part of the Presidential Department of the Ministry in 1930). The Cultural Department was established in 1930 and was responsible for cultural, scholarly and artistic international relations of the country, the relation to the League of Nations committee on Cooperation Intellectuelle, international exhibitions, tourism, international student- and sports-related matters, movies and photography, statistics and population censuses as well as summer holidays for children. In 1936, the appearance and distribution of Hungarian literary works, other types of books and journals in the international sphere and international congresses were added to the tasks of this Department. In 1940, the two departments were merged.
Scope and Content
The collection documenting the activities of the Press and Cultural Department of the Foreign Ministry has three major parts: first, there are records of the distribution of Hungarian press organs abroad, reviews of foreign press, information bureaus and radio-related matters, second, there are records of the distribution of foreign press organs in Hungary, their permits, and papers on connections to foreign journalists, and third, there are documents on the internal matters of the department(s).
System of Arrangement
The records were held according to the year of their creation and were organized both through the use of item numbers and creation of thematic dossiers. Large parts of the aids have been destroyed or became unusable and the ways the dossiers were originally organized did not prove satisfying either, the materials were therefore reorganized at the Hungarian National Archive.
Finding Aids
Ferenc Nagy, ed. Külügyminisztérium levéltára. Vols 1. Budapest. MOL, 2003.
Publication Note
Ferenc Nagy, ed. Külügyminisztérium levéltára. Vols 1. Budapest. MOL, 2003.
Archivist Note
Description was prepared by László Csősz.
Rules and Conventions
EHRI Guidelines for Description v.1.0
Corporate Bodies
- Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Ministers