Hungary
The Scout and Guide movement in Hungary is served by
Magyar Cserkészlány Szövetség, member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts;
Magyar Cserkészszövetség, member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement;
Magyarországi Európai Cserkészek, candidate for membership within the Union Internationale des Guides et Scouts d'Europe.
Further on, Boy Scouts of America linked to the Horizon District of the Transatlantic Council and Girl Scouts of the USA are active in Hungary.
Magyar Cserkészszövetség supports also the Scout organizations of the Hungarian minorities in the adjoining countries. It has strong ties to the Külföldi Magyar Cserkészszövetség (Hungarian Scout Association in Exteris), a Scouts-in-Exile organization.
Hungarian Scouting was founded in 1909 under Austria-Hungary, and the first Scout group in the dual monarchy, MCA-1912 HAS, was founded in Budapest in 1910. Scouting started in the separate nation of Hungary in 1919, at the end of World War I, when Austria and Hungary were divided. In 1920, the magazine Magyar Cserkész ("Hungarian Scout") was first published.
Hungary was a founding member of the World Scout Bureau in 1922 and later was a founding member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, WAGGGS, which was in fact established in Parád, Hungary, in 1928.
In 1924, at the World Scout Jamboree in Copenhagen, Hungarian Scouts attending their first jamboree came third in the competition of the nations, behind British and American Scouts. They were especially good at water sports, astounding many as Hungary is a landlocked country.
The first Hungarian National Jamboree in 1926 had 10,000 participants.
Hungary hosted the fourth World Jamboree in 1933 at the royal forest of Gödöllo, outside Budapest, in which 26,000 Scouts from 54 nations camped together. The camp chief was Teleki Pál, the member of the International Committee who later became Prime Minister of Hungary. This was the first time there was a Jamboree subcamp for Scouts taking part in aviation. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the fourth World Jamboree, the Hungarian Scout Association hosted a fourth World Jamboree Memorial Camp at Bélapátfalva, Hungary in 1993.
After World War II, the Külföldi Magyar Cserkészszövetség started operating in the displaced persons camps in Germany and Austria in 1948 as the Teleki Pál Scout Association, renamed in 1948 as the Hungarian Scout Association.
Rebirth of Scouting in Hungary
Scouting was well organized and popular in Hungary until it was banned in 1948. Scouting was officially abolished by the Communist regime in 1948, but remained nascent underground in a situation similar to that of neighboring Czechoslovakia. Even in those decades when Scouting was banned, former Scouts kept the spirit of Scouting and ran children's programs in a more or less Scout way, often risking imprisonment. Meanwhile, émigré Hungarians in the west were able to keep the organization going. For them, Scouting gave an excellent opportunity to teach their children about their homeland.
In 1989, as civic organizations could be organized or reorganized, Scouting was again legalized, and that same day Scouting groups appeared as though spontaneously, surprising many by the energy of this quick resurgence. Later in 1989, the Külföldi Magyar Cserkészszövetség returned the Association's original seal to Hungary and gave it to the new reorganized Hungarian Scout Association. In 1990, Hungary was the first of the Eastern European nations to return to membership in the World Organization of Scout Movement, reorganized and registered with 20,000 members and recognized as a full member.
A new feature of Magyar Cserkészszövetség is that it is not town-oriented, as it was before World War II. Scout troops are organized in more and more villages, where Scouting gives almost the only opportunity for many children to be part of a youth program. In the original Magyar Cserkészszövetség, groups belonged mainly to schools, now they more often are attached to church parishes.
Magyar Cserkészszövetség is also no longer single sex, as the educational system is co-educational. It was decided that the units or patrols would be single-sex, but troops would consist of boys' and girls' patrols.
Due to the communist period, Magyar Cserkészszövetség has much less property than it used to, but it already has its own Scout Camp on the outskirts of Budapest. This property was obtained by the Association as a long term lease, because former Scouts lobbied the forestry commission for it saying it would be of better use as a Scout camp than as a golf course. This Scout camp is open to visiting Scouts, who have donated their time, energy and financial means to improve the infrastructure of the park.
In 1991, 20 Scouts of the Magyar Cserkészszövetség participated in the World Jamboree in Korea; and in 1995, 70 Scouts represented Hungarian Scouting in the World Jamboree in the Netherlands. At the end of 2004, there were 7,198 registered members in all sections.