Germany–Hungary relations

The official line was that it was time to modernise the copious and often dull material that Hungarian students have to plough through during 12 years of studies. But the government was also clear that it wanted to make the curriculum "more patriotic".

Former Australian conservative prime minister Tony Abbott has urged Central Europeans to be tough on the issue of migration, adding that Hungary and other countries in the region had every right to close their borders as they saw fit.

Memories of the peace demonstration that put a crack in the Iron Curtain on August 19, 1989 loom large in both German and Hungarian psyches — large enough to lure Merkel to Hungary for the first time in more than four years.