[citation needed] Thirdly and lastly, Professor Šimon Ondruš derived the toponym from Proto-Slavic term *dьbrь (gorge).

[4] Debrecen became more important after some of the small villages of the area (Boldogasszonyfalva, Szentlászlófalva) were deserted due to the Mongol invasion of Europe.

[4] In 1361, Louis I of Hungary granted the citizens of Debrecen the right to choose the town's judge and council.

[4] King Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, as part of a treaty with Serbian ruler Stefan Lazarević, gave him the opportunity to rule Debrecen in September 1411.

[4] During the Ottoman period, being close to the border and having no castle or city walls, Debrecen often found itself in difficult situations and the town was saved only by the diplomatic skills of its leaders.

Sometimes the town was protected by the Ottoman Empire, sometimes by the Catholic European rulers or by Francis II Rákóczi, prince of Transylvania.

Debrecen later embraced the Protestant Reformation quite early, earning the monikers of "the Calvinist Rome" and "the Geneva of Hungary".

Debrecen came under Ottoman control as a sanjak between 1558 and 1693 and orderly bounded to the eyalets of Budin (1541–1596), Eğri (1596–1660) and Varat (1660–1693) as "Debreçin".

In 1693, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor elevated Debrecen to free royal town status.

In 1849, Debrecen was the capital of Hungary for a short time when the Hungarian revolutionary government fled there from Pest-Buda (modern-day Budapest).

[4] In April 1849, the dethronization of Habsburgs (neglected after the fall of the revolution) and the independence of Hungary was proclaimed here by Lajos Kossuth at the Great (Calvinist) Church (Nagytemplom in Hungarian.)

New schools, hospitals, churches, factories, and mills were built, banks and insurance companies settled in the city.

After World War I, Hungary lost a considerable portion of its eastern territory to Romania, and Debrecen once again became situated close to the border of the country.

Many buildings (among them an indoor swimming pool and Hungary's first stadium) were built in the central park, the Nagyerdő ("Big Forest"), providing recreational facilities.

[4] The citizens began to rebuild their city, trying to restore its pre-war status, but the new, Communist government of Hungary had other plans.

This forced change of the old system brought new losses to Debrecen; half of its area was annexed to nearby towns, and the city also lost its rights over Hortobágy.

Several Calvinist church leaders like Peter Melius Juhasz who translated the Genevan Psalms lived and worked here.

By 1919, they consisted 10% of the population (with over 10,000 community members listed) and owned almost half of the large properties in and around the town.

[18] The Hungarian antisemitic laws of 1938 caused many businesses to close, and in 1939 many Jews were enslaved and sent to Ukraine, where many died in minefields.

German forces entered the city on 20 March 1944, (Two and a half weeks before Passover) ordering a Judenrat (Jewish Council) headed by Rabbi Pal (Meir) Weisz, and a Jewish police squad was formed, headed by former army captain Bela Lusztbaum.

[citation needed] An order to erect a ghetto was issued on 28 April 1944, in the name of the town mayor Sandor Kolscey, who opposed the act, and was ousted by the Germans.

Some young Debrecen Jews escaped the town, led by the high school principal Adoniyahu Billitzer and reached Budapest, joining resistance movements and partisans.

[25] The College formed into a full-scale university in 1912, and its intellectual life developed a sphere of influence between Eger and Oradea (Hu: Nagyvárad, now in Romania).

Endre Ady, Gyula Krúdy, and Árpád Tóth all began their journalistic careers in Debrecen.

[citation needed] There is also a rock school in the city which offers training and mentoring to young musicians.

Cities that can be reached from the Debrecen Airport include Brussels, Eindhoven, London, Malmö, Milan, Tel Aviv, Moscow and Paris.

[28] Debrecen's proximity to Ukraine, Slovakia and Romania enables it to develop as an important trade centre and transport hub for the wider international region.

The city's most famous association football club is Debreceni VSC[29] which won the Nemzeti Bajnokság I seven times,[30] the last one in 2014.

The local Municipal Assembly, elected at the 2019 local government elections, is made up of 33 members (1 Mayor, 23 Individual constituencies MEPs and 9 Compensation List MEPs) divided into this political parties and alliances:[38] List of City Mayors from 1990:[39] Debrecen is twinned with:[43]