Paul Lendvai

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul Lendvai (2019)

Paul Lendvai [ lɛndvɒ.i ] (* 24. August 1929 in Budapest ) is a from Hungary originating Austrian journalist and moderator . He is a political commentator for the Austrian daily Der Standard as well as in Hungarian and English-language media. From 1982 to 1987 Lendvai was head of the Eastern European editorial team at ORF . Today he is the head of the discussion program Europastudio and is considered a connoisseur of Eastern and Southeastern Europe .

Life

As the son of Jewish parents, he was abducted with his father in 1944. Thanks to a Swiss protection pass, they survived in Budapest (for more information on the history of the Jews in Hungary during the German occupation, see here ). After the war and a subsequent law degree, he wrote as a journalist for social democratic newspapers in the now communist- ruled Hungary. Lendvai was arrested in 1953 and banned from the profession for three years. In the course of the Hungarian uprising , he fled Hungary via Prague and Warsaw to Vienna in 1957, although the Iron Curtain was already difficult to overcome. Hugo Portisch became one of his first friends in Austria .

In Vienna he began as a translator of Hungarian news and later wrote his own articles for Die Presse and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung - to protect his mother, who had stayed in Budapest, under various pseudonyms .

In 1959 he received Austrian citizenship . From 1960 to 1987 he was foreign correspondent for the London Financial Times in Vienna. He founded the magazine Europäische Rundschau and in 1982 became head of the Eastern European editorial team at ORF and later director of Radio Austria International .

As a staunch social democrat and Central European , he tried to objectively shed light on his new home Austria through lectures and articles both in the Waldheim affair and in the EU sanctions following the participation in the government of the FPÖ and to fight against blanket judgments.

When Peter Handke was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2019 , he vehemently criticized the decision. Despite Handke's great talent, it is a "moral and political scandal". To this day, Handke has "not distanced himself from his unbelievable and outrageous statements from the last few decades about the breakup of Yugoslavia".

plant

My playful country

In his 2010 book Mein verspieltes Land , he accuses the conservative Fidesz chairman and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of autocratic tendencies. He speaks of Hungary as a “seducible nation” that was never able to overcome the Trianon trauma. With the Treaty of Trianon , Hungary lost a large part of its national territory and its population as a result of the defeat in the First World War. Large Hungarian minorities can be found in Romania, Slovakia and Serbia to this day. Orbán sees himself as Prime Minister of all Hungarians , including Hungarians beyond today's national borders.

In the parliamentary elections in 2010 , Orbán's Fidesz party won a two-thirds majority, which allows it to amend essential parts of the constitution in parliament. Orbán speaks of a new “system of national cooperation”. In his book Lendvai tries to show how the new government tries to bring the independent institutions on the party line. For example, a new media law was passed allegedly supposed to give the government control over the media. Lendvai shows that Orbán is following a long-term strategy with the desired power over the media. Shortly after the book was published, the Hungarian weekly newspaper Heti Válasz, which was close to the government, published documents from the Hungarian secret service, according to which he is said to have cooperated with the Hungarian communist authorities, which Lendvai denies. As a result of these accusations, there were also mobilizations and threats against Lendvai, whereupon the Heinrich Böll Foundation canceled a Lendvai reading for security reasons.

Fonts

  • The red Balkans. Between nationalism and communism . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1969.
  • Anti-Semitism without Jews. Europaverlag, Vienna 1972, ISBN 3-203-50417-0 .
  • Kreisky. Portrait of a statesman. Zsolnay / Econ, Vienna / Hamburg / Düsseldorf 1972, ISBN 3-430-17808-8 .
  • The limits of change. Varieties of communism in the Danube region. Europaverlag, Vienna 1977, ISBN 3-203-50611-4
  • The media war. How communist governments use news to make politics. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-548-34515-8
  • Freedom of religion and human rights. Balance sheet and prospect. Styria, Graz 1983, ISBN 3-222-11476-5 .
  • Lonely Albania. Report from the land of the Skipetars. Edition Interfrom, Zurich 1985, ISBN 3-7201-5177-8 .
  • The unconventional Hungary. From Kádár to Grosz. Edition Interfrom, Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-7201-5195-6 .
  • Between hope and disillusionment. Reflections on change in Eastern Europe. Jugend und Volk, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-224-16577-4 .
  • On black lists. Experiences of a Central European. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-455-11077-0 .
  • The Hungarians. A millennium of winners in defeats. Bertelsmann, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-570-00218-7 , as TB: Goldmann, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-442-15122-8 .
  • Reflections from a critical European. Kremayr and Scheriau, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-218-00758-5 .
  • The Hungarian uprising in 1956. A revolution and its consequences. Bertelsmann, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-570-00579-8 .
  • My Austria. 50 years behind the scenes of power. Ecowin, Salzburg 2007, ISBN 3-902404-46-9 .
  • Best of Paul Lendvai. Encounters, memories, insights. Ecowin, Salzburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-902404-66-4 .
  • When the iron curtain fell. Texts from the “Wiener Journal” and the “Europäische Rundschau” from the annus mirabilis 1989. Edited with Rudolf Bretschneider , introduction by Michael Spindelegger , Edition Atelier, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-902498-26-7 .
  • My playful country. Hungary in transition. Ecowin, Salzburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-902404-94-7 .
  • Life of a frontier worker. Memories. Notes in conversation with Zsófia Mihancsik. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-218-00864-8 .
  • Orbans Hungary. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-218-01038-2 .
  • The playful world. Encounters and memories. Ecowin, Salzburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-7110-0159-7 .

Awards (selection)

Web links

Commons : Paul Lendvai  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Handke and the word donations - derStandard.at. Retrieved October 16, 2019 (Austrian German).
  2. ↑ My playful country. Hungary in transition , p. 121
  3. ↑ My playful country. Hungary in transition , p. 215
  4. ↑ Pester Lloyd ( Memento of the original of December 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 6, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pesterlloyd.net
  5. ↑ My playful country. Hungary in Transition , Chapter 10: The Power of the Discreet Press Tsars, pp. 155–172
  6. ^ Gregor Mayer: Character assassination campaign against Paul Lendvai , at Der Standard, November 18, 2010
  7. ^ Hungarian newspaper accuses Paul Lendvai of being an informer , Die Presse, November 19, 2010
  8. ^ Fear of violence: Böll Foundation cancels Lendvai reading on ORF November 25, 2010, accessed on November 26, 2010
  9. ↑ a b c d e f Prof. Paul Lendvai der.orf.at, accessed on July 25, 2016
  10. ↑ a b c d e f Lendvai Paul Prof. ( Memento of the original from December 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Hübner's Who is Who. , accessed June 26, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.whoiswho.co.at
  11. ↑ Bruno Kreisky Prize for the Political Book Prize winners 1993-2018 , renner-institut.at, accessed December 1, 2019
  12. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
  13. ↑ Book trade honors Paul Lendvai on ORF , accessed on October 28, 2008
personal data
SURNAME Lendvai, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian journalist of Hungarian origin
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest , Hungary