Martians and Hungarian Geniuses Admired by the World

Dozens of Nobel laureates and at least another thousand years await Hungary.

Miklos Szantho, head of the Center for Fundamental Rights, giving a speech at the opening of the 'Martians - Hungarian Scientists and Nobel Laureates' exhibit in Budapest (Photo: Zoltan Havran)

Martians. With this unconventional title and well-timed symbolism, the exhibition opening connects the greatness of Hungarian scientists with that of Saint Stephen of Hungary, our state-founding king. To all of them we owe not only the existence of the Hungarian state, but — as the careers of many of our Nobel Prize-winners forced abroad illustrate — the success of a Hungarian nation that knows no borders or obstacles.

Among our national greats, most thankfully worked, researched or fought for Hungary here at home. Yet for many, emigration became their only path — typically during times when an empire tried to absorb us. But proportionally, the greater the pressure, the greater the scientific achievements of our people — and fortunately, the empire-builders’ success was far smaller than the contribution of our scientists.

And what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

One of our Nobel laureates, Imre Kertesz, was right when he said that the Hungarian people gained “immeasurable knowledge through immeasurable suffering.” And we can only imagine how much greater scientific and political success might have been ours had Hungary’s history been defined not by suffering, but by peace and security.

It is precisely because our past is marked by heroes — often wartime heroes or scientists fleeing wars — that we truly value a life without war. And today, once again, we long for peace and security, knowing that in this, our American friends stand with us.

The same truth was already understood by King Stephen, and later by great statesmen from Louis the Great to Stephen Szechenyi to Istvan Bethlen: to “inspire, create, and enrich, so that the homeland may shine in glory,” requires not only peace and security, but also a balance of faith and wisdom, faith and knowledge, faith and reason.

The exhibition we open today — a traveling showcase of Hungary's scientific giants — is rooted in this truth. On the eve of the celebration of Christian Hungarian statehood, it reminds the world that for over a thousand years a small nation, speaking a language that to foreign ears might well sound Martian, has produced a stunning number of Nobel Prize laureates. That is itself a miracle — and yet a fact. But when the balance between faith and science breaks down — usually to the detriment of faith — both suffer, and tragedy follows.

Colonel Ferenc Koszorus, though neither a politician nor a scientist, but a simple patriot who saved Budapest’s Jewish community in 1944, wrote in his memoirs: “The root of our troubles is found in the moments when people dared to proclaim the denial of God. And those troubles turned into corruption and into humanity’s ruin when the denial of God was institutionalized.”

The celebration of evil, the cynical mocking of good — these are merely the consequences of our age. An age that fancies itself the most advanced in terms of information and communication, yet whose everyday discourse has never been more primitive. Sadly — echoing the darkest memories of our history — today too there are those who dress up evil as good, present empty promises as plans, justify lies retroactively as truth, and who cannot be accused of treason only because, apart from their surname, nothing else suggests Hungary is truly their homeland.

Yet even in this so-called post-truth era, the task of both politician and scientist remains the same: to stand for truth and for the homeland. To affirm that knowledge is God’s gift; that He set boundaries for the nations; that He created us man and woman; and that peace is good.

If we walk this path — if we look simultaneously to our kings and our “Martians,” to King Saint Stephen of Hungary and to Katalin Kariko — then not only our homeland, but the world itself will shine in glory. And for Hungary, dozens more Nobel laureates and at least another thousand years await!

The Center for Fundamental Rights is proud to be part of this project. Congratulations to the organizers. God bless America, God bless Hungary!

(This is an edited version of the speech by Miklos Szantho, delivered on August 19, 2025, in Budapest at the opening of the interactive exhibition “Martians – Hungarian Scientists and Nobel Laureates.”)