Árpád Göncz (; 10 February 1922 – 6 October 2015) was a Hungarian writer,ÁrpádGö translator, agronomist, and liberal politician who served as President of Hungary from 2 May 1990 to 4 August 2000. Göncz played a role in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, for which he was imprisoned for six years. After his release, he worked as a translator of English-language literary works.
He was also a founding member of the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) and Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary (de facto head of state) before becoming president. He was Hungary's first freely elected head of state, as well as the first in 42 years who was not a communist or a fellow traveller.
He was a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
Biography
Early life (1922–1945)
Árpád Göncz was born on 10 February 1922 in Budapest into a petty bourgeois family of noble origin as the son of Lajos Göncz de Gönc (1887–1974), who worked as a post officer, and Ilona Haimann (b. 1892). The Roman Catholic Göncz family originated from Csáktornya, Zala County (today Čakovec, Croatia), where Göncz's great-grandfather, Lajos Göncz, Sr. was a pharmacist. He later participated in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and following the defeat, he was sentenced to nine years in prison. Árpád Göncz's father, Lajos Göncz was also a successful tennis player, who participated in the 1924 Summer Olympics, where he was defeated by René Lacoste in men's singles in the second round. Árpád Göncz's parents divorced when he was six years old, thus his relationship with his father became tense in the following years. Göncz's mother, who was a Unitarian, was born in Transylvania, she had Jewish and Székely roots. She became an orphan as a child and after a brief spell in an orphanage, she was raised by the merchant Báthy family from Budapest.
After finishing four-grade elementary school, Göncz began his secondary studies at the Werbőczy Secondary Grammar School in 1932. There he involved himself in the activity of the Hungarian Scout Association. Scouting opened Göncz's eyes to social issues, particularly with regard to the problems of the poor peasantry, as he said in a later interview. Göncz joined the Pál Teleki Work Group which was formed in 1936 by Pál Teleki, an influential interwar politician and Prime Minister of Hungary, also Hungary's Chief Scout. The work group was an important seminary and forum for the university students. The programme emphasized the relevance of the nation, family and community and the good knowledge of Hungarian history and geography. In the next years, key figures from the Independent Smallholders' Party, e.g. Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky, had joined the work group. His political view was also influenced by the népi-nemzeti ("rural-national") ideological movement since the 1930s. The group of the so-called "folk writers" (), including Zsigmond Móricz or János Kodolányi, expressed critique of capitalism and emphasis on peasant society and land reform. Göncz also stressed he represented the same political view as liberal political theorist István Bibó. In December 1938, Göncz, in a short essay in Magyar Cserkész ("Hungarian Scout"), welcomed the Hungarians' entry into Komárno in accordance with the First Vienna Award.
Göncz graduated in law from the Budapest Pázmány Péter University of Arts and Sciences in 1944. During his academic years, he was exempted from conscription in the Second World War. Meanwhile, Hungary was occupied by Germany on 19 March 1944. In December, Göncz was conscripted into the 25th Reserve Mountain Infantry Battalion of the Royal Hungarian Army and ordered to Germany; however, he deserted and joined the resistance movement. In late 1944, Göncz found himself in Budapest when the Red Army encircled the Hungarian capital, beginning the Siege of Budapest. The resistance Hungarian Front formed to oppose the Nazi regime with several regional branches, including the Freedom Front of Hungarian Students (MDSZ) which established officially on 7 November 1944, during the Arrow Cross Party government. Göncz joined the Táncsics Battalion in December 1944, where he took part in partisan actions against the Arrow Cross regime in Budapest. After the war he went on to study agricultural science.
Early political career and retreat (1945–1956)