Károly Kerkapoly

Károly Kerkapoly

Károly Kerkapoly (German also Karl Kerkapoly , born May 13 or May 15, 1824 in Szentgál in Wesprim County , † December 31, 1891 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian politician , historian and philosopher .

Life

education

Kerkapoly attended the reformed grammar school in Pápa, where Mór Jókai and Sándor Petőfi went to school. He then studied in Pápa and Bratislava .

Kerkapoly was a juratus at the annual National Assembly in Bratislava in 1844 . After graduating from law school, he worked for the main prosecutor in Zala County . There he met Ferenc Deák , with whom he already sympathized and whose career he later followed with attentive interest. He graduated from the bar in 1846 and also became an honorary prosecutor in Zala County. On March 23, 1847 he was appointed professor of philosophy at the reformed college in Pápa. Before he took up his chair, he attended the universities in Halle and Berlin .

Revolution and restoration time

During the revolution of 1848/1849 he returned to Hungary and joined the independence fighters in Veszprém as a national guard . Due to an illness, however, he did not take part in the camps. After the revolution was put down, Kerkapoly was able to take up the professorship of philosophy. He held this office until 1865.

Kerkapoly was a strict but also popular teacher, as he presented the subject matter with great enthusiasm. His students also respected him for his thorough and clear reasoning. He gave the economics lectures together with Gyula Kautz, whose ideas he often criticized. In national economics and financial policy he advocated protective tariffs and bimetallism , in monetary policy, on the other hand, he advocated monometallism with silver. At the time of the Restoration, Kerkapoly lived for science and his chair.

Kerkapoly wrote a 'world history' ( Világtörténelem ), the first volume of which appeared in 1859. This work earned him membership in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences . Also in 1859, Kerkapoly published the book Protestans egyházalkotmánya (' Protestant Ecclesiastical Constitution ') in response to an imperial ordinance ( protestáns pátens ) that curtailed the Hungarian Protestant Church's civil liberties . In the same year he took part in the Protestant autonomy movement, and thus contributed significantly to the drafting of a church constitution ( Protestáns egyházalkotmány ). Kerkapoly also took part in the public discourse and attracted general attention. In 1861 he planned to run for election in a constituency of Veszprém, but had to retire because of a serious eye problem.

In 1862 and 1863 two philosophical writings by Kerkapoly, Ismerettan ('Knowledge of Knowledge') and Gondolattan ('Doctrine of Thought') appeared.

Political activities

As a politician he only played an important role in the period of the National Assembly from 1865 to 1868, when he was elected representative of the Enying constituency in Fejér County. In this National Assembly, the Deáks party, at whose side Kerkapoly stood, was particularly active. He worked primarily in the commissions and also in the newspapers. Most of his publications, in which he dealt with topics such as national equality, the education of the people, and questions of the state budget and national defense, appeared anonymously but attracted a lot of attention. Thereupon the Defense Minister Count Gyula Andrássy appointed him on December 15, 1868 as Secretary of State. He was also appointed professor of political science. In March 1869 he was elected parliamentary representative of Tapolc in Zala County.

On May 23, 1870 he became Minister of Finance in the government of Gyula Andrássy when the country's financial situation was very poor. Therefore, Kerkapoly carried out various reforms. During this time, the unsuccessful negotiations with the Austrian Ministry and the National Bank, which involved the restructuring of the credit organizations, took place. The lack of success in these questions diminished the trust placed in him. It was also not possible to reduce the national debt. But he was also the victim of unjust allegations. Eventually his position as minister became untenable. In the course of the indictments made by Count Sennyei in the commission convened against Kerkapoly, he resigned on December 19, 1873 and retired to his professorship at the University of Pest .

He remained a member of the National Assembly until 1878, but no longer played a decisive political role. Only once again did he speak for a major speech in 1878, when Austria tried again to push through the question of tariffs and trade associations against Hungarian interests. He supported the government with his strong evidence.

After retiring from politics, apart from teaching, he continued to focus on social issues. He was particularly committed to the regional association for business. He was also a co-founder and for a long time also the executive committee of the national association for model cellars and the Hungarian winegrowers. As a vineyard owner and winemaker, Kerkapoly took part in the council meetings of the phylloxera commission ( filoxera-bizottság ) and in debates on winemaking laws . He took action against phylloxera in the investment-rich cultivation of his vines on the Gellért Hill . He managed with great success on his land at Lake Balaton and established internationally known tree nurseries and orchards. After his death, orphans were educated there according to his will.

In the last years of his life he occupied himself, among other things, with activities within the framework of his guardianship for the high school in Pápa. Furthermore, he dealt with various companies in the field of industry and economy, for example he spent a lot of time in the directorate of Pallas Buchverlag-AG. However, he focused on supporting charitable institutions and the education of orphans. With this commitment, he compensated for the accusations of being stingy that were repeatedly brought against him throughout his life because of his large savings.

Works

• Világtörténet észtanilag előadva . tape 1 . Pápa 1859 (no other volumes have been published).
• Protestáns egyházalkotmány . In: Protestáns Egyházi és Iskolai Lap . 1860.
• Tiszta észtan. Ismerettan. In: Protestáns Egyházi és Iskolai Lap . Issue 1, 1862.
• Tiszta észtan. Gondolattan. In: Protestáns Egyházi és Iskolai Lap . Issue 2, 1863.
• Publicistai dolgozatok az 1865–1868. országgyűlés alatt . Plague 1869.
• Állam-Zárszámadás 1869. évre . tape 1 and 2. Buda 1870.

Lithographs:

• K. politikai előadásai . 2nd Edition. Kiadta Hajnal Vilmos, Budapest 1887.
• Tóth Miklós, Tetétleni Ármin (Ed.): Nemzetgazdaságtan . Kiadta Hajnal Vilmos, Budapest (1889–1890; published on the basis of Kerkapoly's explanations).
• Pikler Gyula (Ed.): Nemzetgazdaság- és pénzügytani jegyzetek . 4th edition. Budapest 1890.

Manuscripts:

• Pikler Gyula (Ed.): Nemzetgazdaságtani jegyzetek .

Kerkapoly's article appeared in the following journals:

• Tavasz (Pápa, 1845, title: A vajoroszlán , a translation from the German)
• Falusi Esték (1853-1854, title: Magyar gazdálkodás )
• Müller Gyula nagy Naptára (1854)
• Vasárnapi Újság (1854, title: A légkör gazdászati ​​fontossága )
• Protestants Egyhäzi és Iskolai Lap (1859–1862)
• Sárospataki Füzetek (1859–1862)
• Kecskeméti Protestáns Közlöny (1859, title: Egyház és Iskola )
• Magyar Tudomány Akadémia Értesítője (1860, title: A világtörténet és az emberiség fajkülönbségei )
• Sárospataki Füzetek (1865, title: Birálati magyarázatok Emericzy Géza úrnak )
• Hon (Pápa, 1865, September 17 editorial)
• Pesti Napló (1868, editorial 7 September)
• Budapesti Szemle (1875, title: Az adók és termelés )
• Nemzetgazdasági Szemle (1877, title: Az ipartörvény módosításához ; 1880, title: Három emlékirat )
• Pesti Hirlap (1881, 44th edition, title: A telepítésekről )
• Pápai Közlöny (September 2, 1892, title: Székfoglalója 1841-ben )

literature

• Szinnyei József: Magyar írók élete és munkái . Hornyánszky Viktor, Budapest, ISBN 963-86029-9-6 (Hungarian, Magyar Elektronikus Könyvtár (MEK) [accessed February 17, 2009] 1891–1914).
• Kerkapoly Károly. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 3, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1965, p. 299.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kerkápoly, Karl . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 9, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885-1892, p. 690. Meyer writes the surname Kerkápoly , but in Hungarian sources he appears as Kerkapoly .
2. ↑ May 13th according to the article Kerkapoly Károly in Magyar írók élete és munkái by József Szinnyei , May 15th according to Meyer.
3. ↑ Juratus . In: Heinrich August Pierer , Julius Löbe (Hrsg.): Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past . 4th edition. tape 9 . Altenburg 1860, p. 192 ( zeno.org ).
4. ↑ The establishment of model cellars ( mintapince ) was intended to ensure the quality of Hungarian wines.