Lajos Abafi

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Lajos Abafi

Lajos Abafi , German Ludwig Aigner (born February 11, 1840 in Großjetscha , Austrian Empire , † June 19, 1909 in Budapest , Kingdom of Hungary ) was a Hungarian-German historian of Freemasonry, publisher , editor , translator and entomologist .

Life

Born as the son of aristocratic parents, Aigner attended business school in Timisoara from 1850 to 1853 and then completed an apprenticeship in bookselling until 1857. At the same time he learned Latin as a private student at a Timisoara high school . Between 1858 and 1860 he worked in Josef Schwaiger's bookstore in Preßburg , from 1860 in the Ferdinand Pfeifer bookstore in Budapest , 1863 in Leipzig and from November of the same year to March 16, 1865 at the Cologne bookseller Wilhelm Greven , then with Julius Way in Stuttgart . In the spring of 1868 Ludwig Aigner returned to Budapest, where he initially worked in the Rath and Osterlamm bookshops . There he opened a bookstore in 1868, initially with a partner and from 1869 as the sole owner. As a result, he also ran a publishing house for German and Hungarian literature, in which important series for the development of Hungarian literature such as the Nemzeti Könyvtár ("National Library") appeared, in which he edited the most important Hungarian classics and authors, which led to popularization contributed significantly to Hungarian literature. The translation of Sándor Petőfi's works published by Aigner is of particular importance for the reception of Hungarian literature in the German-speaking area . For his own writings he mainly used the pseudonym "Abafi" together with "Lajos", the Hungarian form of "Ludwig", since 1869.

From 1890 onwards, Aigner mainly dealt with entomology . In 1898 he published a history of entomology in Hungary, an important work that is the only comprehensive work of this kind published in Hungary to date. In 1907 he presented a monograph on the butterflies of Hungary .

However, Abafi's most important work is the unfortunately incomplete history of Freemasonry in Austria-Hungary . Abafi had been a Freemason since 1870 when he was admitted to the Corvin Mátyás Lodge in Budapest . For several years he directed the publication of the magazine Hajnal ("Dawn"), the organ of the grand lodge of Hungarian Freemasonry, and in 1886 he edited the ritual of the symbolic grand lodge that resulted from the union of the two Hungarian obediences. For his historical work on Freemasonry he relied on the archive in Dég from 1882 . From his seven-volume work, only the first five volumes appeared between 1890 and 1889. Despite some shortcomings, including the lack of a register, the work is still not outdated, especially since material that no longer exists here was processed here due to the destruction of the Dég archive in 1945. In addition to this major work, Abafi wrote a history of Freemasonry in Hungary as well as numerous other articles on various questions in the history of Freemasonry, including about the Rosicrucians , the Asian Brothers and other secret societies of the 18th century.

In 1896 Aigner gave up the publishing house and bookstore and in 1901 took a job as a laboratory assistant in the natural science department of the Hungarian National Museum . He died in 1909 at the age of 69.

Fonts

Abafi in later years
  • Az elegiáról [= About the elegy ]. Budapest 1869.
  • A magyar népdalról [= About the Hungarian folk song ]. Plague 1872.
  • Mike's Kelemen. Biography. Budapest 1872.
  • Franz Kazinczy as a Freemason. Thought speech. Budapest 1879.
  • History of Freemasonry in Austria-Hungary. 5 vols. Vienna 1890–1899.
  • A Corvin Mátyás az igazságoshoz cimzett budapesti szabadkőművespáholy huszonötéves története. 1869-1894. Budapest 1894.
  • A lepkészet története Magyarországon [= History of Entomology in Hungary ]. Budapest 1898.
  • A szabadkőművesség története Magyarországon [= History of Freemasonry in Hungary ]. Budapest 1900. Reprinted by Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1993, ISBN 963-05-6540-4 .
  • Johnson. A con man of the XVIII. Century. Contribution to the history of Freemasonry according to archival sources. Frankfurt am Main 1902.
  • Magyarország lepkéi [= The butterflies of Hungary ]. Budapest 1907.

Translations and editing:

  • Hungarian folk poetry. Budapest 1873.
  • Hungarian folk songs. Budapest 1874.
  • Sándor Petőfi : Petöfi's poetic works. 2 vols. Budapest:
    • Vol. 1: love pearls. 1880.
    • Vol. 2: Book of Life. Poems. 1883.

Published book series:

  • Magyar Könyvészetet [= Hungarian Bibliography ]. Budapest 1869-1870.
  • Magyar Könyvesházat [= Hungarian Book House ]. 140 booklets. Budapest 1875-1890.
  • Nemzeti Könyvtár [= National Library ]. 42 vols. Budapest 1878 ff.

In addition, Aigner was editor of the writings of Ferenc Kazinczy and editor or founder of the following journals:

  • Hungarian revue. Contributions to the knowledge of the past and present of Hungary. Budapest 1868 f., ZDB -ID 557297-6 .
  • Magyar tanügyi [= Hungarian education system ]. Budapest 1873-1879, ZDB -ID 2097664-1 .
  • Figyelö [= the observer ]. Budapest 1876–1889, ZDB ID 441960-1 .
  • Corvina . Budapest 1878 ff., ZDB -ID 774741-x
  • Rovartani lapok [= entomological leaves ]. Budapest 1884 ff., ZDB -ID 2589593-X
  • Hazánk - történelmi közlöny [= Our homeland - historical magazine ]. Budapest 1884-1889, ZDB -ID 583315-2 .

literature

  • George Hangay: Abafi-Aigner, Lajos (Ludwig Aigner) . In: Encyclopedia of Entomology . Springer, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4020-6242-1 .
  • Agnes Kenyeres: Magyar életrajzi lexikon [= Hungarian biographical lexicon ]. Vol. 1. Budapest 1967, pp. 1-2.
  • Gyula Ortutay: Magyar néprajzi lexikon [= Hungarian folklore lexicon ]. Vol. 1. Budapest 1977, Litera A. Paragraph 3.
  • Anton Peter Petri : Biographical Lexicon of the Banat Germans. Marquartstein 1992, ISBN 3-922046-76-2 .
  • József Szinnyei: Magyar irók élete és munkái [= life and works of Hungarian writers ]. Vol. 1. Budapest 1891, pp. 10-12.
  • Ernst (Ernö) Vende: literature, science and art. In: The Toronto Valley County . Series: Hungary's counties and cities. Edited by Borovszky Samuel / Samu. Budapest 1912, p. 266.
  • Small NBZ lexicon. Banat German personalities. Neue Banater Zeitung , page: NBZ-Kulturbote, Timișoara, February 28, 1980.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Oskar von Krücken, Imre Parlagi (ed.): The spiritual Hungary. Biographical Lexicon. Vol. 1., Braumüller, Vienna & Leipzig 1918, sv Abafi, Ludwig .
  2. ↑ The name refers to the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus .
  3. ↑ Eugen Lenhoff, Oskar Posner: Internationales Freemaurerlexikon. 1932, sv Aigner, Ludwig .
personal data
SURNAME Abafi, Lajos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aigner, Ludwig; Jécsai, Lajos; Jecsai, A. Lajos; Ajgö, Lajos; Apor, Lajos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian-German literary historian, publisher, writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Großjetscha , Austrian Empire
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1909
Place of death Budapest , Kingdom of Hungary