People of the Revolution and the USSR

Albert Apponyi

Apponyi Albert

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

Joseph August

Joseph August von Österreich

Habsburg archduke and last field marshal of the Austro-Hungarian army who briefly declared himself regent of Hungary in August 1919

Born at Alcsút in Hungary into the Hungarian or Palatinal branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, he entered the army in 1890, commanded a corps, an army and army groups in the First World War and on 24 October 1918 became the last field marshal of the Austro-Hungarian army. On 27 October Emperor Charles made him homo regius of Hungary, but the Aster Revolution put an end to his plans. After the fall of the Soviet Republic he became head of state in August 1919 as regent for Charles and appointed István Friedrich prime minister, but when it became clear that the Allies would not recognise a Habsburg as head of state he was forced to resign on 23 August. In the Horthy era he was president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 1936 to 1944. He left Hungary in 1944 and died in Rain, West Germany, in 1962.

Career timeline
  • 1890Commissioned
  • 1914–1918Corps, army and army group commander
  • 1918Austro-Hungarian field marshal; homo regius of Hungary
  • 1919Regent of Hungary
  • 1927Member of the House of Magnates
  • 1936–1944President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Antal Lehár

Lehár Antal

Legitimist general who led counter-revolutionary troops in western Hungary and joined both of King Charles’s return attempts in 1921

Born in Sopron and trained at the cadet school and war college in Vienna, he was the younger brother of the composer Ferenc Lehár. His First World War service won him the Knight’s Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa and a barony. During the Soviet Republic he raised a force of some 2,000 men in Graz, and in August 1919 he became military commander of Western Hungary, where his troops carried out reprisals against Communists and Social Democrats. A legitimist, he placed himself at King Charles’s disposal in March 1921 and was named defence minister in the second attempt that October; when it failed he fled through Czechoslovakia to Germany. He later lived in Berlin and Vienna, administered his brother’s estate, and died in Vienna in 1962.

Career timeline
  • 1893Graduates from the cadet school in Vienna
  • 1918Military Order of Maria Theresa; barony
  • 1919Raises troops in Graz; military commander of Western Hungary
  • 1921King Charles’s two return attempts
  • 1921Flees to Germany

József Mindszenty

Mindszenty József
Monarchy and royalism Hungary Hungarian; family of German origin 1892–1975 ○ Died in exile in Vienna

Archbishop of Esztergom and cardinal sentenced to life in a 1949 show trial, who sheltered in the US embassy in Budapest from 1956

Born at Csehimindszent in Vas County into a family with a German surname, he was ordained in 1915 and in 1919 was arrested by the Károlyi and then the Kun government. He later took the name Mindszenty from his home village. Consecrated Bishop of Veszprém in March 1944, he was arrested by the Arrow Cross government in November and released in April 1945. Appointed Archbishop of Esztergom and Primate in 1945 and made a cardinal in 1946, he resisted the Communists, notably over church schools. Arrested in December 1948 and beaten until he confessed, he was sentenced to life imprisonment at a show trial in February 1949. Freed during the 1956 revolution, he took refuge in the US embassy when the Soviets invaded and stayed there fifteen years. Allowed to leave in 1971, he settled in Vienna; in February 1974 Paul VI declared the see of Esztergom vacant, and he died in Vienna in 1975.

Career timeline
  • 1915Ordained priest
  • 1919Arrested by the Károlyi and Béla Kun governments
  • 1944Bishop of Veszprém; arrested by the Arrow Cross government in November
  • 1945–1974Archbishop of Esztergom, Primate of Hungary
  • 1946Made a cardinal
  • 1948–1949Arrested; sentenced to life at a show trial
  • 1956–1971Freed in the revolution; refuge in the US embassy in Budapest
  • 1971–1975Exile in Vienna