György Klapka

Hungary state institutions National liberation and anti-colonial movements 1820–1892 ○ Natural causes

Hungarian general who planned the Spring Campaign and held Komárom until October 1849, the last stand of the war of independence

Born in 1820 at Temesvár into a German-speaking Roman Catholic family of Moravian origin, he joined the imperial army in 1837 and left it in 1847 as an artillery lieutenant. After the revolution of March 1848 he volunteered for the Hungarian army as a captain, and in January 1849 he beat Schlik in three consecutive battles at Tarcal, Bodrogkeresztúr and Tokaj. Made a general at 29 in March, he drew up the plan of the Spring Campaign and on 30 April became deputy war minister. Left in command of Komárom, on 3 August he broke the besieging army in the last important Hungarian victory of the war, held out after the surrender at Világos and handed the fortress over on favourable terms on 2–5 October 1849. In exile he worked for Hungarian independence; after the Compromise of 1867 he returned, sat in parliament, and died in Budapest in 1892.

Also known as: Georg Klapka