Prime minister who swung Hungary towards Germany and drafted the Second Jewish Law, then fell over his own Jewish ancestry
Born to a Catholic family in Budapest, he was an economist in the finance ministry who became Gömbös’s finance minister in 1932 and president of the National Bank in 1935. Prime minister from May 1938, he turned foreign policy towards Germany and Italy from that autumn, and under him the First Vienna Award returned southern Slovakia to Hungary. He pressed for a dictatorial reorganisation and the Second Jewish Law, but resigned in February 1939 when opponents exposed his Jewish ancestry. In 1940 he founded the pro-fascist Party of Hungarian Renewal, and after the German occupation of 1944 he served in Sztójay’s cabinet. Sentenced to death by a People’s Tribunal, he was shot in 1946.
Activities and affiliations
- 1938–1939 Government and administration · Hungary
- 1928–1938 Economy, finance and planning · Hungary
Career Timeline
- 1928–1932Director, Hungarian National Bank
- 1932–1935Finance minister under Gömbös
- 1935–1938President, Hungarian National Bank
- 1938–1939Prime minister; introduced the Second Jewish Law
- 1940–1944Founder and leader, Party of Hungarian Renewal
- 1944Minister of economic coordination under Sztójay