József Marjai

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József Marjai (born December 18, 1923 in Budapest ; † before or on May 7, 2014 there ) was a Hungarian diplomat and politician of the Hungarian Communist Party MKP (Magyar Kommunista Párt) , the party of the Hungarian working people MDP (Magyar Dolgozók Pártja) as well later the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party MSZMP (Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt) , who was ambassador in several countries and most recently from 1978 to 1988 deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers.

Life

Second World War, prisoner of war and ambassador

Marjai, the son of a tram conductor, was already involved in the labor movement during his school days and completed his school education in 1941 at a commercial college. He then worked as an employee and became a member of the Hungarian Communist Party in 1943, before he was obliged to work in the Danube Aircraft Works (Dunai Repülőgépgyár) during the Second World War in 1944 . In 1945 he became a Soviet prisoner of war .

After his return from captivity, Marjai became a civil servant in the Ministry of Trade and Cooperatives in 1947, before moving to the foreign service as a diplomat in 1948. After various posts, he became head of the Protocol Department of the Foreign Ministry in 1953 and was then head of the Political Department of the Foreign Ministry between 1955 and 1956. After the Hungarian uprising in 1956, he was initially ambassador to Switzerland . During this time there was an attack on the Hungarian embassy on August 16, 1958, which ended fatally for one intruder. Shortly before 10 a.m., the Hungarian refugees Sandor Nagy and Endre Papp entered the Hungarian embassy under the pretext that they wanted papers for their return home. In the building, they drew their pistols and asked the ambassador to hand them over documents from the notorious AVO secret service . The two did not have a plan for their escape, and they apparently did not know what to expect at the embassy: The embassy staff were also armed. It is still unclear who fired the fatal shot at Nagy. Maybe it was an employee, maybe Marjai himself.

He was then ambassador to Czechoslovakia between 1959 and 1963 . After three years in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was ambassador to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) from 1966 to 1970 .

In 1970 Marjai became Deputy Foreign Minister and then from 1973 to 1976 State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and thus the closest collaborator of the then Foreign Minister Frigyes Puja . After finishing this activity he was ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1976 to 1978 .

Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce

In April 1978, Marjai, who was also a member of the Central Committee (ZK) of the MSZMP from 1976 to October 1989 , became deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers and held this position for more than ten years until October 1988. In addition, from 1978 to 1980 he was Chairman of the Council of Ministers Committee for International Economic Relations and a member of the Economic Policy Committee of the MSZMP. In these functions he played a leading role when Hungary joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May 1982 and the World Bank in July 1982 .

In the government formed by Prime Minister Károly Grósz , he was also Minister of Commerce between December 1987 and October 1988. In 1988 he was awarded the Cross of Merit of the Hungarian People's Republic and withdrew from political life.

When, in 2006, President László Sólyom awarded him the Hungarian Order of Merit in a joint ceremony with the renowned hydraulic engineer Emil Mosonyi , who was awarded the Széchenyi Prize , and the renowned banker János Fekete , there was initially public criticism.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Political thriller in Bern. A Hungarian feature film takes up an incident from 1958 that was hushed up and forgotten: The attack on the Hungarian embassy, ​​which ended fatally for an intruder . In: Basler Zeitung of March 5, 2014
  2. ^ Political thriller in Bern. A Hungarian feature film takes up an incident from 1958 that was hushed up and forgotten: The attack on the Hungarian embassy, ​​which ended fatally for an intruder . In: Tages-Anzeiger from March 5, 2014
  3. ↑ Deadly political thriller in Bern. A Hungarian feature film takes up an incident from 1958 that was hushed up and forgotten: The attack on the Hungarian embassy, ​​which ended fatally for an intruder . In: Der Bund of March 4, 2014
  4. ↑ The tragic story of the freedom fighter Endre Papp. The man who raided the Hungarian embassy in Bern was later accused of bank fraud. He fell ill in prison and died in 2003. His sons want to rehabilitate him with a book. . In: Tages-Anzeiger from May 1, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Marjai, József
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian communist politician and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 2014
Place of death Budapest