Ladies and Gentlemen,
First af all I would like to express the appreciation of the Hungarian Society of Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing to the Organising Committee for the kind invitation to this distinguised event, the centennial anniversary of the establishment of ISPRS.
It is my great honour to represent the 4-member Delegation of the Hungarian Society of Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing composed of Miklós Gross leader, academician Prof. Ákos Detrekői and former Scientific Deputy Director General of FÖMI Péter Winkler.
We came here to Vienna to congratulate. We came here to Vienna to celebrate. We arrived here in Vienna to express the admiration of the Hungarian photogrammetric and remote sensing community for the visionary foundation of the International Society of Photogrammetry, now the ISPRS.
Considering the outstanding performance and steady growth of the ISPRS in the last century and still today, this evolution fully validates the wisdom of the founder Edouard Doležal and his supporting team in the inspiring atmosphere of the Technische Hochschule in Vienna, at that time still in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.
There is always a need for visionaries and leaders, for innovation and the adoption of best practice, as well as for local champions.
Slowed by European history, international relations only started to emerge in the 1920’s. Neighbouring Hungary observed the development closely at the 2nd Congress of ISP in Berlin in 1926 and adopted the initiative in 1929, when the Hungarian Society for Photogrammetry was established. Hungary became a proud member of ISP at the 3rd Congress in 1930, also taking responsibility for the ISP Commission devoted to Economic issues led by Mr. Aurél Medvey-Kurschnitt.
The Hungarian Society for Photogrammetry elected two outstanding ISP pioneers as honorary members: Edouard Doležal in 1932 and Otto von Gruber in 1941. Between the 4th and 5th Congresses the ISP Commission on Education and Terminology was lead by Károly Oltay, Professor of my almer mater, the Budapest Technical University.
World War 2 had a negative impact on scientific cooperation.
Political pressure caused Hungary to withdraw from membership of ISP in 1948 and, at the same time the Hungarian Society for Photogrammetry was dissolved.
But in 1956 the Hungarian Geodetic Society was established and scientist Prof. Antal Tárczy-Hornoch started to prepare for the return of Hungary to the ISP in London in 1960.
During the cold war, the only way to keep and strengthen contacts with scientists of the free world remained the regular meetings of ISP(RS) symposia and congresses.
A Remote Sensing Center was established at FÖMI, the Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing. Its mission and goals were presented at the ISPRS Commission VII Symposium in 1982.
After the political and economic changes in Central and Eastern Europe, the young Hungarian scientists were mature enough to enter the international arena of ISPRS based on their in-depth involvement in quantitative analysis and application oriented R+D lead by Gábor Csornai and György Büttner.
From 1992 Hungarian participation at the ISPRS Congresses became significant. My presidentship of the Commission VII Resource and Environmental Monitoring between the Vienna and Amsterdam Congresses provided excellent opportunities to bring together ISPRS Council members, Commission Presidents and other scientists with Hungarian professionals at a Seminar in 1997 and at the Commission VII Sysmposium hosted by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1998.
The Hungarian Society for Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing has elected two additional outstanding ISPRS scientists as honorary members: Prof Karl Kraus in 1986 and Prof. Gottfried Konecny in 2003.
The new, challenging era under ISPRS leadership is very promising from the Hungarian perspective and our Society will do its best to assist the new generation to follow the path of the legendary personalities of the field „information from imagery“.
It is anticipated that the ISPRS family - backed by the Joint Board of Geospatial Societies – will provide an excellent forum for further advances enabling more effective services with socio-economic benefits that will be sustainable in the longer term.
Thank you ISPRS, and long live ISPRS!
Presented at the Open Business Meeting
by Gábor Remetey-Fülöpp
ISPRS Centenary Celebrations
Technical University of Vienna
July 3, 2010"
Acknowledgement: the text was kindly reviewed by Robin Waters some minutes ago.
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