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Gustav Schimert

1910–1990

Born
28 Nov 1910, Budapest
Country of birth
Austria–Hungary, today Hungary
Died
16 May 1990, Munich
facts
6
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

  • Birth28 Nov 1910, BudapestProbable1 source
  • Death16 May 1990, MunichProbable1 source
  • ParentGustav SchimertConfirmed1 source

A life in time

  1. Born · Budapest

    Birth, Budapest

  2. Child born: Andreas Schimert

    Birth

  3. Child born: Christian Schimert

    Birth

  4. Child born: Constantin Schimert

    Birth

  5. Died · Munich

    Death, Munich

What was it like?

The world around Budapest, 1910: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Gustav was born the same year as Mother Teresa, Akira Kurosawa, and Jacques Cousteau.

Born the same year

  • Mother Teresa

    Albanian-Indian Catholic nun and missionary (1910–1997)

  • Akira Kurosawa

    Japanese filmmaker (1910–1998)

  • Jacques Cousteau

    French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author (1910-1997)

  • Giuseppe Meazza

    Italian association football player and manager (1910-1979)

  • Dorothy Hodgkin

    British chemist

  • Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

    Indian-American astrophysicist

Fashion
Around 1911–1911

Peasant women's layered skirts and barefoot travel

Peasant women wore up to ten wide, knee-length skirts, often swaying their hips to make them swing when walking. On workdays, they often went barefoot and carried their boots on their backs until reaching town.

Sunday best and creaking boots for men

On Sundays, peasant men wore dark blue cloth suits with black braiding and silver buttons. They considered their top-boots particularly smart if they made a loud creaking sound while walking.

Music

Christmas spirit through gramophone records

Early 20th-century religious gramophone records often featured fake church sounds, like bells or harmoniums, to create a festive, pious atmosphere for families listening at home. These records were popular gifts during the Christmas season and helped people feel a sense of holiday tradition.

Everyday home music with the zither

The zither was found in nearly every household and was a primary instrument for dancing at Sunday gatherings and during winter evenings. Peasants often made these instruments themselves using simple woodworking skills.

Getting around
Around 1900–1900

Fast train journeys from Budapest in 1900

In 1900, a fast train could travel from Budapest to Siófok in 2 hours and 12 minutes, or to Nagykanizsa in 3 hours and 55 minutes.

Around 1900–1900

Orient Express trip duration to Constantinople

A luxury Orient Express journey from Budapest to Constantinople took 36 hours and 30 minutes in 1900.

Daily life

Bathing fees and maintenance in municipal housing

Residents of some municipal housing estates could pay 30 fillér to the bath supervisor for cleaning the bathtub and stove after use, or perform the task themselves.

Lighting in early 20th-century Budapest homes

In early 20th-century Budapest, most small apartments used gas or kerosene for lighting, with electricity only becoming widespread in the 1920s.

Food

Children frequently skipped supper

Peasant families typically ate three meals a day, but children were often sent to bed without supper with the instruction to go to sleep. To compensate, many children would forage or steal vegetables, fruits, and poultry.

Eggs and milk for dowries

Poultry was kept primarily to produce eggs, which mothers often sold to earn petty cash for their daughters' dowries. Milk and dairy products were also produced and sold for the same financial purpose.

Prices and wages

Pre-war wages and bread prices

Before World War I, the average hourly wage in Hungary was 50 hellers, which allowed a worker to purchase 2 kg of bread.

Around 1913–1922

Severe decline in purchasing power

By autumn 1922, the purchasing power of a Hungarian worker's daily wage had collapsed, allowing for the purchase of only 2.9 kg of bread compared to 9.8 kg before the war.

Work

Common jobs in Hungarian urban workforce

The most common jobs for the urban working class included positions in industry, which employed half of the workers, followed by domestic service at 15 percent and day labor at 10 percent.

Long days for seasonal workers

Seasonal agricultural workers, or summas, often worked from sunrise to sunset, a schedule that could exceed 16 hours a day during the summer.

News and letters

Early Adoption of Motorized Mail Delivery

Hungary was a pioneer in using motorized vehicles for mail, starting with the innovative Csonka mail car model in 1909. Before widespread motorization, bicycles were used for letter delivery starting in 1896, replacing older, slower methods.

Mobile Sorting on Moving Trains

Mail was often processed by travelling post officers on trains who sorted letters and parcels while the train was in motion. This allowed mail to be prepared for rapid delivery at each stop.

During their lifetime

  1. 1910

    Life expectancy rose to 47 years by 1910

    By 1910, advancements in medicine, hygiene, and infrastructure, such as improved water and sewage systems, increased the average life expectancy to 47 years, compared to 37 years in 1871.

  2. 1914

    Ten percent of households accessed electricity by 1914

    By 1914, approximately ten percent of German households had access to electricity, transforming daily life through new lighting and urban infrastructure.

  3. 1918

    Women gained suffrage in 1918 Weimar reforms

    Following the 1918 proclamation of the Weimar Republic, a new democratic system was established that enfranchised women and mandated an eight-hour workday for laborers.

  4. 1920

    Trianon Treaty dismembers Hungary in 1920

    Under the Treaty of Trianon signed in 1920, Hungary lost more than two-thirds of its territory and 60 percent of its population, causing severe economic and social hardship. Following the treaty, over 400,000 refugees fled to Hungary and initially lived in emergency housing or railway carriages.

  5. 1923

    Currency restabilization fueled economic recovery by 1927

    Following the restabilization of the currency in late 1923, Germany secured 800 million gold marks in foreign loans by 1927, which helped industrial production return to 1913 levels.

  6. 1925

    Radio broadcasts debut in Hungary in 1925

    Regular radio broadcasts began in Hungary on December 1, 1925, and by 1938, the country had reached a density of 46 radio sets per thousand inhabitants. Radio provided diverse content including news, jazz, folk, and literature to the widest strata of society.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Children

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.