Ferenc Deák

Hungary state institutions Liberalism and republicanism 1803–1876 ○ Natural causes

Hungary's minister of justice in 1848 who defended the April Laws and later led the negotiation of the Compromise of 1867

Born in 1803 at Söjtör in Zala county into an ancient noble family, he studied law and became an advocate. He entered politics in 1833, attending the Diet at Pressburg in place of his elder brother, and in 1842 he freed his serfs and chose to pay taxes. In 1848 he became minister of justice in the Batthyány government; opposed to violence, he urged moderation and made several trips to the court in Vienna, and when compromise failed he resigned his post but stayed in parliament defending the constitutional legitimacy of the April Laws. He withdrew to his estate at Kehida before the war of independence ended and was acquitted by an Austrian court martial after the defeat. In the 1850s he became the emblem of "passive resistance", and he led the delegation that negotiated and signed the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. He died in 1876.

Also known as: Francis Deák · Ferenc Deák de Kehida