István Bethlen

Count István Bethlen de Bethlen
Prime Minister of Hungary
In office 14 April 1921 – 24 August 1931
Regent	Miklós Horthy
Preceded by	Pál Teleki
Succeeded by	Gyula Károlyi
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 31 October 1901 – 16 November 1918
In office 18 February 1920 – 2 February 1939
Personal details
Born	(1874-10-08)8 October 1874 Russian Federation)
Political party	Liberal Party (1901–1903) Party of Independence and '48 (1904–1913) National Constitution Party (1913–1918) Christian National Union Party (1919–1922) Unity Party (1922–1935)
Spouse	Countess Margit Bethlen de Bethlen
Children	András István Gábor
Profession	Politician, jurist

Count István Bethlen de Bethlen (8 October 1874 – 5 October 1946) was a Hungarian aristocrat and statesman and served as prime minister from 1921 to 1931.

Early life

The scion of an old Bethlen de Bethlen noble family from Transylvania, he was the only son of Count Istvan Bethlen de Bethlen (1831–1881) and Countess Ilona Teleki de Szék (1849–1914). He had two elder sisters: Countess Klementine Mikes de Zabola (1871–1954) and Countess Ilona Haller de Hallerkeö (1872–1924).

Career

Bethlen was elected to the Hungarian Parliament as a

and allied with the conservative factions there.

In 1919, Bethlen rejected a personal union between Romania and Hungary under the King of Romania.^[2][3]

After the

gentry in rural Hungary, into a lasting coalition. That effectively checked the rise of fascism in the country for at least a decade. Bethlen reached an accord with the labour unions, earned their support for the government and eliminated a source of domestic dissent.

During the May 1926 trial of the

Facing considerable public pressure, Bethlen offered his resignation to Horthy, who refused to accept it.[8] Bethlen subsequently shuffled his cabinet by replacing Interior Minister Iván Rakovszky.^[6] The outcome of the trials, in fact, increased Bethlen's popularity in Hungary.^[9]

During his decade in office, Bethlen led Hungary into the

, which had stripped Hungary of most of its territory after the First World War.

The

antisemite

.

Increasingly shunted into political obscurity, Bethlen stood out as one of the few voices in Hungary to be actively opposed to an alliance with

troops.

The communists, who returned with the Soviets, immediately began their scheme to take over the country. They saw the aging Bethlen as a threat, a man who could unite the political forces against them. That made the Soviets arrest in March 1945. Soon afterward, Bethlen was taken to Moscow,^[13] where he died in prison on 5 October 1946.^[14]

Personal life

On 27 Jun 1901, he married his distant cousin, the author Countess Margarete Bethlen de Bethlen (1882–1970). They had 3 sons:

• Count András Bethlen de Bethlen (1902–1970) ⚭ Magda Viola (b.1901) ⚭ Eszter Mészáros (1892–1955) ⚭ Maria Palma 'Mizzi' Hoffmann (b.1906); no issue
• Count István Bethlen de Bethlen (1904–1982) ⚭ Donna Maria Isabella dei Conti Parravicini (1912–2008); had issue
• Count Gábor Bethlen de Bethlen (1906–1981) ⚭ Edith Schmidt (1909–1969); had issue

Notes

References

• Cooley, John (2008). Currency Wars: How Forged Money is the New Weapon of Mass Destruction. New York: Skyhorse Publishing.
  ISBN 978-1602392700
  .
• Ignác Romsics: István Bethlen: A Great Conservative Statesman of Hungary, 1874–1946. East European Monographs. Columbia University Press, 1995.
• Klay, Andor (1974). "Hungarian Counterfeit Francs: A Case of Post-World War I Political Sabotage". Slavic Review. 33 (1): 107–113.
  JSTOR 2495329
  .
• Lendvai, Paul (2004). The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  ISBN 978-0691119694
  .
• Petruccelli, David (2016). "Banknotes from the Underground: Counterfeiting and the International Order in Interwar Europe". Journal of Contemporary History. 51 (3): 507–530.
  S2CID 156881357
  .
• Bethlen Istvan Emlekirata, 1944, Published in Hungarian/Magyar by Zrinyi Katonai Koenyvkiado, 1988.
• Record of Margarete Bethlen de Bethlen's death certificate from the Magyar Főnemességi Adattár (Hungarian Database of the Aristocracy)

External links

• Newspaper clippings about István Bethlen in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

Political offices
Preceded by Pál Teleki	Prime Minister of Hungary 1921–1931	Succeeded by Gyula Károlyi
Preceded by Lajos Hegyeshalmi	Minister of Finance Acting 1921	Succeeded by Tibor Kállay
Preceded by Emil Nagy	Minister of Justice Acting 1924	Succeeded by Pál Pesthy
Preceded by Géza Daruváry	Minister of Foreign Affairs Acting 1924	Succeeded by Tibor Scitovszky
Preceded by István Szabó de Nagyatád	Minister of Agriculture Acting 1924	Succeeded by János Mayer
Preceded by Pál Pesthy	Minister of Justice Acting 1929	Succeeded by Tibor Zsitvay

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