Dezső Bánffy

Baron Dezso ( Desiderius ) Bánffy ( born October 28, 1843 in Cluj, then Kingdom of Hungary, † May 24, 1911 in Budapest) was a Prime Minister of Hungary from 1895 to 1899 a leading politician of Austria-Hungary.

Life

Dezso was the son of Daniel Bánffy (1812-1886), a baron with only " modest land " and his wife Anna Gyárfás ( 1821-1902 ). He studied at the universities of Berlin and Leipzig. From 1875 he was prefect in several counties of Transylvania. There he was very keen for Magyarization of the country, which is why he received from his own countrymen, the term " Dobokaer Pasha ".

It was built in 1891 as a member of the Liberal Party President of the Hungarian Reichstag. At the funeral of the national hero Lajos Kossuth, he outraged the public opinion through his demonstrative absence.

Prime minister

As with January 15, 1895 surprisingly appointed by the King Prime Minister, he led against fierce opposition from the Catholic Church and the Catholic People's Party by church law reform. Even at the regular compensation negotiations with Austria in 1897, he was initially successful.

He institutionalized and bureaucratized nationality policy, coupled with reprisals for the minorities in the UK. Bánffy got here the idea of the Hungarian nation-state to the government program, the nation state should be achieved inter alia through Magyarization of place names, family names, and intensive language teaching. The language conflict with the minorities was a false front for him: the question of language is only a means, the ultimate goal is to establish a federal policy in Hungary. His reign is referred to in the research as intolerant, chauvinistic and repressive.

The already operated by his predecessors since Kálmán Tisza policy Magyarization, which reported success especially among the Slovak and German population Transleithaniens, let the population share of the Magyars to just grow more than half. Between 1880 and 1910 the percentage of professing as citizens Magyars of Hungary (without Croatia ) increased from 44.9 to 54.6 %. With the help of the reactionary right to vote, which allowed only the privileged part of the population to choose from - in 1913 only 7.7 % of the total population were eligible to vote (or allowed public office ) - the reactionary structure of the multinational state of Hungary was cemented.

On May 16, 1895 Bánffy forced the resignation of Foreign Minister Gustav Kálnoky because he thought its Balkan policy towards Russia too weak. Also for trade unionists and social democrats was his authoritarian reign a time of restrictions and harassment.

Beginning of 1899 culminated the growing conflict with the parliamentary opposition in a duel with his fiercest opponents Nándor Horanszky. On February 26, 1899 Bánffy resigned as head of government.

Works

• A magyar nemzetiségi politika. Légrády Testvérek, Budapest 1903. (German Hungarian nationality policy. )