Cross-border topographic mapping, cross-border orienteering: the Hungarian overview

This paper examines cross-border topographic and orienteering maps. It is understandable that the early military surveys did not present areas over the state borders, but the situation has changed at later surveys. After WWI, when Hungary established its own military mapping institute, the surveyed areas were also influenced by political events. After WWII, the civil topographic mapping of Hungary was totally separated from the military one, and there was a consistent rule: only the military topographic maps represented beyond-the-border areas (for instance, Hungary as a member of the Warsaw Pact also mapped foreign areas). Orienteering maps are based on topographic maps; both types of maps are very fieldwork-intensive, without which none of these maps can be prepared. In the Cold War era, it was evident that nobody (including orienteers) could approach the frontier areas. It was symbolic that after the political change at the end of in 1980s, the Hungarian and Central European orienteers were very keen on mapping cross-border terrains.