Valéria Benke

Valéria Benke (born June 26, 1920 in Gyönk , Tolna county , † June 7, 2009 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian politician of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party MSZMP (Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt) , which was among other things Minister of Culture of the People's Republic of Hungary between 1958 and 1961. At the 10th Party Congress on November 28, 1970, she was elected as the first woman to be a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the MSZMP and was a member of this top management body of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party until 1985.

Life

Teacher, party official and member of parliament

Valéria Benke, daughter of a goldsmith, graduated from school at the Gyula Juhász Pedagogical University in Szeged and joined the illegal Communist Party KMP (Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja) in 1941 . After completing her studies, she worked as an assistant teacher in the village of Gádor between 1943 and 1944 , before becoming a party official in 1944. First she became regional secretary of the KMP in Szeged at the end of 1944 and then in 1945 professor at the Central Party School.

In mid-1946 she became a member of the party leadership in the Xth District of Budapest, consisting of the Kőbánya district, and was a member of this until 1948.

On May 15, 1949, she was first elected Member of Parliament (Országgyűlés) for the MDP , where she initially represented Greater Budapest, then from 1958 Tolna County and most recently from 1967 to February 10, 1971 the constituency Budapest No. 34 .

In the meantime, she became secretary of the Hungarian Democratic Women's Federation MNDSZ (Magyar Nők Demokratikus Szövetsége) in Budapest in 1948 and for a short time in 1950 she worked in the Central Committee department for cadres of the party of the Hungarian working people MDP (Magyar Dolgozók Pártja) , which emerged from the KMP , before she 1951 Secretary of the National Peace Council (Országos Béketanács) was.

On March 1, 1951, Valéria Benke became a candidate for the Central Committee of the MDP. In the meantime, she began studying Hungarian language and Hungarian literature at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest in 1952 , from which she graduated in 1957 with a teaching degree. While still a student, she was a member of the board of the Hungarian Radio MR (Magyar Rádió) between 1954 and the beginning of 1958 and was its vice-president after the popular uprising between October 30, 1956 and August 27, 1957.

Central Committee member, Minister of Culture and member of the Politburo

After she had become a member of the Central Committee of the MDP on May 30, 1954, she was also elected a member of the Central Committee of the MSZMP, which had emerged from the MDP, on February 26, 1957, and belonged to it until May 22, 1988.

On January 28, 1958, she became Minister of Culture in the government of Prime Minister Ferenc Münnich and held this ministerial office until September 13, 1961.

She then became editor-in-chief of the social science monthly Társadalmi Szemle in 1961 and headed it until she retired in December 1988.

During her parliamentary membership, she was last from April 14, 1967 to May 12, 1971 also a member of the Presidium of Parliament (A Magyar Népköztársaság Elnöki Tanácsa) , a collective body whose chairman was President of the People's Republic of Hungary.

At the 10th party congress of the MSZMP, Valéria Benke was elected a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee and was the first woman in the history of the People's Republic of Hungary to be promoted to this highest leadership body of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party. She belonged to this body for 15 years until the XIII. Congress on March 28, 1985. At the same time she was a member of the Politburo Commission for Agitation and Propaganda.

Web links

• Entry in Történelmi Tár (Hungarian)
• Entry in the Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership