An Anti-church Phenomenon in the Capital of Catholicism

The Anti-clerical Articles of Egri Munkás (1910–1911)

Abstract

The social democratic labour movement appeared in Eger a few years before the First World War. The population of the city was largely Roman Catholic, and the clergy had a great influence on the social and economic life and cultural relations of the Catholic church centre. As a result, the conflict between the progressive socialist movement and the conservative clerics intensified. The influential clerics supported separate Christian socialist movements to weaken the social democrats, and in the age of dualism, ideological conflicts can be found throughout the local press, including in the paper Egri Munkás published between 1910 and 1911. This newspaper shows the anti-church criticism of the socialist movement but also informs about specific local events and shows the complex character of the labour movement.