Factory owner who was prime minister of Hungary for three months after the August 1919 coup against the Peidl government
Born into a pharmacist’s family of German origin in Malacka (now Malacky, Slovakia), he studied engineering, worked for AEG in Berlin and then ran his own machinery works outside Budapest. He joined Mihály Károlyi’s Independence Party in 1912 and became one of his closest friends; after the Aster Revolution he was state secretary for war, but he drifted to the right and was dismissed in February 1919. Arrested under the Soviet Republic and sentenced to death, he had the sentence commuted and escaped. In August 1919 he joined the right-wing White House Comrades’ Association in ousting the Peidl government; on 7 August he was named prime minister, with Archduke Joseph August as regent, and held office until 24 November. Arrested by Rákosi’s regime in 1951 and sentenced to fifteen years, he died the same year; he was rehabilitated in 1990.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1904Played for the Hungarian national football team
- 1912Joined the Independence Party
- 1918–1919State secretary for war in the Károlyi government
- 1919Prime minister of Hungary
- 1919–1920Minister of defence
- 1920–1939Member of parliament