Additions to the History of the Creation of the „Danube Border” II. Parallels and Differences at Certain Stages in the Lives of Two Central European Geographers

One of the cornerstones of the Czechoslovak peace delegation’s territorial claims against Hungary at the Paris peace talks at the end of the First World War was the securing of the new state’s ‘Danube border’ as its territorial claims against Hungary. The Czechoslovak negotiating delegation’s geography expert, Viktor Dvorský, played a decisive role in laying the geographical foundations for the system of arguments used to support this claim. Years later, his system of arguments was evaluated by Gyula Prinz, a Hungarian who was his contemporary, in a unique approach. Although the two young geographers were considered to be “propmen” in the tide of the events of 1918/19, their professional knowledge had a decisive influence on the processes in certain cases, albeit in different ways, and their figures appear in contemporary documents. A detailed presentation and analysis of two such documents will shed more light on and clarify their role in the events of the time. By comparing the biographies of the two prominent Czech and Hungarian geographers of the post-World War I period and by presenting in more detail the major stages of their careers, parallels can be drawn which will provide a framework for further analyses which will clarify and specify the extent to which, and the way in which the Hungarian and Slovakian geographers differ in their treatment and interpretation of this issue of great importance in their common history.