The Advance of the State in the Forest in and out of War, 1914–1944

The first part of this chapter discusses the conditions for forestry during and immediately after World War I, while the second part focuses on the interwar period and the long-term consequences of the new perception of the role of the state. It also examines the experience of military invasion in the northern and southeastern parts of Hungary, when forestry would have collapsed without the labour of prisoners of war. After World War I, a number of refugee foresters found employment in the state administration and large-scale state-run programs. The lack of timber was so pressing that a new compromise was needed regarding the extent to which the central state organs could interfere with and control the management of forests in private hands.