Tibor Frank
Memory and History:
Visiting Edward Teller
...
Returning now to the Teller villa in Stanford in September of 1988, suddenly
recalling the story of Szilard's invitation to Budapest-though not mentioning it
aloud-I replied to Mici Teller's question that perhaps they would be able to visit
Budapest at the invitation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. For a moment
she looked visibly pleased. Teller responded however with an impassioned cry:
"We shan't go!" To this I could only say that it was not I who had raised the
question after all, but rather his wife. But this elderly gentleman, visibly out of
sorts that day, did not care to hear any more on the subject.
He sat right next to me on the sofa and so I was confronted-as it were
physically-with the great tragedy of his life: he had lost half a leg in a streetcar
accident in Munich in his youth. He had a wooden leg. That's why he always
carried a large cane and walked with difficulty. I mention my experience that day
here because I thought that this physical handicap was also a key to the
understanding of the Teller phenomenon and the Teller psyche, and perhaps less
directly an understanding of the one and a half hour conversation I had with him
that afternoon. At one point he lost control of himself. He found the perfectly
innocent conversation disturbing and jumped up from the sofa, yelling at his wife:
"Don't you understand? He's going back!" He meant I was going back to Hungary
and so they must not speak so freely in my presence. I found this insulting and so
began to take my leave, at which point he insisted that I stay. Then, unexpectedly,
after a whole hour had passed, he began to speak about his emigration. Still, it
was clear that he didn't really want to recall events; he suggested that I broach
that subject with his sister or Miklós Hoff instead. (At the mention of this name
I realised that either Hoff had never actually spoken of me to Teller, or, maybe,
more likely, he had, but Teller had forgotten. Either way Teller had no idea who
I was or why I had come.) The conversation soon came to an end, leaving the
indelible impression of a "bad day".
One cannot exclude the possibility that my suggestion about a possible return
to Hungary had an agreeable ring to him and stuck in Teller's mind, even if in
1988 he still rejected the idea. Whatever the case, it is a fact that when Teller
first did return to Hungary in December 1990 it was indeed the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences that had invited him. According to the recollections of
Eszter Tóth, György Marx had established contact with him by phone in
May 1988.1 This makes Teller's reaction in late August of the same year even
more interesting. György Marx, Béla Szőkefalvi-Nagy and Imre Tarján prepared
his nomination as an honorary member at a regular assembly meeting of the
Academy in May 1990, but his induction did not actually take place until the
extraordinary assembly on December 3, 1990. The distinction, bestowed late but
in time, was presented by Domokos Kosáry, elected president of the Academy in
May 1990.2 Now that we are commemorating the centenary of Teller's birth, we
should recall his memory with his own words. After taking pains to point to the
positive aspects of atomic energy (for example, it helped to close the gap between
developed and underdeveloped nations) as well as Hungary's embrace of it, he
said, in Hungarian:
It is not easy for me to speak but I must. I find this event incredible. I am profoundly
grateful; extraordinarily grateful.
I departed for Hungary intending to continue pursuing here the things that most
interest me. I had heard there was a certain something here that was very important.
The fact that we have come to understand the atom during this century signifies a
great change. In principle, we have made a single science of physics and chemistry. This
is to be greeted not with fear, as many people have done the world over, but with hope.
Everyone is faced, we in particular, with the task of finding the path-the cautious
path-that leads forward in a way that obliterates the causes of fear.
Naturally I am thinking now of atomic energy. Yesterday I travelled to Paks
[Hungary's sole nuclear power plant]. I have no doubt that atomic energy is not only
important for Hungary but for the entire world. Without atomic energy the huge gap
between the developed and underdeveloped world will never be eliminated. Atomic
energy creates perspectives for creating a harmonious world. But this is not possible
without caution. We must apply ourselves to this. I myself have worked on this for
decades because it is important and because it interests me. Energy is essential for
Hungary. If we do not take fright, if we work sensibly, then, in this field, Hungary can
play a leading role in the world.
I have returned home. It has been a considerable shock. They asked me how I felt; I
was unable to say. I feel so many things that I am unable at the moment to put them in
words. Perhaps two weeks from now I will be able to explain. Part of what I feel is
fervent enthusiasm; the hope of a brighter future-the hope that a word spoken in
Hungarian may someday mean a great deal, not just to Hungarians but to people
everywhere. For the modern world words are particularly important guiding principles,
since, from one day to the next, they can change the world and colour it with fear. But
the world should not be coloured with fear! Words should change it in such a way that
people suspect, sense and understand that our future, understood in the most beautiful
sense of the word, can be free of fear. Thank you.3
On the occasion of the centenary of Teller's birth we could not recall his tragic
figure with any better words. 
1 
Eszter Tóth: "Teller Ede 1908-2003" (Edward Teller, 1908-2003). Fizikai Szemle. LIII, 2003/9,
p. 312. Today Eszter Tóth recollects that the telephone conversation took place a few weeks before
János Kádár's resignation, sometime in May 1988. I am indebted to Eszter Tóth for her valuable
information.
2 Előterjesztés a Magyar Tudományos Akadémia 1990. évi rendes közgyűléséhez tiszteleti tagok és
külső tagok megválasztására (Submissions to the 1990 regular assembly of the Hungarian Academy of
Sciences for the election of honorary members and external members). Hungarian Academy of
Sciences, Budapest, 1990; the text of the submissions was published in the Akadémiai Osztályközlemények
(From the Sections of the Academy) column in Fizikai Szemle, XL. 1990/10, pp. 317-318.
3 Ede Teller: "Hazajöttem" (I Came Home). Fizikai Szemle, XLI, 1991/1, p. 1.
Tibor Frank
is Professor of History and Director of the School of English and American Studies
at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. Recently he was co-organizer, together with
nuclear physicist András Patkós, of the centenary conference on Edward Teller
at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, on January 16, 2008.
