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Siege of Budapest Part of the Eastern Front, Budapest Offensive of World War II File:Russian Soldier Budapest.JPG A Soviet soldier writing "Budapest" in Cyrillic on a signpost after the siege Date 29 December 1944 - 13 February 1945 Location Budapest, Hungary Result Soviet-Romanian victory[1] Belligerents Germany Hungary 22x20px Soviet Union Romania Commanders and leaders Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch (POW) Iván Hindy (POW) Gerhard Schmidhuber † 22x20px Rodion Malinovsky 22x20px Fyodor Tolbukhin Nicolae Șova Strength 180,000 (90,000 for city defense) 500,000+ (170,000 for city assault) Casualties and losses 99,000-150,000 dead, wounded or captured Soviet Losses: 80,026 dead and missing 240,056 wounded and sick[2][3] 40,000 civilians dead

v t e Eastern Front Naval warfare Baltic Sea Black Sea Arctic Arctic Convoys Rösselsprung Wunderland 1941 Barbarossa Białystok and Minsk Smolensk Uman 1st Kiev Leningrad Sevastopol Rostov Moscow Finland Chechnya 1942 Rzhev Toropets and Kholm Demyansk Velikiye Luki Mars 2nd Kharkov Case Blue Stalingrad Uranus Winter Storm 1943 3rd Kharkov Kursk 2nd Smolensk Lower Dnieper 2nd Kiev 1944 Dnieper and Carpathian Leningrad and Novgorod Narva Hube's Pocket Crimea Jassy-Kishinev Karelia Bagration Lvov and Sandomierz 2nd Jassy-Kishinev Baltics Debrecen Battle of Dukla Pass Belgrade Petsamo and Kirkenes Hungary 1945 Vistula and Oder East Prussia East Pomerania Solstice Silesia Vienna Berlin Czechoslovakia German capitulation v t e Hungary 1944–1945 Debrecen Budapest Balaton Vienna v t e Romanian military actions in World War II As part of the Axis (1941–1944) München Uman Odessa Sevastopol Azov Blue Edelweiss Stalingrad Uranus Winter Storm Tidal Wave Lower Dnieper Dniepr–Carpathian 1st Jassy–Kishinev 2nd Jassy–Kishinev As part of the Allies (1944–1945) Turda Păuliş Debrecen Budapest Prague

The Siege of Budapest refers to the Soviet Union's takeover of the Hungarian capital city of Budapest towards the end of World War II in Europe. Part of the broader Budapest Offensive, the siege began when Budapest, defended by Hungarian and German troops, was first encircled on 29 December 1944 by the Red Army and the Romanian Army. The siege ended when the city unconditionally surrendered on 13 February 1945. It was a decisive victory for the Allies in their push towards Berlin. ^[4]

General situation[link]

By 1944, Hungary remained very much an unwilling satellite^[5] of Germany. In March 1944, Hungary was attempting to quit the war, and was seen by Nazi Germany as reluctant to take sufficient measures against the Jews. Germany needed Hungarian oil wells located around Lake Balaton. On 19 March, the Germans launched Operation Margarethe and their armed forces (Wehrmacht) entered Hungary. The Hungarian Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, put Hungary's attempts to quit the war on hold.

In October 1944, Horthy was caught negotiating peace with the Allies. The Germans launched Operation Panzerfaust (initiated to keep Hungary at Germany's side), on 16 October and forced Horthy to abdicate. Horthy and his government were replaced by "Hungarist" Ferenc Szálasi, from the Arrow Cross Party.

The Siege[link]

Fighting forces[link]

The besieging Soviet forces were part of Rodion Malinovsky's 2nd Ukrainian Front. Formations that actually took part in the fighting appear to have included the 53rd Army, 7th Guards Army, portions of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, including the 46th Army, and the Romanian 7th Army Corps.^[4]

Arrayed against the Soviets was a collection of German Army (Heer), Waffen-SS, and Hungarian Army (Honvédség) forces. The Siege of Budapest was one of the bloodiest campaigns of World War II.^[6]

Encirclement of Budapest[link]

On 29 October 1944, the Red Army started its offensive against the city. More than 1,000,000 men, split into two operating maneuver groups, advanced. The plan was to cut Budapest off from the rest of the German and Hungarian forces. On 7 November 1944, Soviet and Romanian troops entered the eastern suburbs, 20 kilometers from the old town. The Red Army, after a much-needed pause in hostilities, resumed its offensive on 19 December. On 26 December, a road linking Budapest to Vienna was seized by Soviet troops, thereby completing the encirclement. The "Leader of the Nation" (Nemzetvezető), Ferenc Szálasi, had already fled on 9 December.

As a result of the Soviet link-up, nearly 33,000 German and 37,000 Hungarian soldiers, as well as over 800,000 civilians, became trapped within the city. Refusing to authorize a withdrawal, German dictator Adolf Hitler had declared Budapest a fortress city (Festung Budapest), which had to be defended to the last man. Waffen SS General Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, the commander of the IX Waffen SS Alpine Corps, was put in charge of the city's defences.

Budapest was a major target for Joseph Stalin. The Yalta Conference was approaching and Stalin wanted to display his full strength to Churchill and Roosevelt. He therefore ordered General Rodion Malinovsky to seize the city without delay.^[7]

On 29 December 1944, Malinovsky sent two emissaries to negotiate the city's capitulation. They never returned. This particular point is widely disputed by the Soviet Union, with some German and Hungarian historians arguing that the emissaries were deliberately shot by the Soviets. Others believe that they were in fact shot by mistake on their way back to the Soviet lines. In any case, Soviet commanders considered this act a refusal and ordered the attack.

The start of the siege and the first German offensive[link]

The Soviet offensive began in the eastern suburbs, advancing through Pest, making good use of the large central avenues to speed-up their progress. The German and Hungarian defenders, overwhelmed, tried to trade space for time to slow down the Soviet advance. They ultimately withdrew to shorten their lines, hoping to take advantage of the hilly nature of Buda.

In January 1945, the Germans launched a three part counter-offensive codenamed Operation Konrad. Operation Konrad was a joint German-Hungarian effort to relieve the encircled garrison of Budapest.

Operation Konrad I was launched on 1 January. The German IV SS Panzer Corps attacked from Tata through hilly terrain north of Budapest in an effort to break the siege. Simultaneously, Waffen-SS forces struck from the west of Budapest in an effort to gain a tactical advantage. On 3 January, the Soviet command sent four more divisions to meet the threat. This Soviet action stopped the offensive near Bicske, less than 20 kilometers west of Budapest. The Germans were forced to withdraw on 12 January.

They then launched Operation Konrad II on 7 January. The IV SS Panzer Corps attacked from Esztergom towards Budapest Airport. They tried to capture it in order to improve supplying the city by air. This offensive was halted near the airport.

On 17 January, Operation Konrad III was launched. The IV SS Panzer Corps and the III Panzer Corps attacked from the south of Budapest and attempted to encircle ten Soviet divisions. This encirclement attempt failed.

Combat intensification[link]

Meanwhile, urban warfare in Budapest increased in intensity. Re-supply became a decisive factor because of the loss of the Ferihegy airport just before the start of the siege, on 27 December 1944. Until 9 January 1945, German troops were able to use some of the main avenues as well as the park next to Buda Castle as landing zones for planes and gliders, although they were under constant artillery fire from the Soviets. Before the Danube froze, some supplies could be sent on barges, under the cover of darkness and fog.

Nevertheless, food shortages were more and more common and soldiers had to rely on finding their own sources of sustenance, some even resorting to eating their own horses. The extreme temperatures also affected German and Hungarian troops.

Soviet troops quickly found themselves in the same situation as the Germans had in Stalingrad. Their men were nonetheless able to take advantage of the urban terrain by relying heavily on snipers and sappers to advance. Fighting broke out in the sewers, as both sides used them for troop movements. Six Soviet marines even managed to get to Castle Hill and capture a German officer before returning to their own lines - still underground. But such feats were rare because of ambushes in the sewers set up by the Axis troops using local inhabitants as guides.

In mid-January, Csepel Island was taken, along with its military factories, which were still producing Panzerfausts and shells, even under Soviet fire. Meanwhile in Pest, the situation for the Axis forces deteriorated, with the garrison facing the risk of being cut in half by the advancing Soviet troops.

On 17 January 1945, Hitler agreed to withdraw the remaining troops from Pest to try to defend Buda. All five bridges spanning the Danube were clogged with traffic, evacuating troops and civilians. German troops destroyed the bridges on 18 January, despite protests from Hungarian officers.

The second German offensive[link]

On 20 January 1945, German troops launched their second major offensive, this time south of the city, blasting a 20 km hole in the Soviet lines and advancing to the Danube, threatening Soviet supply lines.

Stalin ordered his troops to hold their ground at all costs, and two Army Corps that were dispatched to assault Budapest were hastily moved to the south of the city to counter the German offensive. Nevertheless, German troops who got to less than 20 kilometres from the city were unable to maintain their impetus due to fatigue and supply problems. Budapest's defenders asked permission to leave the city and escape the encirclement. Hitler refused.

On 28 January 1945, German troops could no longer hold their ground and were forced to withdraw. The fate of the defenders of Budapest was sealed.

The Battle for Buda[link]

Unlike Pest, which is built on flat terrain, Buda is built on hills. This allowed the defenders to site artillery and fortifications above the attackers, greatly slowing the Soviet advance. The main citadel, (Gellért Hill), was defended by elite Waffen-SS troops that successfully repelled several Soviet assaults. Nearby, Soviet and German forces were fighting for the city cemetery amongst shell-opened tombs, it would last for several days.

The fighting on Margaret Island, in the middle of the Danube, was particularly merciless. The island was still attached to the rest of the city by the remaining half of the Margaret Bridge and was used as a parachute drop zone as well as for covering improvised airstrips set up in the city center. The 25th Guards Rifle Division operated from the Soviet side in combat on the island (for losses see below).

On 11 February 1945, Gellért Hill finally fell after a heavy Soviet attack launched from three points of the compass simultaneously-after six weeks of fighting. Soviet artillery was able to dominate the entire city and to shell the remaining Axis defenders, who were concentrated in less than two square kilometres and suffering from malnutrition and disease.

The experiences of Joseph Szentkiralyi illustrates the privations experienced by many. Szentkiralyi had worked in the United States prior to World War II and had been deported back to Hungary. During the siege, he and his family endured constant artillery bombardment and street-by-street tank and infantry battles between the Germans, the remnants of the Royal Hungarian Army and the attacking Ukrainian and Russian forces. Szentkiralyi, along with others, risked their lives by leaving the shelters to butcher frozen horse carcasses in the streets to prevent starvation and help keep their families alive. At the end, daily rations consisted of melted snow, horse meat, and 150 grams of bread. Szentkiralyi narrowly avoided arrest and likely execution by the Soviets after the war's end, escaping to Switzerland.^[8]

Despite the lack of supplies, the Axis troops refused to surrender and defended every street and house. By this time, some captured Hungarian soldiers defected and fought on the Soviet side. They were known collectively as the "Volunteer Regiment of Buda."

After capturing the southern railway station during a two-day bloodbath, Soviet troops advanced to Castle Hill. On 10 February, after a violent assault, Soviet marines established a bridgehead on Castle Hill, while almost cutting the remaining garrison in half.

The third German offensive, breakout, and surrender[link]

Hitler still forbade the German commander, Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, to abandon Budapest or to attempt a breakout. But the glider flights (DFS 230) bringing in supplies had ended a few days earlier and parachute drops had also been discontinued.

In desperation, Pfeffer-Wildenbruch decided to lead the remnants of his troops out of Budapest. The German commander did not typically consult the Hungarian commander of the city. However, Pfeffer-Wildenbruch now uncharacteristically included General Iván Hindy, in this last desperate breakout attempt.

On the night of 11 February, some 28,000 German and Hungarian troops began to stream northwestwards away from Castle Hill. They moved in three waves. Thousands of civilians were with each wave. Entire families, pushing prams, trudged through the snow and ice. Unfortunately for the would-be escapees, the Soviets awaited them in prepared positions around the Széll Kálmán tér area.

Troops, along with the civilians, used heavy fog to their advantage. The first wave managed to surprise the waiting Soviet soldiers and artillery; their sheer numbers allowed many to escape. The second and third waves were less fortunate. Soviet artillery and rocket batteries bracketed the escape area, with deadly results. Despite heavy losses, five to ten thousand people managed to reach the wooded hills northwest of Budapest and escape towards Vienna. 600-700 German soldiers reached the main German lines from Budapest.^[9] Roughly a third of these soldiers belonged to the "Feldhernhalle" Panzergrenadier Division, and 170 to the Waffen-SS. The number of Hungarian escapees was around 80 (44 civilians, 25 Arrow Cross Party militias and 11 men in military uniform (including three students and one policeman).^[10]

The majority of the escapees were killed, wounded, or captured by the Soviet troops. Pfeffer-Wildenbruch and Hindy were captured by waiting Soviet troops as they emerged from a underground tunnel running from the Castle District.

Aftermath[link]

The remaining defenders finally surrendered on 13 February 1945. German and Hungarian military losses were high with entire divisions wiped out. The Germans lost all or most of the 13th Panzer Division, 60th Panzergrenadier Division Feldherrnhalle, 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer and the 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division Maria Theresa. The Hungarian I Corps was virtually annihilated. Hungarian formations destroyed included the 10th and 12th Infantry Divisions and the 1st Armored Division.

Budapest lay in ruins, with more than 80 percent of its buildings destroyed or damaged, with historical buildings like the Hungarian Parliament Building and the Castle among them. All five bridges spanning the Danube were destroyed.

In January 1945, 32,000 ethnic Germans from within Hungary were arrested and transported to the Soviet Union as forced laborers. In some villages, the entire adult population were taken to labor camps in the Donets Basin.^[11][12]:21 Many died there as a result of hardship and ill-treatment. Overall, more than 500,000 Hungarians were transported to the Soviet Union (including between 100,000 and 170,000 Hungarian ethnic Germans) .^[13]:38

With the exception of Operation Spring Awakening (Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen), which was launched in March 1945, the siege of Budapest was the last major operation on the southern front for the Germans. The siege further depleted the Wehrmacht and especially the Waffen-SS. For the Soviet troops, the Siege of Budapest was a final rehearsal before the Battle of Berlin. It also allowed the Soviets to launch the Vienna Offensive. On 13 April 1945, exactly two months after the Budapest surrender, Vienna would fall.^[14]

Civilian deaths and mass rape[link]

According to Krisztian Ungvary, some 38,000 civilians were killed during the siege, thereof about 13,000 from military action and 25,000 from starvation, disease and other causes. Included in the latter figure are about 15,000 Jews, largely victims of executions by Hungarian Arrow Cross Party militia. When the Soviets finally claimed victory, they initiated an orgy of violence, including the wholesale theft of anything they could lay their hands on, random executions and mass rape. An estimated 50,000 women and girls were raped,^{[9]:348-350[15][notes 1]} although estimates vary from 5,000 to 200,000.^[16]:129 Hungarian girls were kidnapped and taken to Red Army quarters, where they were imprisoned, repeatedly raped and sometimes murdered.^[17]:70-71

Even embassy staff from neutral countries were captured and raped, as documented when Soviet soldiers attacked the Swedish legation in Germany.^[18] (See for example: Raoul Wallenberg.)

Memoirs and diaries[link]

The events in the Naphegy and Krisztinaváros neighborhoods of Budapest are told in a few surviving diaries and memoirs. László Deseő, a 15 year old boy in 1944, lived at 32 Mészáros Street with his family. This area was heavily attacked because of its proximity to the Southern Railway Station (Déli pályaudvar) and the strategic importance of the hill. Deseő kept a diary throughout the siege.^[19] The memoirs of András Németh also describe the siege and the bombing of the empty school buildings which he and his fellow soldiers used as an observation post.^[20]

The memoirs of Heinz Landau, Goodbye Transylvania, present a German soldier's view of the battle. A richly detailed account of a 20-year-old Hungarian and his family living through the siege was published in 2010. It chronicled the clever strategies employed for survival and outlined the boredom and terror of a family that was trapped, but would not capitulate. Titled Pinball Games: Arts of Survival in Nazi and Communist Eras,^[21] the memoir was written by George F. Eber and published posthumously. Eber, who had become an internationally-known architect, included sketches with the memoir. One of them depicts a Russian soldier silhouetted against a Budapest wall on the first night the Germans were driven out of his neighborhood. The memoir also includes an account of World War II and the post-war transition of the country into Soviet-style Communism.

The memoirs of the 14 year-old dispatch runner of the Vannay Volunteer Battalion, Ervin Galantay, give an amazing insight into the battle and urban combat. The diary of the young runner describes day-to-day life and survival of both civilians and soldiers. It was published in English by the Militaria press in Budapest in 2005, under the title "Boy Soldier."

Culture[link]

Festung Budapest (2012) is a table-top war game simulation of parts of the siege using the Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) system. The module is noted for attention to historical accuracy and detail including Orders of Battle, maps and battles.

See also[link]

• Budapest Offensive
• Soviet occupation of Hungary
• Forced labor of Hungarians in the Soviet Union

Additional reading[link]

• John F. Montgomery, Hungary: The Unwilling Satellite. Devin-Adair Company, New York, 1947. Reprint: Simon Publications, 2002. Available online at Historical Text Archive and at the Corvinus Library of Hungarian History.
• Gosztony, Peter: Der Kampf um Budapest, 1944/45, München : Schnell & Steiner, 1964.
• Nikolai Shefov, Russian fights, Lib. Military History, M. 2002.
• James Mark. Remembering Rape: Divided Social Memory and the Red Army in Hungary 1944–1945. Past and Present 2005: 188: 133-161 (Oxford University Press).
• Krisztián Ungváry, The Siege of Budapest: One Hundred Days in World War II (trans. Ladislaus Löb), Yale University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-300-10468-5
• Source about Soviet casualties, estimated at 80,000, not 160,000: http://www.victory.mil.ru/war/oper/15.html
• Ervin V. Galantay. Boy Soldier - Budapest 1944-45, Militaria press, Budapest 2005. 319p. With photos, sketches and footnotes.

Notes[link]

1. ^ "The worst suffering of the Hungarian population is due to the rape of women. Rapes—affecting all age groups from ten to seventy are so common that very few women in Hungary have been spared." Swiss embassy report cited in Ungváry 2005, p.350. (Krisztian Ungvary The Siege of Budapest 2005)

References[link]

1. ^ Gasparovich, László (2005). A rettegés ötven napja. HAJJA BOOK KFT.. pp. 286. ISBN 978-963-9037-75-5. http://books.google.com/books?id=tAOgAAAAMAAJ.  (Hungarian)
2. ^ Glantz, David M., and Jonathan House. When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1995. ISBN 0-7006-0899-0) p. 298
3. ^ Krivosheev, G. F. Soviet casualties and combat losses in the Twentieth Century. (London: Greenhill Books, 1997. ISBN 1-85367-280-7) p. 152
4. ^ ^{a b} Krisztián Ungváry, Battle for Budapest: one hundred days in World War II I.B. Tauris, 2006
5. ^ "Hungary - The Unwilling Satellite". http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/montgo/. 
6. ^ http://historyspot.blogspot.com/
7. ^ Deak, István, Endgame in Budapest, Hungarian Quarterly, Autumn 2005
8. ^ St. Clair, Joe (1996). "White Stag History Since 1933". http://whitestag.org/history/history.html. Retrieved 2008-08-03. 
9. ^ ^{a b} Ungvary, Krisztian; Ladislaus Lob, and John Lukacs (April 11, 2005). The siege of Budapest: one hundred days in World War II. Yale University Press. pp. 512. ISBN 0-300-10468-5. 
10. ^ "Budapest - The Stalingrad of the Waffen-SS" by Richard Landwehr
11. ^ Wasserstein, Bernard. "European Refugee Movements After World War Two, BBC history". http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/refugees_02.shtml. 
12. ^ Ther, Philipp (1998). Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene: Gesellschaft und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/ddr und in Polen 1945-1956. ISBN 3-525-35790-7, 9783525357903. 
13. ^ Prauser, Steffen. "The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War". Florence: European University Institute. http://cadmus.iue.it/dspace/bitstream/1814/2599/1/HEC04-01.pdf. 
14. ^ Isaev, A. V. 1945-y. Triumf v nastuplenii i v oborone: ot Vislo-Oderskoy do Balatona/1945th. Triumph both in offence and defence: from Vistula-Oder to Balaton. (Moscow, 2008. ISBN 978-5-9533-3474-7) pp. 196, 199, 201
15. ^ James, Mark. "Remembering Rape: Divided Social Memory and the Red Army in Hungary 1944-1945". Past and Present (Oxford University Press) 188 (August 2005): 133–161. DOI:10.1093/pastj/gti020. ISSN 1477-464X. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/past_and_present/v188/188.1mark.html. 
16. ^ Bessel, Richard; Dirk Schumann (May 5, 2003). Life after death: approaches to a cultural and social history of Europe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 376. ISBN 0-521-00922-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=NilW70Yol74C. 
17. ^ Naimark, Norman M. (1995). The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Cambridge: Belknap. ISBN 0-674-78405-7. 
18. ^ Birstein, Vadim (3 May 2002). "Johnson's Russia List". http://www.cdi.org/Russia/johnson/6225-9.cfm. Retrieved 2009-11-09. 
19. ^ Deseő László naplója (Hungarian)
20. ^ Németh András – Mostohafiak (Hungarian)
21. ^ Pinball Games: Arts of Survival in Nazi and Communist Eras

External links[link]

• World War II: Siege of Budapest

Budapest
—  City  —
From top, left to right: view of the city with the Danube River, lion guarding the Chain Bridge, Heroes' Square, the Parliament Building, Fisherman's Bastion, St. Stephen's Basilica, and a panorama from Gellért Hill with Buda Castle on the left.
Flag Coat of arms
Nickname(s): Heart of Europe, Pearl of Danube, Capital of Freedom, Capital of Spas and Thermal Baths, Capital of Festivals
Location of Budapest in Hungary
Coordinates: 47°28′19″N 19°03′01″E / 47.47194°N 19.05028°E / 47.47194; 19.05028Coordinates: 47°28′19″N 19°03′01″E / 47.47194°N 19.05028°E / 47.47194; 19.05028
Country	Hungary
Region	Central Hungary
Subregion	Budapesti
Unification of Buda, Pest and Óbuda	17 November 1873
Boroughs	23 kerület Várkerület II. kerület Óbuda-Békásmegyer Újpest Belváros-Lipótváros Terézváros Erzsébetváros Józsefváros Ferencváros Kőbánya Újbuda Hegyvidék XIII. kerület Zugló XV. kerület XVI. kerület Rákosmente Pestszentlőrinc-Pestszentimre Kispest Pesterzsébet Csepel Budafok-Tétény Soroksár
Government
• Mayor	István Tarlós (Fidesz-KDNP)
Area
• City	525.16 km2 (202.77 sq mi)
• Urban	2,538 km2 (980 sq mi)
• Metro	7,626 km2 (2,944 sq mi)
Highest elevation	527 m (1,729 ft)
Lowest elevation	96 m (315 ft)
Population (2011)
• City	1,737,000
• Density	3,300/km2 (8,600/sq mi)
• Urban	2,551,247
• Urban density	1,000/km2 (2,600/sq mi)
• Metro	3,284,110
• Metro density	430/km2 (1,100/sq mi)
Demonym	budapesti
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code(s)	1011–1239
Area code	1
ISO 3166 code	HU-BU
Website	budapest.hu touristinfo: [4]

Budapest ( /ˈbuːdəpɛst/, /ˈbuːdəpɛʃt/ or /ˈbʊdəpɛst/; Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈbudɒpɛʃt] ( listen); names in other languages) is the capital and the largest city of Hungary,^[1] the largest in East-Central Europe and the seventh largest in the European Union. It is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre,^[2] sometimes described as the primate city of Hungary.^[3] According to 2011 Census, Budapest had 1.74 million inhabitants,^[4] down from its 1989 peak of 2.1 million^[5] due to suburbanization.^[6] The Budapest Commuter Area is home to 3.3 million people.^[7][8] The city covers an area of 525 square kilometres (202.7 sq mi)^[9] within the city limits. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with a unification on 17 November 1873 of west-bank Buda and Óbuda with east-bank Pest.^[9][10]

The history of Budapest began with Aquincum, originally a Celtic settlement^[11][12] that became the Roman capital of Lower Pannonia.^[11] Hungarians arrived in the territory^[13] in the 9th century. Their first settlement was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241-42.^[14] The re-established town became one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture^[15] in the 15th century.^[16] Following the Battle of Mohács and nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule,^[17] development of the region entered a new age of prosperity in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Budapest became a global city after the 1873 unification.^[18] It also became the second capital of Austria-Hungary, a great power that dissolved in 1918. After the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, when Hungary lost 72% of its former territory, culturally and economically the country became wholly Budapest-dominated. The capital dominates the country both by the size of its population—which dwarfs those of Hungary's other cities^[19] Budapest was the focal point of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, Operation Panzerfaust in 1944, the Battle of Budapest of 1945, and the Revolution of 1956.

Cited as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe,^[1][20][21] its extensive World Heritage Site includes the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrássy Avenue, Heroes' Square and the Millennium Underground Railway, the second oldest in the world.^[20][22] Other highlights include a total of 80 geothermal springs,^[23] the world's largest thermal water cave system,^[24] second largest synagogue, and third largest Parliament building. The city attracts about 2.7 million tourists a year, making it the 37th most popular city in the world according to Euromonitor.^[25]

Considered a financial hub in Central Europe,^[26] the city ranked 3rd (out of 65 cities) on Mastercard's Emerging Markets Index,^[27] and ranked as the most livable Central/Eastern European city on EIU's quality of life index.^[28][29] It is also ranked as "Europe's 7th most idyllic place to live" by Forbes,^[30] and as the 9th most beautiful city in the world by UCityGuides.^[31] It is the highest ranked Central/Eastern European city on Innovation Cities' Top 100 index.^[32][33]

Budapest is home to the headquarters of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT),^[34] and the first foreign office of the China Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA).^[35]

The view[link]

Panorama at night photographed from Gellért Hill, showing from left to right the Matthias Church, Buda Castle, Széchenyi Chain Bridge, Danube Promenade and the Parliament

Etymology[link]

The name "Budapest" is the composition of the city names "Buda" and "Pest", since they were united (together with Óbuda) to become a single city in 1873. One of the first occurrences of the combined name "Buda-Pest" was in 1831 in the book "Világ" ("World" / "Light"), written by Count István Széchenyi.^[36]

The origins of the words "Buda" and "Pest" are obscure. According to chronicles from the Middle Ages, the name "Buda" comes from the name of its founder, Bleda (Buda), the brother of the Hunnic ruler Attila. The theory that "Buda" was named after a person is also supported by modern scholars.^[37] An alternative explanation suggests that "Buda" derives from the Slavic word "вода, voda" ("water"), a translation of the Latin name "Aquincum", which was the main Roman settlement in the region.^[38]

There are also several theories about the origin of the name "Pest". One of the theories^[39] claims that the word "Pest" comes from the Roman times, since there was a fortress "Contra-Aquincum" in this region which was referred to as "Pession" ("Πέσσιον", iii.7.§2) by Ptolemaios.^[40] According to another theory, "Pest" originates from the Slavic word for cave "пещера, peshtera" or from the word for oven "пещ, pesht", in reference to a cave where fires burned or to a local limekiln.^[41] In the old-Hungarian language there was a similar word meaning oven/cave and the original old-German name of this region was also "Ofen". Later, the German "Ofen" referred to the Buda side.

History[link]

Buda Castle during the Middle Ages.

The first settlement on the territory of Budapest was built by Celts^[11] before 1 AD. It was later occupied by the Romans. The Roman settlement - Aquincum - became the main city of Lower Pannonia^[11] in 106 AD.^[11] The Romans constructed roads, amphitheaters, baths and houses with heated floors in this fortified military camp.^[42]

The peace treaty of 829 added Pannonia to Bulgaria due to the victory of Bulgarian army of Omurtag over the Holy Roman Empire of Louis the Pious. Budapest arose out of two Bulgarian military frontiers, fortresses Buda and Pest, situated on the two banks of Danube.^[43] Hungarians led by Árpád settled in the territory at the end of the 9th century,^[13][44] and a century later officially founded the Kingdom of Hungary.^[13] Research places the probable residence of the Árpáds as an early place of central power near what became Budapest.^[45] The Tatar invasion in the 13th century quickly proved that defence is difficult on a plain.^[9][13] King Béla IV of Hungary therefore ordered the construction of reinforced stone walls around the towns^[13] and set his own royal palace^[14] on the top of the protecting hills of Buda. In 1361^[14] it became the capital of Hungary.^[9]

The cultural role of Buda was particularly significant during the reign of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary.^[9] The Italian Renaissance had a great influence on the city.^[9] His library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana,^[9] was Europe's greatest collection of historical chronicles and philosophic and scientific works in the 15th century, and second only in size to the Vatican Library.^[9] After the foundation of the first Hungarian university in Pécs in 1367,^[46] the second one was established in Óbuda in 1395.^[46] The first Hungarian book was printed in Buda in 1473.^[47] Buda had about 5,000 inhabitants around 1500.^[48]

The Ottomans pillaged Buda in 1526, besieged it in 1529, and finally occupied it in 1541. The Turkish occupation lasted for more than 140 years.^[9] The Turks constructed many fine bathing facilities within the city.^[13] Under Ottoman rule many Christians became Muslim. By 1547 the number of Christians was down to about a thousand, and by 1647 it had fallen to only about seventy.^[48] The unoccupied western part of the country became part of the Habsburg Empire as Royal Hungary.

In 1686, two years after the unsuccessful siege of Buda, a renewed campaign was started to enter the Hungarian capital. This time, the Holy League's army was twice as large, containing over 74,000 men, including German, Croat, Dutch, Hungarian, English, Spanish, Czech, Italian, French, Burgundian, Danish and Swedish soldiers, along with other Europeans as volunteers, artilleryman, and officers, the Christian forces reconquered Buda, and in the next few years, all of the former Hungarian lands, except areas near Timişoara (Temesvár), were taken from the Turks. In the 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz these territorial changes were officially recognized, and in 1718 the entire Kingdom of Hungary was removed from Ottoman rule.

The city was destroyed during the battle.^[9] Hungary was then incorporated into the Habsburg Empire.^[9]

The 19th century was dominated by the Hungarian struggle for independence^[9] and modernization. The national insurrection against the Habsburgs began in the Hungarian capital in 1848 and was defeated a little more than a year later.

1867 was the year of Reconciliation that brought about the birth of Austria-Hungary.

Cutaway Drawing of Millennium Underground in Budapest (1894–1896) which was the second underground in the world.

Hungarian Royal Palace in 1930.

During the Hungarian Republic of Councils in 1919, the Heroes' Square was completely covered by red textile and a statue of Marx was erected.

This made Budapest the twin capital of a dual monarchy. It was this compromise which opened the second great phase of development in the history of Budapest, lasting until World War I. In 1873 Buda and Pest were officially merged with the third part, Óbuda (Ancient Buda), thus creating the new metropolis of Budapest. The dynamic Pest grew into the country's administrative, political, economic, trade and cultural hub. Ethnic Hungarians overtook Germans in the second half of the 19th century due to mass migration from the overpopulated rural Transdanubia and Great Hungarian Plain. Between 1851 and 1910 proportion of Hungarians increased from 35.6% to 85.9%, Hungarian became the dominant language, German was crowded out. Proportion of Jews peaked in 1900 with 23.6%.^[49][50][51] Due to the prosperity and the large Jewish community of the city at the turn of the century, Budapest was often called the "Jewish Mecca"^[52]

In 1918 Austria-Hungary lost the war and collapsed; Hungary declared itself an independent republic. In 1920 the Treaty of Trianon finalized the country's partition, as a result, Hungary lost over two-thirds of its territory, about two-thirds of its inhabitants under the treaty including 3.3 million out of 10 million ethnic Hungarians.^[53][54]

In 1944, towards the end of World War II, Budapest was partly destroyed by British and American air raids. From 24 December 1944 to 13 February 1945, the city was besieged during the Battle of Budapest. Budapest suffered major damage caused by the attacking Soviet and Romanian troops and the defending German and Hungarian troops. All bridges were destroyed by the Germans. More than 38,000 civilians lost their lives during the conflict.

Hungarian Jewish WWII Memorial

Between 20% and 40% of Greater Budapest's 250,000 Jewish inhabitants died through Nazi and Arrow Cross Party genocide during 1944 and early 1945.^[55] The Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg managed to save the lives of tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest by giving them Swedish passports and taking them under his consular protection.^[56]

In 1949, Hungary was declared a communist People's Republic. The new Communist government considered the buildings like the Buda Castle symbols of the former regime, and during the 1950s the palace was gutted and all the interiors were destroyed.

In 1956, peaceful demonstrations in Budapest led to the outbreak of the Hungarian Revolution. The Leadership collapsed after mass demonstrations began on 23 October, but Soviet tanks entered Budapest to crush the revolt. Fighting continued until early November, leaving more than 3000 dead.

From the 1960s to the late 1980s Hungary was often satirically referred to as "the happiest barrack" within the Eastern bloc, and much of the wartime damage to the city was finally repaired. Work on Erzsébet Bridge, the last to be rebuilt, was finished in 1964. In the early 1970s, Budapest Metro's East-West M2 line was first opened, followed by the M3 line in 1982. In 1987, Buda Castle and the banks of the Danube were included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Andrassy Avenue (including the Millennium Underground Railway, Hősök tere and Városliget) was added to the UNESCO list in 2002. In the 1980s the city's population reached 2.1 million. In recent times a significant decrease in population occurred mainly due to a massive movement to the neighbouring agglomeration in Pest county. In the last decades of the 20th century the political changes of 1989-90 concealed changes in civil society and along the streets of Budapest. The monuments of the dictatorship were taken down from public places, into Memento Park. In the first 20 years of the new democracy the development of the city was managed by Gábor Demszky.

Timeline of the history of Budapest[link]

Aquincum Museum (Aquincum was the capital of Pannonia.)

The tomb of the Turkish dervish Gül Baba in Budapest

The Recapture of Buda Castle (1686)

Buda and Pest (c. 1850)

Budapest view from observatory (c. 1840), Drawing by W.H. Bartlett

Andrássy Avenue (1875)

Buda Castle

Parliament Building

Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Gresham Palace

Gerbeaud Confectionery

Geography[link]

Budapest as seen from SPOT satellite.

The 525 km² area of Budapest lies in central Hungary surrounded by settlements of the agglomeration in Pest county. The capital extends 25 and 29 kilometers in the north-south, east-west direction respectively. The Danube enters the city from the north; later it encircles two islands, Óbuda Island and Margaret Island.^[9] The third island Csepel Island is the largest of the Budapest Danube islands, however only its northernmost tip is within city limits. The river that separates the two parts of the city is only 230 m (755 ft) wide at its narrowest point in Budapest. Pest lies on the flat terrain of the Great Plain while Buda is rather hilly.^[9] Pest's terrain rises with a slight eastward gradient, so the easternmost parts of the city lie at the same altitude as Buda's smallest hills, notably Gellért Hill and Castle Hill. The Buda hills consist mainly of limestone and dolomite, the water created speleothems, the most famous ones being the Pálvölgyi cave and the Szemlőhegyi cave. The hills were formed in the Triassic Era. The highest point of the hills and of Budapest is János hill, at 527 metres (1,729 ft) above sea level. The lowest point is the line of the Danube which is 96 metres (315 ft) above sea level. The forests of Buda hills are environmentally protected.

Climate[link]

The city has a temperate, transitional climate - somewhere between the mild, snowy weather of Transdanubia, the variable continental climate of the flat and open Great Plain to the east and the almost sub-Mediterranean weather of the south.^[62]