Béni Kállay

Benjámin of Kállay, also Beni Kállay de Nagy- Kálló ( born December 22, 1839 in Pest, † July 13, 1903 in Vienna) was an Austrian - Hungarian politician, from June 4, 1882 until his death in kuk joint finance minister of Austria-Hungary and at the same time governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Life

Kállay paternal came from an old Hungarian, his mother from an originally Serbian, but already Magyarized family. After a language and history studies, he mastered Greek, Turkish and several Slavic languages ​​, Kállay entered the diplomatic service and was Consul General in 1867 in Belgrade. In 1873 he married Vilma Bethlen with whom he had three children. In 1875 he went as a supporter of Gyula Andrássy in the Hungarian Parliament. In the Vienna State Department, he was the first head of section under Henry Charles of Haymerle and Gustav Kálnoky.

As head of the joint Treasury, he was the expert and science writer for Balkan issues, the situation in Bosnia to consolidate some extent. Kállay therefore became the main architect of religion and nationality policy in the south of the monarchy. He was represented at the idea of ​​creating a " Bosniak identity " as a basis for nation-building, based on the local Muslim elites of the administrative apparatus, also open for Serbs and Croats. His promotion of Bosniaks as their own and not religiously defined ethnic group, was a means to fight against South Slavic unification efforts. Kállay is considered in the research as the most important person in the administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Danube monarchy.

Writings (selection )

• History of the Serbs. Lauffer, Budapest / Vienna 1878.
• The history of the Serbian Uprising 1807-1810. Holzhausen, Vienna 1910.
• Andrija Radenić (ed.): Dnevnik Benjamina Kalaja 1868-1875. (Benjamin Kallay diary. ) Belgrade 1976. ( Serbo-Croatian )