Bob K replies to me:

>>Well, it's my understanding that Szell isn't Hungarian, but Czech (although
>>the name is certainly Hungarian), and that Dohnanyi is a German, despite
>>the surname.
>
>Uh, hmm.  I'm pretty sure Christoph v. Dohnanyi is the grandson of
>the Hungarian composer Erno [Ernst] von Dohna'nyi, who -was- Hungarian.
>I think.  Maybe there's some more complicated geneology going on that
>confuses the issue.  I dunno about Szell although his name -is- definitely
>Hungarian.

He is indeed the grandson of Erno von Dohnanyi.  However, the question
of nationality within the old Hapsburg empire is a vexed one.  Borders
kept shifting; control shifted among various regimes as one army or
another occupied central Europe.  Also, Vienna, Prague, and Budapest
aren't all that far away from one another, at least by New World criteria.
Christoph's father married the sister of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Most, if not
all, of his career was spent in Germany.  I doubt Christoph actually speaks
Hungarian, although even this criterion is iffy.  Szell probably didn't
speak Czech *or* Hungarian.

In my own family, we believed for years we were Hungarian, and we have at
least one well-faded Hungarian celebrity ancestor.  However, my sister -
who knows several Slavic languages - on the basis of first languages,
family records, and borders now thinks we're really Czech.  Of course,
every one of the European family spoke German and Yiddish.

Steve Schwartz