László Teleki from Szék the Younger

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László Teleki from Szék

Count László Teleki von Szék the Younger (also called Ladislaus Teleki ; * February 11, 1811 in Pest ; † May 7, 1861 ibid) was an Austro- Hungarian politician and writer.

Life

László Teleki von Szék the Younger came from the Hungarian noble family Teleki and was the son of Count László Teleki von Szék the Elder (1764–1821) from his second marriage to Johanna geb. Baroness of Mészáros. After the death of his father in 1821 he was raised by his older half-brother József Teleki (1790–1855). He received his early education as a private student. He studied law and political science at the Reformed College in Sárospatak from 1828 to 1830 . He then worked, among other things, at the Hungarian court chancellery in Vienna . During the trips abroad undertaken between 1833 and 1836, on which he came to Germany , Holland , England and France , he also attended the University of Berlin to complete his studies. Returning to Hungary in 1837 he was elected by the Fagaras district as a member of the Transylvanian state parliament, where he took a seat in 1839 and 1842. In 1843 he joined the upper house of the Hungarian Reichstag in Pressburg as a magnate and immediately approached the leaders of the liberal party, in particular Ferenc Deák and Lajos Kossuth . Together with Count Lajos Batthyány , he headed the magnate opposition and fought for the bourgeois revolution. In 1844 he became a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and in October of the same year he became vice-president of the “Protection Association” ( Védegylet ) established by Kossuth . In 1845 he was elected President of the Pest Circle, the first organization of the liberal opposition. Together with Batthyány, he demanded the immediate implementation of the reform agenda at the last state parliament.

After the March Revolution of 1848 , the Pest county elected Teleki as the second member of the Hungarian parliament. He established himself as the leader of a radical group that attacked the politics of the Batthyány cabinet , which was then still attached to the Habsburgs and liberal , and demanded an energetic attitude towards the Viennese court. He also tried to set up independent Hungarian armed forces. On the other hand, he advocated a peaceful solution to the question of behavior towards the non-Magyar nationalities living in Hungary.

At the end of August 1848, the Hungarian Ministry sent Teleki on a special mission to Paris to represent Hungarian interests in the event that a conflict threatened to break out between Hungary and Austria. Although he was unable to obtain diplomatic recognition of Hungary in the French capital, he still stayed there in order to make his country's concerns in Western Europe heard. In addition, he knew how to interest foreign media in the concerns of the Hungarian revolution . In May 1849, in a report addressed to Kossuth - but not taken up - he recommended that Hungary be organized as a federation of all nationalities resident there. From now on it was to be the central area of ​​a new Danube Confederation and in this the disputes of the smaller Central and Eastern European peoples were to be resolved. After the Russian invasion and Artúr Görgei's surrender at Világos (August 13, 1849), which essentially put an end to the Hungarian War of Independence , Teleki protested on behalf of Hungary against the measures taken by Austria, especially against the frequent executions. For this he was put on the list of forty by the Viennese government itself who were sentenced to death in absentia and hanged in effigy .

From 1851 Teleki lived mostly in Switzerland and was in constant contact with the Hungarian emigrants. In 1859, when the Italian War broke out, he went to Turin to work in the spirit of the Hungarian National Party. When the Austrian October diploma of 1860 (award of a constitution) appeared, Teleki immediately tried to use this event in this sense. In November 1860, provided with an English passport, he went to Dresden under the false name of John Harrold to meet the widowed Baroness Auguszta Lipthay, whom he loved. However, he was arrested in Dresden on December 18, 1860 and extradited to the district court in Vienna the following December 21. He remained in detention until New Year's Day 1861. After a personal interview with Emperor Franz Joseph I , he was granted amnesty under the three conditions that he would no longer leave the Austrian monarchy, sever his ties with the foreign enemies of the Austrian monarchy and abstain from any political activity before the hand. Teleki accepted these conditions and was immediately released.

In April 1861 Teleki was re-elected as a member of the Hungarian state parliament from the Abony district. He refused concessions to Vienna and viewed the political situation of 1848 as the basis for new negotiations. As a result, he became the leader of the decision- making party ( Határozati Párt ), which, in contrast to the more moderate address party ( Felirati párt ) led by Ferenc Deák, wanted to declare the legal validity of the 1848 laws by simple resolution. Since the members of the decision-making party did not want to grant concessions to members of non-Magyar nationalities, Teleki found himself isolated with his more willingness to compromise. He shot himself for unexplained reasons on the night of May 7th to 8th, 1861 in Pest; the following day there would have been an important public debate with Ferenc Deák about the constitutional status of the emperor. The burial of the count was very solemn, and several counties sent large deputations on the occasion. But while numerous nobles and members of the Reichstag appeared at Teleki's funeral, the Catholic clergy was completely absent, which was very noticeable despite the fact that the count was a Protestant.

Franz Liszt dedicated the Second Hungarian Rhapsody to Teleki.

Works

  • A Kegyencz ( The Favorite ), Tragedy, Pest 1841
  • La Hongrie aux peuples civilisés , 1848; German Leipzig 1849 and English London 1849
  • Le bon droit de la Hongrie , Paris 1849
  • The Russian intervention and diplomatic files , Hamburg 1849

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ According to György Spira ( Teleki von Szék, László Graf , in: Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte Südosteuropas , Vol. 4 (1981), p. 278) Teleki had to recognize that many of his supporters were ready to compromise with the Vienna government what made him commit suicide. Immediately after his death, the - not tenable - rumor arose that he had not laid hands on himself but had been the victim of an assassination attempt (BLKÖ, vol. 43, p. 258 f.).
personal data
SURNAME Teleki from Szék the Younger, László
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-Hungarian politician and writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1811
PLACE OF BIRTH Plague (city)
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 1861
Place of death Plague (city)