This study examines the developments of the church-policy struggles that unfolded in Veszprém County between 1890 and 1895—that is, the local impact of the sequence of events often referred to as the “Hungarian Kulturkampf.” The analysis focuses, first, on interdenominational relations and the conflicts between Catholics and the Protestant minority, and second, on the ways in which the dynamics of the church-policy struggles reshaped the lines of political confrontation within the scenes of the county’s public life. The sources analyzed indicate that the debates over long-postponed but finally tabled liberal reforms resonated strongly across the forums of public life in Veszprém County: both the town and the county authorities took positions on them, as did the various local newspapers of differing political orientations and the ecclesiastical actors themselves. Moreover, at the height of the confrontations in 1893–1894, the strife mobilized increasingly broad segments of society. Popular assemblies, demonstrations, collective declarations, and public statements of confidence and no-confidence issued in relation to parliamentary representatives all testify to this.
After 1890, both Catholic and Protestant sources reported a rekindling of denominational hostilities, and the clergy themselves—Catholic and Reformed alike—often spoke in a markedly hostile tone about the opposing denomination, even in the public forum of the press. Sentiments and prejudices rooted in centuries-old antagonisms and mutual suspicion were thus reactivated amid the heat of church-policy conflict. The Diocese of Veszprém at this time was headed by a prelate representing a strict Catholic outlook and associated with the “ultramontane” wing of the upper clergy. He confronted the church-policy ambitions of the liberal forces with considerable vigor, although episcopal authority ultimately proved ineffective in the political struggles within Veszprém County and the city of Veszprém. On the Protestant side, however, both the ecclesiastical leadership and the pastor-authors of the Protestant newspaper published in Pápa represented the outlook of the liberal Protestants—supportive, in principle though not without reservations, of reform—thus endorsing liberal legislation.
Meanwhile, among the liberal elites, the issue of church-policy reform rose above denominational perspectives as well as the longstanding party-political divisions connected to the constitutional system established in 1867. In this period, too, the forces of public life in Veszprém County did not organize along the usual constitutional fault lines: the barriers that had separated liberals on the government side from those in the constitutional opposition for decades began to crack, making it possible to identify several instances of cooperation and joint action as the “Kulturkampf” clashes played out.