Aristocratic statesman who led Hungary’s delegation to the Paris peace talks in 1920 and pleaded for revising Trianon at the League
A count born in Vienna, he entered parliament in 1877 and was a leading orator for half a century. As education minister in 1906–1910 he drafted the Apponyi laws of 1907, which imposed Hungarian-language teaching on non-Hungarian schools. He led the Hungarian delegation at the Paris peace talks in January 1920 and spoke on 16 January, without changing the terms, and in March lost the regency vote to Horthy. Thereafter, as a legitimist opposition deputy and Hungary’s representative at the League of Nations, he denounced the injustice of the Trianon borders. He died in Geneva in 1933, where he had come for the Disarmament Conference.
Career timeline
- 1877Enters parliament
- 1906–1910Education minister; Apponyi laws of 1907
- 1920Heads the peace delegation in Paris
- 1920Loses the regency vote to Horthy
- 1923–1933Representative at the League of Nations
Commander of the Hungarian Second Army destroyed on the Don in January 1943
Born Gusztáv Hautzinger, he trained at the Ludovika Academy and the Vienna war college and served as a staff officer in the First World War. On entering the Order of Vitéz in 1924 he took his mother’s surname, Jány, and from 1931 to 1936 he headed the Ludovika Academy. He became commander of the Second Army in March 1940 and led it to the Don in 1942. During the Soviet offensive of January 1943 he held to the no-retreat order, and when the army collapsed he issued an order of the day accusing his men of cowardice. Returning home voluntarily after the war, he was sentenced to death by a People’s Court and shot in 1947; the Supreme Court exonerated him in 1993.
Career timeline
- 1905Graduated from the Ludovika Academy; commissioned
- 1914–1918Staff officer in the First World War
- 1931–1936Head of the Ludovika Academy
- 1940–1943Commander, Second Army; the Don
- 1947Sentenced by a People’s Court and executed
Chief of the General Staff who ordered the Bačka intervention behind the Novi Sad massacre and later sought contact with the West
Born Ferenc Knaus (or Knauz) at Moson, he served as an Austro-Hungarian staff officer in the First World War and in 1934 took his mother’s surname, Szombathelyi. In 1941 he led the Carpathian Group in the invasion of the Soviet Union. That September he succeeded Werth as Chief of the General Staff, and in January 1942 he ordered General Feketehalmy-Czeydner to intervene in Bačka, an operation that grew into punitive raids on Serb villages and the Novi Sad massacre. In 1943 he opened the investigation and court martial of those responsible for the massacre, and with Kállay he led the contacts with the Western Allies. Removed after the German occupation of 1944, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by a People’s Court after the war, handed over to Yugoslavia and shot at Petrovaradin in 1946.
Career timeline
- 1914–1918Austro-Hungarian staff officer
- 1926–1938Instructor and commander, Ludovica Military Academy
- 1938–1939Deputy Chief of Staff
- 1941Commander, Carpathian Group
- 1941–1944Chief of the General Staff
- 1946Life sentence by a People’s Court; executed after extradition to Yugoslavia
