About us

Mária Schmidt graduated from the Faculty of Humanities at Eötvös Loránd University with a degree in History and German. In 1985 she passed her doctoral examination, and in 1999 received her PhD. In 1996 she became an adjunct professor at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, in 2000 she became an associate professor, and between 2010 and 2024 she has been a full professor. In 2005 she was awarded the title of “habilitated doctor”. In 1985 she received a three-year research grant from the MTA-Soros Foundation for the study of the 20th-century history of Hungarian Jewry. She has held postgraduate fellowships and been a visiting lecturer at the Universities of Vienna and Innsbruck, Oxford, Paris, the Technische Universität Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung in Berlin, Tel Aviv, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and – supported by New York University and the MTA-Soros Foundation – the University of Bloomington and the Hoover Institution in Stanford. From 1998 to 2002 she was Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister. She is Director-General of the Institute of the Twentieth Century, of the Institute of the Twenty-first Century and of the House of Terror Museum. From 2002 to 2013 she was a board member of the Ettersberg Foundation, an international foundation for comparative research on 20th-century European dictatorships and democratic transitions. Since 1999 she has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Public Foundation for the Research of Central and Eastern European History and Society, since 2008 she has participated in the work of the Expert Council of the House of European History project, and in that year she became Chair of the Board of the Media Union. Since 2015 she has been a permanent member of the Gulag Memorial Committee. She is a founding member of the Women for Hungary Club, established in 2018. From 2015 to 2017 she was Government Commissioner responsible for coordinating the commemoration of the 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight, and co-chair of the Commemoration Committee. From 2013 to 2018 she was a member of the Scientific Council of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of Romanian Exiles (IICCMER). From 2013 to 2020 she was a member of the First World War Centenary Memorial Committee, and from 2018 Government Commissioner responsible for coordinating the commemoration of the First World War. In 2019 she was appointed Government Commissioner responsible for coordinating the “Thirty Years of Freedom” commemorative year. Her main research interests are the history of Hungarian Jewry from 1918, dictatorships in the 20th century, and the history of Hungary under dictatorships. To date she has published twelve books, the latest being in 2022. She has received numerous national and international awards for her work, including the Széchenyi Prize in 2014. In 2023 she was awarded the Commander’s Cross with Star, Civil Division of the Order of Merit of Hungary. In 2024, she was awarded the Pro Facultate Prize of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Pázmány Péter Catholic University. Also in 2024 she received Saint Adalbert Prize.