Géza Lakatos

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Géza Lakatos

Géza Lakatos ( Hungarian vitéz lófő csíkszentsimoni Lakatos Géza ; full German name: Geza Ritter Lakatos, Edler von Csikszentsimon) (born April 30, 1890 in Budapest ; † May 24, 1967 in Adelaide ) was an Austro-Hungarian and Hungarian officer in the Hungarian armed forces in the First and Second World Wars . Most recently he held the rank of Colonel General . In this rank he served under the government of Miklós Horthy for a month and a half in 1944 as Prime Minister of Hungary . Lakatos was the holder of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross , which was only awarded to eight Hungarian citizens. After the war, Lakatos was ostracized in the People's Republic of Hungary . He then used a trip to Australia in 1965 to emigrate.

biography

Austria-Hungary and World War I

Lakatos was born on April 30, 1890, the twin son of a middle-class family in Budapest . His twin brother was named Kálmán. Both brothers first attended the Piarist grammar school before the early death of their father forced them to switch to the Honvéd secondary school in Sopron . After its completion, both brothers applied for admission to the Ludovika Academy . After their successful completion, both Géza and Kálmán were promoted to lieutenants on August 18, 1910 . Both brothers were transferred to the Royal Hungarian 1st Infantry Regiment that day . In 1912 Géza Lakatos transferred to the Royal Hungarian 14th Infantry Regiment , where he and his brother attended the Higher Officers School for Honvéd officers in Vienna until 1913 . In 1913 Lakatos returned to the Royal Hungarian 1st Infantry Regiment and was promoted to first lieutenant on August 1, 1914 . The outbreak of the First World War separated the twin brothers.

In September 1914, his twin brother Kálmán fell. Although they searched for the remains of his brother for a long time, he was not found. Lakatos was wounded by gunshot in the stomach on the Eastern Front that same year . After his recovery he was transferred to the Royal Hungarian 1st Honvéd District Command on December 22, 1914 , in which he remained until the end of April 1915. He was then a staff officer in the Royal Hungarian 128th Honvéd Infantry Brigade until mid-July 1915, where he was active in counter-espionage there. From July 14, 1915, he was employed as a staff officer in the Royal Hungarian 38th Honvéd Infantry Division . From December 1916, beyond the end of the war, he then acted as a liaison officer to the German army. Here Lakatos had already been promoted to captain in the general staff on May 1, 1917 .

After the First World War, Lakatos served as an adjutant to the Commander- in -Chief of the Hungarian Red Army Vilmos Böhm and from September 1919 to October 1920 as Chief of Staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the Hungarian Police in Budapest.

Horthy era and World War II

After his police service, Lakatos attended the Military Academy in Budapest until 1921. He then served as a professor at the Ludovika Academy until 1923 . There he taught warfare and army organization. In 1923 he moved to the War Ministry , where he was deployed in various departments until May 1928. It was here that Lakatos was promoted to major on May 1, 1925 . In 1925 he also received the honorary title Vitez . From May 7, 1928 to April 16, 1934, Lakatos was a military attaché at the Royal Hungarian Embassy in Prague . During this time he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on May 1, 1929 . After his return to Hungary, Lakatos was assigned to the Royal Hungarian 13th Honvéd Infantry Regiment "Görgey Artúr" , where on November 1, 1934 he was promoted to colonel . On May 1, 1934, Lakatos resigned from this regiment and was also appointed Chief of the General Staff of the 7th Mixed Brigade , a function that Lakatos held until May 1, 1938. He then commanded the 1st mixed brigade as well as commander of the 3rd Honvéd Infantry Brigade until the beginning of March 1940, from November 1, 1939 with the rank of major general .

From March 1940 to early August 1941 he was Chief of the General Staff of the 2nd Hungarian Army . On August 1, 1941, he was appointed commanding general of the VIII. Corps in Kassa , where he was promoted to lieutenant general on November 1, 1941 . On May 1, 1943, Lakatos was appointed commander of the Hungarian occupation forces in the Soviet Union. The command post was Kiev . Lakatos were subordinate to nine divisions to secure the rear army area . The primary task was to secure traffic routes and bridges. On August 1, 1943, Lakatos gave up this command and was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 2nd Hungarian Army with simultaneous promotion to Colonel-General on that day . The 2nd Army was at this time in a desolate state. Lakatos managed to talk to Hitler personally in the course of which he hoped to improve his army. The conversation took place on March 9, 1944. Hitler promised an improvement, but it was not fulfilled. Instead, the Hungarian units were recruited from Lakatos' army to stabilize the German fronts. On April 1, 1944, Lakatos was appointed Commander in Chief of the 1st Hungarian Army , which he commanded only until May 26, 1944. As early as May 5, 1944, Lakatos was informed by Defense Minister Cstay that he was earmarked for political office. Colonel General Károly Beregfy took command of the 1st Army .

Arrived in Budapest, Horthy informed him that he should be appointed Prime Minister. On August 29, 1944, the government of Döme Sztójay was overthrown and Lakatos was charged with forming a government. He was also given the task of letting Hungary withdraw from the war in the course of a secret armistice with the Western Allies. The project failed because the Western Allies referred him to the Soviet Union. Lakatos' military government stopped the deportation of Hungarian Jews . In order to overthrow Lakatos, the German command company "Panzerfaust" kidnapped Miklós Horthy Jr. (1907-1993), the son of the Reich Administrator, on October 15, 1944, under the leadership of Otto Skorzeny . Thereupon Horthy proclaimed over the radio that he had asked for an armistice for Hungary. The Arrow Cross deposed Horthy on the same day and installed a fascist government under Ferenc Szálasi . Lakatos had to resign on the same day and was placed under house arrest by the Arrow Cross in Sopron from October 21, 1944 to April 1, 1945 .

Post-war years

He was then interned in the Soviet Union from April 1, 1945 to January 29, 1946. In 1951 he was resettled in his homeland, as part of a further restriction against himself, from the city to the countryside, where the former colonel general had to make a living himself. After the withdrawal of the "resettlement program" under Imre Nagy , Lakatos moved first to Érd , then to Budapest. His daughter had emigrated to Australia in the meantime . In 1965 Lakatos was allowed to visit her; However, he never returned to Hungary and died in Adelaide on May 21, 1967 of a cerebral haemorrhage .

Awards

National awards

Foreign awards

literature

  • Géza Lakatos: As I saw it: the tragedy of Hungary. Universe Publishing, Englewood (New Jersey) 1993.
  • CA Macartney: October Fifteenth - A History of Modern Hungary, 1929-1945. 2 volumes, Edinburgh University Press, 1956–57.
  • Attilla Ótott Kovács: The Hungarian holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-938845-02-8 , pp. 60-72.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Kovács p. 60.
  2. ↑ a b c d Kovács p. 61.
  3. ↑ a b c Kovács p. 72.
  4. ↑ a b Kovács p. 62.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Kovács p. 71.
  6. ↑ Kovács p. 63.
  7. ↑ a b Kovács p. 65.
  8. ↑ Kovács p. 68.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Kovács p. 69.
  10. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Kovács p. 70.
personal data
SURNAME Lakatos, Géza
ALTERNATIVE NAMES vitéz lófő csíkszentsimoni Lakatos Géza (Hungarian); Geza Ritter Lakatos, Edler von Csikszentsimon (full German name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian general
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1967
Place of death Adelaide