István Friedrich

István Friedrich
Friedrich in August 1919
Personnel
Surname	István Friedrich
position	Winger
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
	Műegyetemi AFC
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1904	Hungary	1
1 Only league games are given.

István Friedrich (born July 1, 1883 in Malacka , Austria-Hungary ; died November 25, 1951 in Vác , People's Republic of Hungary ) was a Hungarian footballer, politician and manufacturer who served as Prime Minister of Hungary for three months between August and November 1919 . His tenure fell in a period of revolutions and interventions in Hungary (1918-20) immediately after the First World War , at a time when the government changed frequently.

Life

youth

István Friedrich was born on July 1, 1883 in Malacka (today: Malacky, Slovakia ) into a family of German origin. His parents were the pharmacist János Friedrich and Erzsébet Wagner. He began his education at the High Gymnasium of Pozsony (in today's Bratislava , Slovakia). He played as a right winger at the soccer club Műegyetemi AFC and took part in a game of the Hungarian national soccer team on October 9, 1904, which ended with a 4-5 defeat against the Austrian national soccer team . This made Friedrich the first Prime Minister in history to have played football at professional level. After this game he acted as referee.

He studied engineering at the University of Budapest until 1905 and at the Technical University of Berlin before moving to Budapest and Berlin Jura studied. Until 1908 he worked as an engineer for AEG in Berlin. In the same year he returned to Hungary and married Margit Asbóth , the daughter of Emil Asbóth , the owner of the Ganz-Danubius Company , one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Hungary at that time. However, he does not work for his father-in-law, but built up his own company in Mátyásföld , on the outskirts of Budapest . He was engaged in mechanical engineering and owned an iron foundry. He sold the company in 1920.

In 1912 he joined the independence party of Mihály Károlyi and was counted to the left wing of the Liberals. During this time he also came into contact with a Masonic lodge . Soon afterwards he became president of his party's local association in Mátyásföld. In 1914 he accompanied Mihály Károlyi to the United States. Since then he has been one of Károly's closest friends. Károlyi remembers him as “youthful, idealistic and enthusiastic” and valued him for his “firm will to peace”. On the way back, Friedrich was briefly interned in France when the First World War broke out. He fled via Spain and Italy and, on his return to Hungary, volunteered in the land forces of Austria-Hungary , where he served as a lieutenant in the artillery . One of the locations was the Ushok Pass in Carpathian Ukraine . When he was declared unfit for duty for the front, he came to the rear and worked in the Škoda works in Pilsen and in the arsenal in Vienna , then as commander of a repair unit until his demobilization in 1917.

Mihály Károlyi's cabinet and the Soviet Republic

During the aster revolution at the end of the First World War, he led protests at the Castle Palace in Budapest calling for the establishment of the Károlyi government; he actively participated in the "Battle of the Chain Bridge " on October 28, 1918 and was wounded in the process. After the formation of the government on October 31, he was appointed Secretary of State for War in Károlyi's first cabinet on November 1. At that time, Károlyi described Friedrich as an "uncontrollable demagogue". The old enthusiasm between the Prime Minister and his Deputy Minister quickly cooled. Friedrich joined the more conservative forces, while Károlyi relied more and more on the Social Democrats .

Károlyi described himself as a supporter of Woodrow Wilson's 14-point program and thus joined the Entente powers . He hoped this would give Hungary territorial unity, a separate peace treaty and advantages through its relations with France. In contrast, Friedrich, as a prominent member of the moderates, rejected Károlyi's "naive" foreign policy and fought to build a strong army under the leadership of the officers. In doing so, he also contradicted Béla Linder's pacifist manifesto . After Linder was released, Friedrich worked closely with Albert Bartha , the new defense minister. He also maintained relationships with counter-revolutionary groups and tended more and more towards the political right.

When the party finally disintegrated in January 1919, Friedrich also left, along with the majority, while Károlyi could not even rally a quarter of the members. Friedrich was dismissed as State Secretary on February 8, 1919 and formed an opposition party together with other former cabinet members. His colleagues included the former Minister of Education, Márton Lovászy, and the former Minister of the Interior, Tivadar Batthyány . That is why Friedrich was later viewed by some former colleagues ( Lajos Varjassy , Oszkár Jászi , Mihály Károlyi) as a traitor who had defected to the reactionary forces and betrayed the liberal democracy in Hungary.

After the resignation of the coalition government of Dénes Berinkey on March 20, 1919, due to a move by the Entente to reduce the territory of Hungary again, the Social Democrats appointed the Communists to a coalition government, which took office the following day, and the Federal Hungarian Socialists Räterepublik founded. Most prominent liberals left the country or fled to rural areas. Lovászy and Friedrich, however, stayed in the capital. In the face of the Hungarian-Romanian War , the new Soviet government took many hostages. On April 19, the authorities arrested Friedrich and sentenced him to death for anti-revolutionary activities. With the help of People's Commissar Zsigmond Kunfi , a former cabinet member under Károlyi, he was able to avert the sentence and soon afterwards, with the help of some of his workers, managed to flee. He remained in hiding until the end of Béla Kun's government on August 1, 1919.

Coup in 1919

Romanian occupation troops in Budapest , 1919. Friedrich came to power during the Romanian occupation as the Romanians remained politically neutral and the British and Italians quietly gave their support.

During his internal exile, Friedrich made the acquaintance of the "Association of Comrades of the White House" (Fehérház Bajtársi Egyesület), a right-wing anti-revolutionary group that emerged from a secret society of intellectuals founded by the dentist and well-known anti-Semite András Csilléry in 1916 was. At first, Friedrich was skeptical of the group and refused to join. He joined forces with Lovászy and Bartha to prepare for a new government because it was expected that the Kun regime would collapse soon.

Friedrich tried to negotiate with the new moderate Prime Minister Gyula Peidl , a social democrat, to form a coalition government, then he sought support for a conservative government through the representatives of the Triple Entente . Both negotiations failed and since he was aware of the conspiracies of the reactionaries, he decided to join the Comradeship of the White House to exert influence. The first meeting of the conspirators took place on August 1, 1919, and it was decided that they would seize power on August 5, before the Prime Minister had a chance to strike an accord with the Entente, thereby consolidating his power or he could form a new coalition with the middle class parties. The conspirators informed Guido Romanelli , the representative of the Entente, of their plan. He refused it while the commander of the Romanian occupation forces accepted it kindly on the condition that the activities would not cause chaos and that the leaders of the coup act quickly.

The conspirators who supported Friedrich were not politicians, but bourgeoisie (civil servants, professors, dentists, etc.) with radical right-wing views ( anti-Semitic , anti-democratic and anti-monarchical). Her first candidate for the post of prime minister was Gyula Pekár , a little successful writer, but who was close to the former prime minister István Tisza . A few days later, Frederick recommended his friend Márton Lovászy for the office, but the leaders of the White House spoke out against it for ideological reasons. On August 4, 1919, Friedrich led the delegation to the monarchy, which persuaded Archduke Joseph August of Austria to go to Budapest that night and carry out the coup that was to overthrow Peidl's government, which was controlled by trade unionists. However, despite the great prestige that he enjoyed in Hungary, Joseph was unpopular with members of the White House for supporting the aster revolution.

On August 5, Vilmos Bohm , the envoy in Vienna, called Budapest to inform his government of a meeting with representatives of the Entente at which they had agreed to a minor reorganization of Peidl's cabinet instead of the formation of a grand coalition. A White House spy briefed Csilléry on the content of the conversation. Böhm's call confirmed the conspirators' greatest fears: the Entente representatives were ready to recognize Peidl's cabinet. The leaders of the White House were forced to act.

They took control of the police and several military units in the capital on August 6, 1919. General Ferenc Schnetzer and Jakab Bleyer in particular became active, who first arrested Károly Peyer , the interior minister, and learned from him that the rest of the cabinet was closed had gathered in the Palais Sándor , where the ministers were captured by the conspirators. At the same time they had occupied the Ministry of Defense without resistance. Peidl's cabinet was forced to resign and the conspirators promised to form a coalition government. Friedrich's involvement in the coup was minimal, especially as he always advocated solving problems through negotiations. The historian Eva S. Balogh writes that he tried to found a government similar to the early regime under Károlyi, where the Social Democrats had little influence on state affairs.

prime minister

Friedrich with some of his ministers in 1919.

After the coup d'état, which came about only through the neutrality of the Romanians and the silent tolerance of the British and the Italians , Friedrich was named Prime Minister on August 7, 1919 and the Archduke became regent. After a one-week transition period until August 15, the cabinet was set up, which consisted mainly of former members of the Károlyi government, mostly conservative men from the Independence Party. Friedrich founded his own party, the Christian National Party (Keresztény Nemzeti Pártja, KNP), but found little support. He was far too far to the left for the counterrevolutionaries with whom he had carried out the coup and tried, ultimately in vain, to continue the moderate program that Károlyi had already pursued. His government was even weaker than Peidl's and consisted largely of conspirators and strangers. Frederick could not expect any help from the British or Italians, as they had no troops nearby, and the Romanians, whose troops occupied the city and the eastern parts of the country, were not ready to support either. The government in Bucharest refused to recognize Friedrich's cabinet. The government of Szeged and the French immediately pressed for the government to be overthrown, or at least for the composition of the cabinet to be changed. The neighboring states feared a restoration of the House of Habsburg , supported the position of the French and went into opposition to the appointment of Archduke Joseph.

After the seizure of power, Friedrich tried to avoid settling accounts with the criminals of the former governments, but had little success. Attacks were soon launched against Jews , accused by many reactionaries of supporting the Soviet government and of being implicated in all other crimes of the period. Nevertheless, Friedrich managed to put together a grand coalition government by mid-August, even though it did not include the socialists. Without the socialists, however, the Entente again refused recognition. The Entente feared that the government could reinstate the monarchy with a ruler from the old imperial family.

On August 7th, Friedrich abolished the institutions of the Hungarian Socialist Council Republic and allowed private property in industry, trade and agriculture again.

On August 23, the Archduke decided to resign from the reign before the opposition formed. With this, Friedrich lost one of his pillars of government and the post of head of state remained vacant.

Miklós Horthy the main competitor for power. As a man in the army, he had less political support than Friedrich, but was nevertheless able to gradually seize power.

His efforts to train a military that would be loyal to the government, independent of the Royal Hungarian Army and theoretically subordinate to the government of Szeged, failed due to the opposition of the Romanians. The few units he was able to bring together largely deserted to Miklós Horthy as soon as they arrived in Szeged after the city had been left by the Romanian troops.

Militarily restricted, Friedrich tried in the course of August and September to underpin his government politically by adjusting his cabinet and first admitting members of the left, then again the right, without, however, gaining recognition from the Entente. With every government reshuffle, exiles, especially Viennese counter-revolutionaries, gained more influence. And although recognition could not be achieved, the result was a powerful new party, the Christian National Union Party (Keresztény Nemzeti Egyesülés Pártja KNEP). This party, which was formed in October, brought together the most important politicians from the northwestern territories of Hungary, as well as the Catholic Church and certain refugees from Transylvania , such as the group around István Bethlen and Pál Teleki . Sections of the upper class of the bourgeoisie also supported the new organization. The government in Szeged, which had recognized Frederick's government, had disappeared. The biggest weakness now was the military and the uncertainty whether Horthy would subordinate the national army to the government, which he did not.

Friedrich tried to gain loyalty by appointing himself Chief Commander of the Hungarian Army, although he already held the position. Still, he could not get Horthy to submit to his government, nor could he move his seat of government to the capital. Meanwhile, Horthy controlled the western territories with the help of his officers and bypassed the official officers who were loyal to the government.

At the beginning of November the Romanians were ready to leave the capital and the whole area west of the Tisza , which was controlled by the troops of Horthy. This made the lack of influence of government forces abundantly clear. Faced with the danger that the officers of Horthy could spread the White Terror , the Allies and representatives close to the government tried to convince Horthy that he should prevent the collapse in the capital. And although he initially promised to subordinate the army to a new coalition government, he revoked and retained control himself. The large number of prisoners under his command was increased after he entered the capital. Political prisoners filled all prisons.

On November 17, the Friedrich Cabinet issued a decree by the Prime Minister (ME 5985/1919) granting universal suffrage and secret elections for all citizens (including women) from the age of 24. This means that 74% of the adult population (40% of the total population) Access to the elections for the Hungarian parliamentary election in 1920, which remained the most democratic election in history until the general election in 1945 . Three million citizens thus had the right to vote. The first universal suffrage in Hungary turned out to be short-lived, as in early 1922, at the beginning of the era of consolidation, the Bethlen cabinet again imposed numerous restrictions and abolished secret elections in the country by a decree of the Prime Minister (ME 2200/1922), whereby 12% of the population lost the right to vote again and only 28% of the total population were entitled to vote.

Friedrich remained in office as Prime Minister until November 24th, and then moved to the Ministry of Defense until March 15, 1920. This position was of little importance, since the troops only obeyed Horthy anyway. Pressure from the socialist left and reactionaries led by Horthy, both supported by representatives of the Entente, led to Friedrich's abdication. The new government, in which he still had a seat, was a coalition cabinet made up of socialists, liberals and agrarians , but was controlled by the KNEP. It was headed by Károly Huszár , but had little political influence and few supporters. It was elected because the candidacy of Horthy and his supporters and Albert Apponyi had been rejected. Friedrich supporters occupied key ministries, but control of the army was with Horthy and his independence from the government thwarted Friedrich's ability to exercise political power.

End of life

In the February 1920 elections, Friedrich was elected by the KNEP, but immediately formed his own group with his supporters - one of several that arose from the parties. He was a member of a small group of Christian Democrats from 1920 to 1939. In 1921 he was charged with the murder of István Tisza , but managed to be acquitted. In November, however, he was arrested again as a participant in the failed attempt to re-enthrone Charles I. soon afterwards he finally disappeared from the political stage.

In July 1951 he was arrested by the Hungarian People's Republic under Mátyás Rákosi and falsely charged with planning a coup. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but died on November 25, 1951. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1990.

literature

• Eva S. Balogh: 'Istvan Friedrich and the Hungarian coup d'etat of 1919: A Reevaluation' . In: Slavic Review 1976, 35, 2: pp. 269-286.
• László Markó: A magyar állam főméltóságai Szent Istvántól napjainkig: Életrajzi Lexicon [Major state officials in Hungary from King St. Stephen to our days: A Biographical Encyclopedia] Magyar Könyklub 2006. ISBN 963-547-085-1
• Istvan I. Mocsy: The Uprooted: Hungarian Refugees and Their Impact on Hungary's Domestic Politics, 1918-1921 (English). East European Monographs 2006: 252. ISBN 978-0-88033-039-8
• Ignác Romsics: Választójog és parliamentarizmus a 20th századi magyar történelemben . In: Ignác Romsics (ed.): Múltról a mának . Osiris 2001. ISBN 963-389-596-0
• Wojciech Roszkowski, Jan Kofman: Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century (English). Routledge 2016: 1208. ISBN 978-1-317-47594-1
• Sándor Szilassy: Hungary at the Brink of the Cliff 1918-1919 . In: East European Quarterly 3, 1: 95-109.
• István Vida: Magyarországi politikai pártok lexikona (1846–2010). [Encyclopedia of Political Parties in Hungary (1846-2010)]. Gondolat Kiadó 2011: 187. ISBN 978-963-693-276-3
• István Vida: Revolutionary Hungary 1918-1921 (English). Danubian Press 1971: 141. ISBN 978-0-87934-005-6

Web links

Commons : István Friedrich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

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2. ↑ Tóth-Szenesi Attila: A fociválogatottban játszott, később miniszterelnök lett. Index.hu April 17, 2017. [1]
3. ↑ Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 266.
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5. ↑ Balogh 1976: 272.
6. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 55. Balogh 1976: 272. Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 266th
7. ↑ Balogh 1976: 272.
8. ↑ Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 266.
9. ↑ Balogh 1976: 272.
10. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 55th
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12. ↑ Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 266.
13. ↑ Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 266.
14. ↑ Balogh 1976: 272-273. Szilassy 1971: 55. Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 266.
15. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 55. Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 266th
16. ↑ ^{a b} Sándor Szilassy: Hungary at the Brink of the Cliff 1918-1919. In: East European Quarterly 3 (1), 1969: 95-109.
17. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 55th
18. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 55th
19. ↑ Balogh 1976: 273.
20. ^ Markó 2006: 156.
21. ↑ Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 266
22. ↑ Balogh 1976: 274.
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33. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 55. Balogh 1976: 278th
34. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 56. Balogh 1976: 279-280.
35. ↑ Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 267.
36. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 56th
37. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 135.Szilassy 1971: 56.
38. ↑ Balogh 1976: 278.
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41. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 55th
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45. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 61st
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48. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 62nd
49. ↑ Balogh 1976: 281.
50. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 135
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52. ↑ Balogh 1976: 281, 283.
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54. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 135.
55. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 137.
56. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 135.
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62. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 68
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65. ^ Roszkowski, Kofman: 2016: 267
66. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 55. Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 267, respectively.
67. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 67th
68. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 136.
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70. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 138.
71. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 138. Szilassy 1971: 69th
72. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 139.
73. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 139.
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75. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 140
76. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 140
77. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 141.
78. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 141.
79. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 141.
80. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 151.
81. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 68th
82. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 151.
83. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 155.
84. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 156.
85. ↑ Romsics 2001: 75th
86. ↑ Romsics 2001: 88th
87. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 69th
88. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 155.
89. ↑ Szilassy 1971: 69. Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 267, respectively.
90. ↑ Balogh 1976: 286.
91. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 155.
92. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 155.
93. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 155.
94. ↑ Mocsy 1983: 168.
95. ↑ Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 267.
96. ↑ Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 267.
97. ↑ Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 267.
98. ↑ Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 267.
99. ↑ Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 267.
100. ↑ Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 266-267.
101. ↑ Roszkowski, Kofman 2016: 267.