The Tungsram employees Dennis Gabor, Egon Orowan, and Michael Pol nyi later became fellows of the Royal Society. In the periods when official institutions were restricted by politics, the Roland E tv s Mathematical and Physical Society played an important role in enabling scientific life to carry on in Hungary. As the motto for this paper we quoted from the talk given by the president of the Society at the general assembly in 1937. Physics professors tried to connect John von Neumann to Hungary, but the proposals were rejected at Szeged University, at Budapest University, and at the Hungarian Academy as well by the leading representatives sticking to the government's policy. Sub pondere crescit palma.
Trees grow under weight.
So it can be understood that the most intense periods of the E tv s Society were the war years, when personal contacts abroad were cut, and government organizations had other priorities. I Victor Zempl n served as an excellent secretary till his death on the Italian front. During World War II this was the merit of Rudolf Ortvay as secretary till his suicide in 1945. This phenomenon of vitality replayed itself later, during the chilly decades of the Cold War. The collapse and political turmoil following World War II decapitated Hungarian science once again.