Mihkel Pung

Mihkel Pung (* 7 October ^July / 19 October  1876 ^greg. In Vana-Põltsamaa ( Viljandi district ); † October 11, 1941 in the prison camp Wjatka near Soswa, Sverdlovsk Oblast / Soviet Union , uncertain) was an Estonian lawyer and politician.

Early years

Mihkel Pung was born the son of a farmer. He attended the renowned Hugo-Treffner-Gymnasium in Tartu, Livonia (German Dorpat ). From 1897 he studied law at the University of Tartu . 1900/1901 he took legal courses at the university in the Russian capital Saint Petersburg . In 1902 Pung graduated from Tartu.

From 1903 to 1905 Pung was an editor at the Tallinn newspaper Teataja . In 1904 he became city secretary of the Estonian capital Tallinn (German Reval ).

Pung took part in the revolution in 1905. He was forced to flee abroad for fear of persecution by the tsarist authorities. In 1906 he was able to return to Russia.

From 1906 to 1911 Pung worked as a lawyer in Saint Petersburg. From 1911 to 1918 he settled in Tallinn as a lawyer.

Lawyer and politician

With the proclamation of the state independence of Estonia in 1918 Mihkel Pung went into politics. He became the political confidante of his brother-in-law, the politician Konstantin Päts .

In March 1919, Pung became the first president of the Estonian Central Bank ( Eesti Pank ). With Finnish help, he prepared the issue of the Estonian mark in Helsinki . From May 1919 it became the only means of payment in the newly founded Republic of Estonia.

From 1920 to 1924 Pung had a bank account in Tallinn. From 1924 he worked as a lawyer again. At the same time he was from 1926 legal advisor to the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry . In addition, he was politically active in the conservative-agrarian party " Bund der Landwirte " ( Põllumeeste Kogud ) of Konstantin Päts. From February to November 1931, Pung was Minister of Economic Affairs in the cabinet of State Elder Konstantin Päts .

Pung then changed party lines and joined the National Center Party ( Rahvuslik Keskerakond ). From July to November 1932, Pung was in the cabinet of State Elder Karl Eindund Foreign Minister of the Republic of Estonia. Pung was in the fourth (1929-1932) and fifth legislative periods (1932 – de facto 1934) member of the Estonian Parliament ( Riigikogu ).

Even after the bloodless coup d'etat by Prime Minister Konstantin Päts in March 1934, Pung remained in high political offices. From 1935 to 1938 he was a member of the State Economic Council ( Riiklik Majandusnõukogu ). In 1937 he was chairman of the second chamber of the Rahvuskogu , the constituent assembly that drafted the Estonian constitution of 1938 . With the entry into force of the new constitution, Pung became a member of the second chamber of parliament ( Riiginõukogu ) and was its (deputy) chairman until 1940.

Arrest and death

After the Soviet occupation of Estonia in the summer of 1940 Pung and his family were arrested on 14 June 1941 in Tallinn and inside the Soviet Union deported . Mihkel Pung died in the same year in the Vyatka prison camp ( Sverdlovsk Oblast ).

Private life

Mihkel Pung had been with Marianne Pung, b. Päts (1888–1947), married, the sister of Konstantin Päts. The couple had two daughters and one son.

literature

• Eesti elulood. Tallinn: Eesti entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , p. 383

Web links

• Biobibliographical information
• Works by Mihkel Pung in the holdings of the Estonian National Library , Tallinn

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry in the baptismal register of the municipality of Oberpahlen (Estonian: Põltsamaa kogudus )