Transylvanian aristocrat who, as prime minister in 1921–1931, consolidated the Horthy regime with a restricted franchise and a League loan
Scion of an old Transylvanian noble family, he entered parliament as a liberal in 1901. He joined the counter-revolution in Szeged in 1919 and became prime minister in April 1921, after King Charles’s first return attempt. He founded the Unity Party, secured its victories by restoring the open ballot in the countryside with the Franchise Act of 1922, concluded a pact with the Social Democrats, and stabilised the economy through League of Nations membership and a loan. He resigned in the Depression in 1931 and in 1941 opposed war with the Soviet Union. Arrested by the Soviets in 1945, he died in a Moscow prison in 1946.
Career timeline
- 1901Enters parliament as a liberal
- 1919Joins the Szeged counter-revolution
- 1921–1931Prime minister
- 1921Bethlen–Peyer Pact
- 1922Founds the Unity Party; Franchise Act
- 1924League of Nations loan
- 1945–1946Arrested by the Soviets; dies in a Moscow prison
Right-radical officer who organised the Szeged National Army and as prime minister in 1932–1936 steered Hungary towards Italy and Germany
Born in Murga, Tolna County, the son of the village schoolmaster, he served as an Austro-Hungarian officer in the First World War. In Szeged in 1919 he founded the paramilitary MOVE and played a leading role in organising Horthy’s National Army, and in 1921 he led the armed opposition to King Charles’s return. He became defence minister in Bethlen’s government in 1929 and prime minister in 1932. He aligned with Mussolini, signing the Rome Protocols in 1934, and as the first foreign head of government to visit Hitler concluded a trade agreement with Germany. He died of illness in Munich in 1936.
Career timeline
- 1919Founds MOVE; organises the National Army
- 1921Opposes King Charles’s return by force
- 1929Defence minister
- 1932–1936Prime minister
- 1934Signs the Rome Protocols
Gömbös’s successor as prime minister in 1936–1938, who announced the Győr programme and introduced the First Jewish Law
Born in Budapest, he began his civil-service career in Pest County in 1909 and after the revolutions was head of Győr and Komárom counties. He entered parliament in 1927 and became Gömbös’s minister of agriculture in 1935. Succeeding Gömbös as prime minister in October 1936, he promised a return to Bethlen’s constitutional course and in 1937 banned the Party of National Will and had Szálasi imprisoned. In March 1938 he announced the Győr programme, but after the Anschluss he brought pro-German politicians into the cabinet and negotiated with the extreme right, and resigned in May. The First Jewish Law his government introduced passed under Imrédy, and from December 1938 until his death he was Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Career timeline
- 1909Civil servant in Pest County
- 1920sHead of Győr and Komárom counties
- 1927Member of parliament
- 1935Minister of agriculture
- 1936–1938Prime minister
- 1938Announces the Győr programme
- 1938–1939Speaker of the House of Representatives
National radical politician who denounced the Novi Sad massacre in parliament and was executed for preparing an anti-Nazi uprising
He was born at Szarvas. In 1923 he founded the Guardians of Race Party with Gömbös but drew away, forming the National Radical Party in 1930; in the 1930s he turned to speaking out against antisemitism. In 1939 he returned to parliament for the Independent Smallholders’ Party. Turning against the war in late 1941, he called in the Christmas issue of Népszava for an Independence Front to take Hungary out of the war and bring land reform and universal suffrage; in January 1942 he warned Bárdossy of the coming Novi Sad massacre and then denounced it in parliament as “a state-organized pogrom”. Wounded in a gunfight resisting arrest when the Germans occupied Hungary on 19 March 1944, he was freed in October and in November elected president of the Liberation Committee of the Hungarian National Uprising, but was arrested again and hanged at Sopronkőhida on 24 December.
Career timeline
- 1908Doctorate in law
- 1914–1918Served with the hussars
- 1922Elected deputy for the Unity Party
- 1923Co-founded the Guardians of Race Party with Gömbös
- 1930Founded the National Radical Party
- 1939–1944Deputy for the Independent Smallholders’ Party
- 1944President of the Liberation Committee; arrested and executed
Wartime prime minister who refused German deportation demands and sought a secret armistice with the Western Allies
From an old gentry family of Szabolcs County, he was a county lord-lieutenant and minister of agriculture from 1932 to 1935, a conservative of the Bethlen school. In 1941 he voted in the upper house against the Third Jewish Law. Made prime minister at Horthy’s request in March 1942, he kept up the war against the Soviet Union while refusing German demands to deport Hungary’s Jews and negotiating an armistice with the Western Allies. A secret preliminary armistice was signed off Istanbul in September 1943, but when Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944 he was ousted and hid in the Turkish legation. Captured in October 1944, he was held in Dachau and Mauthausen until freed in 1945; he went into exile in 1946 and died in New York.
Career timeline
- 1921–1929Lord-lieutenant of Szabolcs County
- 1929–1931Deputy under-secretary, Ministry of Trade
- 1932–1935Minister of agriculture
- 1942–1944Prime minister; secret armistice talks with the Allies
- 1944–1945Refuge in the Turkish legation; Dachau and Mauthausen
- 1946–1967Exile; settled in the United States
White Terror commander whose detachment around Kecskemét carried out the Orgovány killings and the Izsák pogrom
Born into a wealthy peasant family in Kecskemét, he was a fighter pilot in the Austro-Hungarian Aviation Troops by the end of the First World War. In Szeged in 1919 Horthy’s chief of staff ordered him to “make order” around Kecskemét, and he became the de facto military governor of the Danube–Tisza Interfluve. His men took abducted people to the forest of Orgovány to be tortured and executed and staged a pogrom at Izsák; about a third of their victims were Jewish. Because he did not back King Charles’s return in 1921, Horthy’s amnesty shielded him, and he sat in parliament from 1927 to 1931. After the war he was sentenced to death in absentia, and he died of illness in Vigo, Spain, in 1950.
Career timeline
- 1916–1918Serves in the Austro-Hungarian army; fighter pilot
- 1919Commands the detachment around Kecskemét
- 1919Orgovány killings; Izsák pogrom
- 1921Uprising in West Hungary
- 1927–1931Member of parliament
- 1944–1950Exile; sentenced to death in absentia
