In 1915 Otto Wagner, the school-founding master of modern Central European architecture, was asked to share with his Hungarian colleagues his thoughts on the tasks of modern architecture, including his views on the issue of the potentials of national architecture. The elderly Austrian architect replied in a letter, which appeared in Budapest’s leading architectural journal of the age, Vállalkozók Lapja. Based on this scarcely known letter and its Hungarian reception that together form an important episode in the discourse on national art and architecture, my paper investigates the conflicting ideals of nationalism and/or modernism, ideals that bear significance to architecture history, urbanism and the formation of national identity alike.