Hamvas Béla

The Hungarian writer Béla Hamvas (1897-1968) studied German philology, was a journalist for several years and a librarian in Budapest from 1927 to 1948. During the communist regime, he was banned from publishing, and his works were passed on underhand in handwritten or copied form. He dissected society and its organs as the keyboard of evil. In 1945 he wrote the book "Philosophy of Wine", which was also published in German. The work is often understood as a philosophy of "right living" and enjoyment of life, and is interpreted as a political pamphlet, a satirical essay, a religious manifesto and a "spiritual guide". The deeply religious author understood his work as a "prayer book for atheists". A short excerpt: Water first becomes wine, then wine turns into blood. The water is the matter, the wine is the soul, the blood is the spirit. Matter becomes soul, soul becomes spirit - this is the twofold transformation that we have to experience here on earth. See also under Drinking Culture and Quotations and Wine Growers' Personalities.

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Hamvas Béla

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