page_title: Budapest Business School
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Budapest Business School / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Catering trade academy building in Budapest Magyar: BGF Kereskedelmi, Vendéglátóipari és Idegenforgalmi Kar épülete
context_page_description: Budapest Business School is a public university business school specializing in business studies and social sciences located in Budapest, Hungary. Founded in 1857 by merchants and bankers of Austria-Hungary in order to establish the economic vocational training of higher education in the empire and in Central Europe. It is the oldest public business school in the world, and second oldest among business schools, after the ESCP Europe.
  The Budapest Business School is Hungary's market leading and largest business school and conducts education and research in leadership, economics, operations management, marketing, entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, and other areas; as of this time, its most acclaimed programs are finance, accounting, strategic management, and tourism. The School offers a wide range of graduate-level academic programs and concentrations. In the latest academic year the Budapest Business School offers 12 Bachelor's degree programs, in case of most programs in English, French, German and Hungarian language as well.
context_section_description: Budapest Business School was founded as the Pest Academy of Commerce that was established in 1857, which is the official predecessor of the BBS faculties College of Finance and Accountancy and the College of Catering, Commerce and Tourism. Pest Academy of Commerce (German: Pester Handelsakademie, Hungarian: Pesti Kereskedelmi Akadémia) was founded by the second president of the Pest Chamber of Commerce, József Appiano, Antal Valero (first president of the Pest Chamber of Commerce, and later Pest Mayor) and by Habsburg Emperor Francis Joseph. At the beginning, the language of education was German at the academy.
  It was the first higher educational institution for business studies in Austria-Hungary, thus it was the first business school in Central Europe. Moreover, it is the oldest existing business school in the world, following the ESCP Europe with its campuses in Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid, and Torino. After the cities Buda and Pest merged, the institution was renamed to Budapest Academy of Commerce. Most of the business professionals and economists of the country gained their qualifications there as it was the only business school in the country that time.
  Architect Győző Czigler designed the Alkomány street campus of the Budapest Academy of Commerce in 1882, and the construction was finished in 1885, when  the construction of the Hungarian Parliament Building was also starting directly next to it. He was the architect of the Széchenyi thermal bath and many other famous buildings. The campus at the Alkotmány street is still one of the main campuses of the Budapest Business School. BBS's campus at the Markó street is also located in Downtown Budapest. It is also a monumental building, designed by famous architect Ferenc Kolbenheyer (father of Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer) in neoclassical style in 1872. The Markó street campus of the Budapest Business School is a close but more modest kin of the top-ranked ETH Zurich, designed by Gottfried Semper and Gustav Zeuner. There is a famous Council Room at the Markó street campus called Lotz Room, full with paintings painted by Károly Lotz and Mór Than. Many of the conferences of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union was held in this room, and in other lecture rooms of the Markó street campus. Budapest Academy of Commerce was a private business school until 1949, when it was secularized by the government, becoming a public business school.
  After the school was renamed and changed several times, the College of Accountancy was established in 1953, and the College of Catering and Commerce was established in 1969. The forerunner of the College of International Management is the School of International Commerce that was established in 1957.
  In January 2000, the colleges created the Budapest Business School and became faculties of the university.
  The university was awarded the Quality Award of Higher Education by the Minister of Education in 2010.
  In March 2011, the College of Business Administration faculty was established out of the College of Finance and Accounting campus in Zalaegerszeg.
caption: College of Commerce, Catering and Tourism historical building campus in downtown
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