Árpád Szakasits

Árpád Szakasits, 1949

Árpád Szakasits [ ˈaːrpaːd ˈsɒkɒʃitʃ ] (born December 6, 1888 in Budapest , Austria-Hungary ; † May 3, 1965 in Budapest) was a Hungarian politician and president.

Start of political career and World War II

The trained road builder and carpenter became a member of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party (SZDP) in 1918 . He later joined the left wing of the party and was first deputy chairman from 1925-28, and then until 1938 chairman of the social democratic construction workers' union. In the following years there were repeated conflicts in this activity with the then imperial administrator Miklós Horthy . During the Second World War he became an opponent of Horthy's alliance with the German Empire .

In 1939 he became general secretary of the SZDP and a year later also editor-in-chief of the SZDP party organ " Népszava ".

When, after the failed attempt by the Horthy government to conclude a separate peace with the Allies , the Hungarian National Socialist Party of the Arrow Cross took power in October 1944, Szakasits tried to arm the workers .

Liberation of Hungary and promotion to president

The Social Democrats and the Communists merge in 1948

After the liberation of Hungary in March 1945, Szakasits became a member of the National Assembly and general secretary of the Social Democratic Party.

In the following years the left wing of the party around György Marosán sought cooperation with the Communist Party under Mátyás Rákosi . The opponents of this cooperation like Anna Kéthly were expelled from the party. Even if Szakisits was still an opponent of the cooperation in February 1948, the merger with the Communist Party finally took place in June 1948. Szakasits then became the first president of the new Hungarian Working People's Party (MDP).

From 1948 to 1950 and from 1958 to 1965 he was a member of the Central Committee (ZK) of the MDP and the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (USAP) .

Promotion to President

Szakasits had been Deputy Prime Minister in the cabinets of Zoltán Tildy , Ferenc Nagy and Lajos Dinnyés since November 15, 1945 .

On August 2, 1948 he was elected President of the Republic to succeed Zoltán Tildy . After the founding of the People's Republic of Hungary on August 20, 1949, he took over the office of Chairman of the Presidential Council.

In April 1950 he was asked to resign by the MDP First Secretary Mátyás Rákosi . The reason for this was an allegedly incriminating letter accusing Szakasits of cooperating with Reichsverweser Horthy in order to suppress the workers. On April 26, 1950, he actually resigned from the office of Chairman of the Presidential Council. A short time later he was arrested by the secret service and later sentenced to life imprisonment. After he was released from prison in 1953, his rehabilitation took place after the popular uprising of 1956 .

From 1958 until his death, Szakasits was chairman of the Association of Journalists. In addition, he was Vice President from 1958 to 1963 and then President of the National Peace Council until his death.

source

• Biography on the homepage of the Institute for the History of the Popular Uprising of 1956
• List of Hungarian governments since 1945 ( memento of October 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

• Newspaper article about Árpád Szakasits in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .