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All Hungary Budapest Magyar Rádió

Magyar Rádió

This quiet, unassuming spot in Budapest was the birthplace of the bloody 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

Budapest, Hungary

Added By
allisonkc
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Magyar Rádió  
Magyar Rádió  
Memorial plaque on the exterior of the Magyar Rádió Building.   Fekist/cc by-sa 3.0
Memorial plaque on the exterior of the Magyar Rádió Building.   Fekist/cc by-sa 3.0
The bullet-hole ridden exterior of the Magyar Rádió Building after the 1956 Revolution.   FOTO:FORTEPAN/Nagy Gyula/cc by-sa 3.0
  matthewmetcalfe / Atlas Obscura User
The Magyar Rádió Building and Sándor Bródy Street in 1934.   FOTO:FORTEPAN/Kiss Gábor Zoltán/cc by-sa 3.0
Woman standing next to a burned-out vehicle on Sándor Bródy Street after the revolution.   FOTO:Fortepan — ID 15270: Adományozó/Donor: Pesti Srác.
Burned-out jeeps on Sándor Bródy Street after the revolution.   FOTO:FORTEPAN/Pesti Srác/cc by-sa 3.0
The heavily damaged Magyar Rádió Building after the revolution.   FOTO:FORTEPAN/Nagy Gyula/cc by-sa 3.0
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About

Located along the tiny, one-way Sándor Bródy Street, Budapest’s Magyar Rádió Building (also known as Radio Budapest) is somewhat secluded from the city’s more bustling thoroughfares. In this tranquil area, casual passersby could easily be unaware of the momentous history behind the radio building.

On October the 23, 1956, massive anti-Soviet protests organized by local university students rocked the Hungarian capital. What began as a peaceful demonstration turned into an all-out revolution.

Throughout the day, thousands of protesters crammed themselves into Sándor Bródy Street, descending upon the Magyar Rádió Station. A group of students and their sympathizers were determined to broadcast their views over the airwaves, demanding Hungarian autonomy and an end to Soviet control. The crowd was excited and noisy, but peaceful.

Conflict at the radio station had been anticipated, so members of the Hungarian secret police were already stationed there, armed with machine guns and tear gas. As tensions mounted, however, the crowd of demonstrators was ultimately fired upon by trigger-happy policemen, killing three students and injuring two as they fled.

A unit of the Hungarian Army was soon called in to assist the police, but when the soldiers arrived at the radio station to see policemen attacking the unarmed protesters, many defied orders by refusing to fire upon the crowd—and instead began shooting at the secret police.

With news of the shootings at the Magyar Rádió Station, other demonstrators across the city began to take up arms, raiding ammunition depots and being directly supplied with weapons by the Hungarian Army. Soon, riots began in other Hungarian cities until the whole country was embroiled in the revolt.

After 12 days of fighting, Soviet reinforcements from Moscow ultimately crushed the uprising, in which an estimated 2,500 Hungarians died and an additional 20,000 were wounded.

Despite the destruction wreaked upon downtown Budapest over the course of the fighting, the Magyar Rádió Building still stood when the revolution ended. The building’s façade has long since been repaired and no longer bears scars from bullets. With the exception of two small, easily overlookable plaques on the exterior of the building, no evidence remains that such a violent clash ever occurred here.

Related Tags

Soviet History Revolution Plaques Radio

Know Before You Go

You can walk by the building at any time.

Community Contributors

Added By

allisonkc

Edited By

matthewmetcalfe, jonathancarey

  • matthewmetcalfe
  • jonathancarey

Published

January 23, 2019

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Sources
  • Lendvai, Paul (2008). One Day That Shook the Communist World: The 1956 Hungarian Uprising and Its Legacy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP.
  • Sebestyen, Victor (2006). Twelve Days: Revolution 1956 : How the Hungarians Tried to Topple Their Soviet Masters. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956
Magyar Rádió
5-7 Bródy Sándor u.
Budapest
Hungary
47.492324, 19.064472
Get Directions

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