Hungarian Social Democratic and trade-union leader who won legal status for his party in the Bethlen–Peyer Pact of 1921
A machinist from Városlőd in Veszprém County, he led the metalworkers’ and miners’ unions. He ran the mining sector under the Soviet Republic in 1919 and after its fall was interior minister in the Peidl government and minister of labour and welfare under Huszár. When the Social Democrats boycotted the election because of the terror, he resigned in January 1920 and fled to Austria. Back in 1921, he concluded the pact with Bethlen’s government; he was a deputy from 1922 to 1944 and from 1927 general secretary of the Trade Union Council. In 1944 he was held in Mauthausen. Opposing the post-war merger with the Communists, he was expelled in 1947, emigrated to the United States and died in New York in 1956.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1913Organises the miners’ union
- 1919Interior minister; minister of labour and welfare
- 1920–1921Exile in Austria
- 1921Bethlen–Peyer Pact
- 1922–1944Member of parliament
- 1944–1945Held in Mauthausen
- 1947Expelled from the party; emigrates to the United States