Budapesti Evangelikus Gimnazium

(Budapest Lutheran High School)

• Eugene Wigner attended this high school. How did he do there? Click here for an interesting story.

  I was fortunate enough to visit this high school in 1997 and 2008, and I am able to show you some photos. I took some with my camera, and others are from the school publications.

  Eugene Wigner, Nobel Laureate (physics 1963), came from this high school. John von Neumann, a creative mathematical physicist and a developer of the electronic computer, also attended from this high school. It is generally agreed that he did not live long enough to collect his Nobel prize. In addition, this high school produced Janos Harsanyi (Nobel economist 1994).

• Where is this high school? Go to my Budapest page to find out.
  1. The school is at 17-21 Varosligeti fasor (H-1071 Budapest). Varosligeti fasor is not a big street, but is called the Boulevard of Nobel Prizes.
  2. This map tells you how to get there from the Deak Ferenc Metro Station at the center of Budapest.

• Campus: Old black/white photo of the Campus.
  1. Front view of the Campus.
  2. Front. Another view.
  3. Rear view of the Campus.
  4. Backyard of the Campus.

  5. In 1997, I had a photo of myself in front wall of the school building. A white sculpture of Apollo is seen.
  6. In 2008, I was there again. The school placed a bronz plate above the sculpture carring the names of Wigner, von Neuman, and Harsani (Nobel in economics 1994).

• Main hallway on the first floor.
  1. With students, the hallway looks better.
  2. More students at the entrance to the hallway.
  3. In 2008, I had a phot with students at at entrance lobby.

• A painting of students learning from a teacher. This painting has some historical significance, but I am not able to explain.
  1. From this photo of the backyard this painting can be seen.
  2. This is a close-up view of this painting.
  3. During my 2008 visit, I went to the front of this painting to have this photo. I still have to learn about its educational effects on students.

• Church: Evangelikus Templon (non-Catholic church). Hungary is a predominantly Catholic country.
  1. Inside the Church.
  2. Side view the Church.
  3. Side view the campus from Bajza Street.

  Busts of Wigner (left) and von Neumann in front of the entrance to the Gala Hall. I am with two student in front of the memorial to those who lost their lives during World War I.

• Gala Hall with two busts at the entrance. One for Wigner (left) and the other for von Neumann.
  1. I love Wigner, and I love von Neumann.
  2. In 1997, inside of the Gala Hall.
  3. Cieling of the Gala Hall.
  4. In 2008, I was there with two students. Wherever I go, I look happier with students.

• Memorial dedicated to those who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect Hungary during the years 1914-19.
  1. I am with two students in this photo taken during my 2008 visit. The young lady in the middle spoke English so fluently that I asked her whether she came from England. She said she is a Hungarian but her father is an Australian. He went back to Australia but she decided to stay in Budapest to complete her education here. She said she is intereted in getting a Nobel prize and her education in this high school is a good start.

• Istvan Szabo, the director of the School library and museum who contributed many photos to this webpage. We are grateful to him.
  1. Wigner Photo. He is holding copies of the Wigner photo which I donated to the School. I took this photo with my Canon AE-1 camera in 1991 at Wigner's house in Princeton.
  2. In 2008, a younger person was in charge of the Library. He showed me documents and photos in the Wigner box. He showed my photo with his predecessor, and also my photo with Wigner. I became very happy.
  3. In the physics world, I am known as Wigner's youngest student. Click here for a story.

• Whenever you hear about high schools like this, you are led to think about your own high school years. I am like you.

  In this photo of 1953, I am wearing my high school uniform and shaking hands with Gen. Maxwell Taylor. He was the commander of the U.S. Forces in Korea consiting of 330,000 U.S. combat troops.

  I spent six years in my high school in Korea from 1948 to 1954. The Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953. The campus was totally destroyed, and we had to move from one city to another. My entering class consisted of 360 boys, but only 235 of them were able to finish due to the war. Yet, our class produced three Harvard PhDs, two Princeton PhDs, and one MIT PhD.

  I got my Princeton degree seven years after high school graduation. This means that I did most of the ground work for my PhD program during the high school years. Thanks to my high school background, I was able to create and maintain a research program based on the problem Einstein (relativity) and Bohr (quantum mechanics) left to younger generations to solve. Click here for a story.

• Here is Wigner's class photo of 1920, While processing this photo, I thought about what to do with my own class photo of 1954.

  with Harrow boys on their campus (2009).

• The concept of Eton and Harrow is outdated. Yet, people seem to be interested in those two high schools near London. I maintain a webpage for those schools.

  Click here for my Eton-Harrow page.

  where I also brag about my high school background.

  This Eton-Harrow page is one of the most frequently visited pages on my website, more popular than my Feynman pages. I do not know what is wrong. In either case, you are invited to the Feynman site.

Wigner with his friends at the Nobel banquet (1963). In 2010, I had a photo with two of the young ladies appearing in the above 1963 photo.

Hungarian Engineer from Wigner's high school with his Swedish wife.

Wigner Jeno

• Wigner's 1920 Class. Wigner 2nd from right in the front row.

• In 1987, Eugene Wigner visited his high school. At that time, Hungary had a communist government, and Wigner was an anti-communist. It was not easy for him to visit his fatherland.

• Wigner's Photo in one of the school booklets.

• In 1963, Wigner went to Stockholm to pick up his Nobel prize. He was invited to the Nobel Banquet to come with a limited number of his friends.
• Wigner went with one of his high school classmates in Stockhom and his family. His name was Gabor Kornel Tolnai.
  1. This is a photo of the Budapest school librarian showing the 1920 class photo to Tolani's daughters. I had a photo with the same librarian in 1997.

  2. I also had a photo with the daughters in Sockholm (2010). How did this happen?

  3. They saw their father in Wigner's class photo of 1920. and contacted me. I maintain a comprehensive Wigner page. They wanted to talk about their father.
  4. Their father was a very handsome man. Here is
  5. His portrait painted by their mother, who was a talented Swedish artist.
  6. Photo of Their parents. After high school, their father studied engineering and started showing his creativity. He was invited by a Swedish telephone company, and he provided many technical innovations for the company.

  7. This Swedish company is known today as "Ericsson." He came to Stockholm from Budapest and married a Swedish girl who became their mother.

• Eugene Wigner: more about Wigner and Wigner-related programs.

Neumann Janos

• Janos Neumann's 1921 Class: second from the left on the second row from the top.

• Neumann's photo from the Wikipedia page.

• More von Neumann photos, mostly from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.