The Galileo Circle (Galilei Kör) was an atheist-materialist student organization that functioned in Budapest between 1908 and 1919. Their center was located at the Anker Köz in Terézváros, Budapest.^[1] The circle had several subgroups with four different world views: the radical liberals (they called themselves as "radical democrats"), the Marxists (they called it as "Revolutionary Socialists"), the anarcho-syndicalists and the socialists (social democrats). However they had common goals, which included the protection of free scientific research and thinking at universities, the cultivation of social sciences, the social assistance of poor students, the spread of anti-clericalist and atheist views, the support of anti-nationalism and promoting internationalism, the propagation of anti-alcoholism, the opposition to large estates and the "reorientation of Hungarian social perception".

The circle was founded on November 22, 1908.^[3] This was in response to the attacks on Gyula Pikler, a social scientist who had suggested that the nation was a social phenomenon which arose through a social and historical process, rather than an eternal entity. This led to him being attacked by Hungarian Christian nationalists.^[3] It claimed to be specifically apolitical and declared itself in favour of self-education and science. Endre Ady described the galilesists as the 'young army of Fever', dedicating various poems to the Circle. Oszkár Jászi thought the galileists would help lead Hungary from 'the Balkans into Western Europe'.^[1]

The organisation was banned in January, 1918, a period of labour unrest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However following the Aster Revolution in October 1918 it was relaunched. It was finally dissolved on 21 March, shortly following the establishment of the Hungarian Soviet Republic.^[1]

The circle published Szabadgondolat.^[4] The Sonntagskreis was a senior sister organization of Galileo Circle, but its membership required at least a finished university degree. However the Sonntagskreis preferred rather the membership of scholars.

In the interwar period, following the dissolution of the Circle, Hungarian conservative intellectuals criticised the Galileists for having instigated the Aster Revolution, their contribution in the disarmament of the Hungarian army when other nations started to claim large territories from Hungary, their activity led to the tragic events of the Hungarian Soviet Republic and for being responsible for the decisions of the Treaty of Trianon, which resulted in the loss of 70% of the pre-war territory of Hungary and 64% of the pre-WW1 era population.^[5]

In Kingdom of Hungary, the universities were church-founded institutions from the Middle Ages until the last quarter of the 19th century. Initially, in the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church, then after the Reformation, the Protestant churches also founded their own universities. The state did not have any universities, with the exception of a military academy and a few engineering universities from the 18th century. A radical change that broke the monopoly of churches on the fields of humanities came at the last quarter of the 19th century, when one after another state-funded colleges and universities appeared. Despite the vehement protests of Catholic and Protestant church leaders of the country, these universities offered courses in the humanities, where the traditional religious philosophies were completely eclipsed. Referring to the autonomy of the universities, these new state-financed educational institutions also offered wide degree of freedom for the materialist and evolutionist worldviews. The churches, however, did not let go of their monopoly over the humanities, and began to organise religious students into communities to counter what they called "modern anti-Christian philosophical and moral views" in the state-financed public universities.

"My aim is to eradicate such petty notions as homeland and nation from your hearts."

— Lecture by Gyula Pikler, full professor of philosophy of law, 1901^[6]

The civic-radical currents that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century were a new phenomenon in both scientific and political life, as they tried to use the results of sociology and positivism, which were new at the time, to achieve their political and social goals.^[7]

The 'crucifix-fights' were about whether crucifixes could remain in state educational institutions after the separation of church and state at the end of the 19th century, and a provocative action in 1900 (a plaster crucifix was knocked down from a Holy Crown relief at the University of Budapest by unknown perpetrators) led to a "war of cultures" in the public life of the universities in Budapest. If we simplify what happened, the members of the Catholic St Imre Circle, founded in 1900, repeatedly placed crucifixes in demonstrative places during their 'crucifix actions', which were taken down by secularisationists; the former were mocked as 'the clericals', the latter were often mocked simply as 'the Jews', - because of their ethnic background -, and the opposing parties often hit each other, causing grievous bodily harms. During the 'Pikler riots' in the autumn of 1907, the phenomenon of campus violence reached its zenith. The focal point of the unrest was Gyula Pikler, a distinguished professor of philosophy of law at the university and the esteemed leader of the entirely radical Social Science Society at that time. Pikler faced a vicious attack due to his intellectually stimulating theory. In direct contradiction to the prevailing notions of natural law during that era, Pikler advocated a perspective founded on an evolutionary-historical materialist framework. He argued that the origin of nations, states, and laws did not stem from a divine truth, but rather emerged as a response to human needs. Consequently, he posited that the structure of governance and legal systems ought to be molded in accordance with the economic and societal requirements and interests of the period, rather than adhering rigidly to tradition. Of all Pikler's statements, those concerning the nature of nations elicited the most vehement response. According to his views, nations, including the Hungarian nation, were not immutable entities. Instead, they arose in response to the demands of a particular era, when human needs necessitated forms of organization and association beyond those of tribes or clans. In alignment with this evolutionary logic, Pikler predicted that a time would come in the future when nations would be superseded by larger units and organizational structures, ultimately leading to the establishment of a global state—a long-awaited harbinger of enduring peace..^[3]

On 23 January 1901, intellectuals, mostly with lawyer / legal qualifications, founded the Hungarian Social Science Society,^[8] whose aim was sociology, social psychology and practical social policy. It was directed by social scientist Oszkár Jászi, professor of law Gyula Pikler, Bódog Somló student and Róbert Braun student.^[9] From 1904, the newspaper "Világ" was published for three years. The paper was self-described as "a popular scientific journal for freethinkers, atheists, materialists, monists, socialists, and labour movement activists".^[10][11] Oszkár Jászi's manifesto was published in 1907 under the title "'Towards the New Hungary'", in which he triumphantly proclaims that "The clericalized nationalism is in its final hours, and in the air cleansed by the knowledge of natural science, and the economic organization of the proletariat, the workers' democracy of the self-conscious peoples is growing and strengthening day by day".^[12][13] By this time, Jászi had already become the intellectual leader of Hungarian progressivism and bourgeois radicalism.^[14] From 1906 onwards, the Society for Social Sciences became more and more concerned with the topics of current actual political dialogue instead of their earlier theoretical centered questions, therefore they founded the Civic Radical Party in 1914.^[15]

The Galileo Circle was founded around and under the influence of Gyula Pikler, atheist-evolutionist full professor of philosophy of law, in Budapest on November 22, 1908 , and was joined by intellectuals, mainly of the extreme left-wing persuasion. The student circle was inspired by their ideological opponents: the national-Christian university and college associations, such as the Catholic St. Imre Circle,^[16] and the Protestant Gabriel Bethlen Circle^[17] and the Zionist students from the Maccabean Circle.^[18]

The right-wing university youth tried to discredit the professor by disrupting Pikler's lectures and by protesting. Professor Pikler's harassment became a political issue for the Christian right-wing parties that were forming at national level.^[19] From the student groups of the "progressive" left-wing university youth, organised in defence of the jurist professor,^[20] the Galilei Circle grew and was founded, with the support of the Hungarian Association of Free Thinkers, on 22 November 1908. Originally, the circle was to be named after Professor Pikler, however the professor suggested the name "Galileo Galilei", the hero of the "eppur si muove" metaphor, who stood up for the truth of science.^[21] "Because Galileo is perhaps the founder of modern science".

"The Galilei Circle, the League of Electoral Rights, the Reform Club, etc., are all creations of the radical Freemasonry, which already play a significant role in our difficult work of redefining Hungarian social perception. It is time to check the power of the clerical reaction. The religious university congregations will be counterbalanced in the future by free-spirited, modern-minded youth associations and boarding schools...

— Szalai Pál: Alkotó és romboló munka a szabadkőművességben, Budapest, 1911. György Károlyi book printing house^[22]

By the end of the first school year, 1908/1909, membership had reached nineteen hundred. Later, the number of members fluctuated between one thousand and one thousand and one hundred. The membership fee was one crown per semester.

In 1910, the students bought an apartment on the second floor of the building at Anker köz 2-4 for the purpose of organising discussion clubs, reading evenings and self-study circles in European and Hungarian legal history, philosophy, sociology and political science, and psychology. But soon the membership grew so much that the large apartment was not big enough for them, so Ervin Szabó - the director of the main library in Budapest - came to their help and offered several large reading rooms in the large library at certain regular times for the Galileo Circle's purposes. After that, the apartment served only as a central meeting place for the circle's organisers and leadership.

Ernst Mach had the greatest influence on the formation of the Galilean worldview in the natural sciences, which was built on the absolutization of the concept of experience ("We cannot even think about the phenomena that cannot be proven by experience," wrote young Polanyi). They were also the first promoters of the Works of Zigmund Freud in Hungary.

Mach's name shows that the Galivists were strongly cultivated by the strong cultivation of the natural sciences, among whom engineering and medical students were over-represented compared to the more traditional student associations usually dominated by legal students, historians and literary teachers.

They also organized workers' matinees, performing excerpts from the works of Gorky and Zola to blue-collar worker audiences, who they not only wanted to raise proletarian consciousness through their performances, but also to discourage workers' alcoholism through their anti-alcoholic propaganda. Not only for health reasons, but also because, they thought, they can't fight in the class struggle with alcoholic workers. In the early 1910s, the Galilei Circle also became more closely associated with the Hungarian Social Democratic Party, and by taking part in the organized demonstration for general suffrage on 23 May 1912, thus their circle had given up its previously proclaimed apolitical position.^[3]

The first president of the circle was Károly Polányi, who also edited the circle's journal, "Szabadgondolat" (Free Thought).^[23] The journal Szabadgondolat regularly published articles by the famous poet Endre Ady. "The Galilei Circle, I am sorry, when it was formed, perhaps did not even suspect that it was undertaking such a grandiose task, compared to which even the Russian student youth might find consolation or sick despair, he wrote enthusiastically in November 1913.^[24]

The organisation was still striving for apoliticalism, but it was supported by the organisations of the progressive bourgeois intelligentsia, some leaders of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party and Ervin Szabó, the most outstanding Hungarian expert on Marxism, who had already left the Social Democratic Party. Ervin Szabó was convinced that a profound transformation of the Hungarian social order could not be achieved through the traditional parliamentary elections due to the limited suffrage.^[25]

At one time, young Mátyás Rákosi, Ottó Korvin and József Pogány were also secretaries of the circle.^[26] One of its founders was György Lukács philosopher, later deputy People's Commissar for Public Education in the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The president and leading personalities of the student association were László Rubin, Sándor Turnowsky, László Gyulai, Zsigmond Kende, Artúr Dukesz.^[27] At the association's celebrations, the famous poet Endre Ady would sometimes speak, recite and praised the "fierce but never ordinary, spiritual but militant solidarity" between the members of the circle. A member and popular lecturer of the Galilei Circle was Oszkár Faber, who was the chairman of the National Religious Liquidation Committee during the Hungarian Soviet Republic after the World War.^[28][29]

• Wilhelm Ostwald (1912),
• Villem Ernits,
• Mihály Babits,
• Béla Balázs,
• Frigyes Karinthy,
• Tivadar Sugár,
• Károly Polányi

Works of

• Karl Liebknecht,
• Norman Angell,
• George Bernard Shaw,
• Jean Jaurès,
• Gustave Hervé.^[48]

The participants included:^[1][49]

• Sándor Barta
• Therese Benedek^[50]
• Ștefan Foriș
• György Lukács
• Ottó Korvin
• Karl Mannheim
• Karl Polányi
• Michael Polanyi
• György Pólya
• Mátyás Rákosi
• József Révai
• Zsigmond Kunfi
• Jenő Varga