Bricklayer turned Social Democrat who chaired the Revolutionary Governing Council of the Hungarian Soviet Republic
Raised in a Protestant family in Kiskunhalas, he worked as a bricklayer, joined the labour movement and in 1901 the Social Democratic Party, and led the building workers’ union and the Workers’ Insurance Fund. He backed the merger of the Social Democrats and Communists on 21 March 1919 and, as chairman of the Revolutionary Governing Council, became the Soviet Republic’s formal head of state and prime minister, though real power lay with Béla Kun. After the fall he was education minister in the Peidl government; captured by the Romanian army, he escaped from Cluj and lived in exile in Bratislava, Vienna and Paris. Refused permission to return after the war, he died in Paris in 1947.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1901Joined the Social Democratic Party
- 1903Chairman of the National Federation of Building Workers
- 1908Chairman of the Workers’ Insurance Fund
- 1919Chairman of the Revolutionary Governing Council
- 1919Education minister in the Peidl government
- 1920–1947Exile in Bratislava, Vienna and Paris