1945

Prostitution in Budapest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

As in other parts of Europe, in Austria-Hungary prostitution during the nineteenth century was recognized by reformers and “respectable” society as a phenomenon of massive proportions and a cause for alarm. The perception of the nature of prostitution, the underlying social and cultural factors fostering it, as well as its consequences for the social order were also similar to those in other parts of Europe. Prostitution was seen as a necessary evil that could not be eradicated, and its apparent unprecedented expansion to the public spaces of Budapest and Vienna was considered a natural consequence of particularly rapid urbanization. Regulationism predominated over other approaches as government policy. Naturally, the exact nature of the policies that were implemented was shaped by local traditions of municipal governance and the police, and by cultural norms. In comparison with Vienna, which was a Catholic stronghold and where attempts at introducing regulatory norms and legislation were for decades strongly opposed by the clerical elite that saw it as a policy of “legalizing the whores”, late nineteenth-century Hungary and its capital city traditionally practised a much more laissez-faire attitude in line with other initiatives of the Transleithania’s ruling liberal government. Thus while the system of regulation was similar to that of Cisleithania, enforcement of the regulation was different in the sense that the Hungarian authorities were given fewer powers of coercion and control.

Related Subject(s): Migration ; Women and Gender Issues
Countries: Hungary
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