New hope for the Georg Lukács Archive in Budapest and the legacy of the Marxist philosopher

The young Georg Lukács in 1913

By Rüdiger Dannemann. Neues Deutschland / ND Online, October 30, 2025. Translated by Helmut-Harry Loewen.

Georg Lukács died in 1971. In the same year, the archive of the Hungarian philosopher and founder of Western Marxism was established in his apartment in Budapest. For decades, it served as a gateway and resource to his work and thus to fundamental questions of Marxist theory. This institution has now been closed for over 2,700 days. Its decline began with the change of government in Hungary in 2010. A year later, Japanese scholars wrote in a “Declaration on the Crisis Situation in Hungary” following Viktor Orbán's renewed victory: “We are also concerned about the future of the Lukács Archive.” They called for its preservation “and the protection of its independent scholarly activity.”

When, in the same year, the International Georg Lukács Society (IGLG) published an urgent appeal against measures already being taken at that time — those affected spoke of a “rampage” — against the archive and its employees, there was a strong demonstration of solidarity. Scholars and authors from around the world, including Iring Fetscher, Timothy Hall, Wolfgang Fritz Haug, Axel Honneth, Michael Löwy, Oskar Negt, Nicolas Tertulian, and Michael J. Thompson, appealed to the then director of the archive and the president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences with a “request for clarification and the withdrawal of all restrictive measures.”

A satisfactory resolution ruled out

Protests by the international scientific community had the effect of delaying the end, but ultimately they remained unsuccessful. Encouraged by the international wave of protest, the International Lukács Archive Foundation (LANA) was founded in Budapest in 2016 by university professors, editors of the journal Eszmélet, and former employees of the Lukács Archive. The foundation was a response to the decision by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' to eliminate the archive.

Nevertheless, in May 2018, the archive was de facto closed and Lukács' important estate was removed, provoking an even greater international storm of protest. Even the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reported on it. At around the same time, the Lukács monument in Szent István Park was dismantled. There were increasing signs that the philosopher's library, which remained in Lukács' apartment on the Danube, would also be removed, thus sealing the fate of the archive, especially as the condition of the virtually unused archive was noticeably deteriorating.

In December 2024, Franck Fischbach (Sorbonne) and other French colleagues intervened against the impending sale of the historic apartment where Lukács had once engaged in discussions with Agnes Heller and the other members of the Budapest School. Rudi Dutschke had sought advice from the old revolutionary here during the student revolt. A happy ending seemed out of the question.

But there is still hope

There are now actually positive developments to report in the case of the Lukács Archive in Budapest. After bitter years of closure and decline, the archive is expected to continue its work in a new institutional framework, namely under the administration of the Budapest City Archives. The Green-Left city government plans to take over the Lukács apartment, where the archive is located, from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and its library. To this end, the right to rent the apartment has been acquired. The city’s goal is to renovate the apartment at Belgrád Rakpart 2 and make it accessible to the scholarly community again so that the legacy of Lukács and his students can be preserved.

The fact that the Budapest City Archives has taken over György Lukács' apartment is good news for the international scientific community, which had long protested against the closure of the archives in Victor Orbán's Hungary. However, there is a downside. Although the municipal archives have succeeded in acquiring Lukács' library from the academy, Lukács' documents — his manuscripts, letters, and photos — unfortunately remain in the academy's library. There is still much to be done in other areas as well. The renovation of Lukács' apartment, scheduled for 2026, will be a major undertaking for the financially strapped city of Budapest, which is unpopular with Orbán.

As László Gergely Szücs from the city archives emphasizes, Lukács' study will be renovated and opened to visitors first, while the other parts of the apartment will host programs, university seminars, debates, book launches, and exhibitions on Lukács and the Budapest School. Opening it as a research centre with its own staff is not yet on the agenda, but both LANA and the city archives are committed to taking steps toward operating it as a research centre.

Even though Miklós Mesterházi, research assistant at the archives from 1978 to 2015 and member of the LANA board of trustees, does not want to speak of a happy ending without reservation in view of the difficulties, he views the prospect with some optimism. The institutional structure that has now been decided upon promises “the dignified preservation of and research access to the intellectual heritage of the world-famous philosopher after a long time.” This is because the Lukács apartment on the banks of the Danube is to become a centre for academic workshops on Lukács and his school, complementing the current “Budapest School Project.”

Szücs, who is also the director of the Budapest School archive currently under construction, also sees opportunities for an international conference on the Budapest School in 2027. Szücs hopes that the resurrected Lukács archive could then be part of and a venue for this conference with symbolic value, whether Orbán likes it or not.

Preserving memory

Positive signals regarding the reception of Lukács have also come from Heidelberg in recent days. On October 21, the city where the young Lukács caused a sensation together with Ernst Bloch in the Max Weber Circle and wrote his classic “The Theory of the Novel” celebrated Georg Lukács Day. This event was supported by the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Philosophy Student Council, the Doctoral Forum, and the municipal cultural office. The initiative for this event was taken by Hassan Maarfi Poor, a Kurdish-Iranian doctoral student.

Axel Honneth, a social philosopher and third generation critical theorist, emphasized the significance of the event in an address commemorating Lukács' stay and work in Heidelberg in light of attacks on his legacy in Hungary: “It was here that the young student, in constant exchange with Max Weber, gathered his most powerful theoretical impressions; it was here that he laid the philosophical foundation for his later work. Let us be glad that it is still possible in Germany to preserve the memory of the challenging legacy of a rebellious spirit.” Nothing more needs to be added to that.

Photo: The statue of renowned Marxist philosopher György (Georg) Lukács (1885-1971) was removed on 28 March 2017 from Saint Stephen’s park in the 13th district of Budapest. The sculpture, commissioned by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and made by sculptor Imre Varga in 1985, was erected to honour Lukács for his contributions to philosophy. The removal of the Lukács statue was approved by the Fidesz-dominated Budapest City Council following a proposal from the fascist Jobbik party. Photo credit: Le monde (March 2017).

Original article. Herausfordernde Hinterlassenschaft. Es gibt es neue Hoffnung für das Georg-Lukács-Archiv in Budapest und das Erbe des marxistischen Philosophen. Rüdiger Dannemann. ND Online, 30.10.2025. Dr. Dannemann heads the International Georg Lukács Society.