Ferenc Deák

Hungarian politician

• Born: October 17, 1803
• Birthplace: Söjtör, Austrian Empire (now in Hungary)
• Died: January 28, 1876
• Place of death: Pest, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Budapest, Hungary)

Deák’s abiding goal throughout his political career was to bring true self-government for Hungary and to enact liberal laws. His persuasive and undaunting efforts brought about Hungary’s most important compromise, the Ausgleich. He also led the liberals in the passage of much needed social reforms and was one of Hungary’s greatest codifiers of progressive laws that brought Hungary out of feudalism.

Early Life

Ferenc Deák, Jr., was the son of a third-generation nobleman, Ferenc Deák, Sr. (deh-ahk), who followed the family tradition of increasing wealth and power through marriage. During the 1780’s, the senior Deák married Erzsébet Sibrik of Szarvaskend, the daughter of the deputy sheriff of Gy őr County. In 1803, she gave birth to the youngest of their six children, Ferenc Deák, Jr. Several days later, she died of complications from childbirth. Consequently, her husband rejected his infant son and sent him to an uncle, József Deák. The family soon moved to Kehida, where Ferenc Deák, Sr., died on January 25, 1808. At that time, young Ferenc’s elder brother, Antal, became his legal guardian.

Ferenc was tutored by a Franciscan until 1808. At that time, he started his formal education by attending elementary school at church schools in Köszeg, Keszthely, and Pápa. In 1817, Ferenc was graduated from the gymnasium in Nagykanizsa and then began his studies at the Royal Law Academy in Gy őr, where he excelled in German, Latin, and constitutional law and history.

Ferenc’s future career and his thought processes were influenced by two major factors. First, he witnessed legislative resistance to royal decrees by local assemblies. Ferenc was maturing in an intense atmosphere of revolution and opposition to the Habsburg regime. In 1821, he attended, against royal mandate, the Assembly of Gy őr and witnessed its refusal to execute what it considered to be an unconstitutional royal decree. Then, he saw similar defiance in Zala County, when that assembly resisted the absolutism of the Metternich system. Zala County led the opposition against Austrian absolutism and Antal Deák led Zala County. The second major factor influencing Ferenc was the leadership of his brother. Antal advocated that loyalty to the dynasty should not prevent resistance to despotism and that local assemblies had a responsibility to resist any unconstitutional ordinances. He was well known throughout Hungary, and Ferenc was inspired by him.

In December, 1821, Ferenc was graduated from the Academy, and Zala County declared him legally of age. His first act was to emancipate his former wet nurse, symbolic of his future work in abolishing feudalism and in obtaining rights for all Hungarians. In November, 1822, Ferenc arrived in Pest and passed the bar examination with distinction on December 19, 1823. While in Pest, Hungary’s cultural center, he came into contact with numerous cultural organizations. The most important of these was the Auróra circle, through which he developed lasting friendships with several liberal statesmen, politicians, and poets, many of whom greatly contributed to his intellectual development.

Ferenc began his public service at the county level by holding several unpaid positions. His first was given to him as a gesture of recognition for Antal’s hard work. On December 13, 1824, Ferenc was elected notary to the County Commission for Orphans. He also held the position of county magistrate and was elected deputy high sheriff surrogate; however, he never took the latter post. When the national legislative body, the Diet, convened in Pozsony in 1832, Antal represented Zala County as deputy. In January, 1833, he resigned and recommended Ferenc to replace him. On April 15, 1833, Ferenc was subsequently elected to a seat in the lower house. With this position, his county service ended. His career as a national political figure began at this time and would influence Hungarian and Austrian history for the next forty-three years.

Life’s Work

The 1830’s and 1840’s were critical years for Hungary. Plague, peasant revolts, and economic depression were widespread, and Hungary had a feudal constitution. Deák’s experience at the county level enabled him to understand legal procedure and alerted him to Hungary’s social, economic, and political problems. Thus, he joined the reform-minded liberals, led by Baron Miklós Wesselényi.

In 1836, Deák introduced his first legislative measure, calling for the emancipation of the serfs. When Ferdinand I vetoed the measure, Deák called an unofficial session of the Diet. As a result of this episode, Deák was acknowledged as the leader of the liberals in the lower house.

On May 2, 1836, Deák returned to Zala County to report on the proceedings of the Diet. He also proposed a program of reforms, which was printed and published by the assembly and sent to other counties without royal approval. The Crown reprimanded the assembly and ordered all copies to be collected. The assembly rejected the reprimand, and Deák became the symbol of Hungarian progressive ideas. In appreciation for his legislative leadership, he was elected an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences on November 21, 1839.

Deák successfully concluded his first compromise during the Diet of 1839-1840. Many liberal leaders had been arrested in 1836, and Deák had offered his services as mediator; however, the Crown was unwilling to compromise. He then warned that if the Crown did not respect Hungarian laws and rights, Hungary would employ passive resistance and defiance. Thus, on June 6, 1839, when Ferdinand summoned the Diet, Deák recommended that they not discuss any royal proposals until all grievances were resolved. He met privately with an agent of the Crown in March, 1840, and achieved a compromise to the satisfaction of the liberals.

Deák entered the 1840’s with hopes for a legal revolution that would transform Hungary from a feudal to a modern state through peaceful legislation. At the 1841 Diet, he proposed drastic changes in the judiciary, but his legislative attempts all met with failure. Deák became apathetic and inactive; his aloofness began to compromise his influence. At this time, Lajos Kossuth assumed the leadership of the liberals. In 1846, Deák reluctantly helped write the Liberal Party platform, which called for universal reforms. This work promoted the unification of Hungary’s first opposition party.

By August, 1847, Deák temporarily left Hungary, allegedly under doctor’s orders. He was short and stocky, with great physical strength, but he was prone to sickness. In reality, however, he did not believe the liberals could achieve their goals at this time because of the stubbornness of the Crown. He realized the only course for Hungary was violence and revolution—actions that were against his values.

When the last feudal Diet (1847-1848) was summoned, Kossuth sent a list of grievances (written by Deák) to Ferdinand I. By 1848, much of the empire was in revolt. Faced with chaos, Ferdinand consented to the list of demands and granted Hungary independence. The first elected parliament met in July, 1848, and passed a series of reforms known as the April Laws, ending feudalism and introducing a liberal form of government. Deák led the new lower house and achieved the greatest social reforms of his legislative career. He was named Minister of Justice and succeeded in having his earlier judicial reform measures (of 1841) passed as the Press Act in 1848.

On September 11, 1848, Austria invaded Hungary. Deák abandoned his office, the ministry was in chaos, and counterrevolution began. On December 2, 1848, Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his nephew Francis Joseph I . Hungary considered the new ruler a usurper because he did not swear the required oath of loyalty to the Hungarian constitution. On April 14, 1849, the parliament deposed the Habsburg dynasty. Consequently, Francis Joseph ordered a massive assault on Hungary.

By August, 1849, the Hungarian revolution ended. Hungary was partitioned and placed under a repressive regime for many years. Most of the revolutionary leaders were either executed or exiled. Deák appeared before a military tribunal on December 14, 1849, and was interrogated for five months. Finally, he was released, as he had not supported the deposition of the royal dynasty.

From 1850 to 1859, Deák offered passive resistance to the Crown. In 1854, he sold the family estate and permanently moved to the Hotel Angol Királyné in Pest. At this time, he became the director of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His passive resistance ended in December, 1860, when he was granted an audience with Francis Joseph. The two men immediately developed a mutual trust and respect for each other. Deák was honest, always spoke frankly, and was open-minded. He accepted Francis Joseph’s offer to participate in the Lord Chief Justice’s Conference (January 23 to March 3, 1861) aimed at reconciling Hungary’s civil and criminal court procedures with Austria’s system. On February 27, however, the Crown announced its intention to reduce Hungary to a province. Deák left the conference angrily, believing that revolution was Hungary’s only hope of remaining autonomous.

Deák again became inflexible in his attitude toward the empire. In 1861, the Crown summoned the first Diet in twelve years. This time, Deák represented Pest. Dissension among the liberals gave rise to two new political parties: the Party of Petition led by Deák and the Party of Resolution led by Count László Teleki. After Teleki committed suicide, Deák assumed the position of the leading statesman in Hungary.

With hostilities again developing, the Crown adopted more oppressive measures. Deák recommended a policy of passive defense to parliament, which was adjourned by the Crown on August 22, 1861. On November 5, 1861, Hungary became a province of the empire. From this position, Deák enjoyed his greatest level of prestige. He began to lay the foundations for a compromise. He anonymously wrote an article in Pesti Naplo entitled “Easter Article,” followed by a series of similar articles. Through this vehicle he offered a solution to the volatile situation between Hungary and the dynasty. Deák knew that the time was right for compromise; Austria was nearly bankrupt and the empire’s collapse was imminent.

Negotiations began and a new parliament was summoned in September, 1865. Deák’s party won a majority of the seats. Deák began to shape Hungary’s history and proved himself to be a practitioner of realpolitik. He did not create movements or ideas; he merely took advantage of situations, planned the right strategies, and knew how to manipulate the political forces that existed. For the first time in his long career, Deák exercised his very forceful and persuasive leadership ability. On December 20, 1865, the Deák Party Club was established to organize campaign strategies. Deák developed goals to be achieved and principles to be followed. He demanded discipline but never used force or humiliation to obtain his objectives.

On June 17, 1867, Austria went to war with Prussia. Deák now pushed for compromise. He met for a second time with Francis Joseph, and they agreed upon the Ausgleich , the Compromise of 1867. It provided for the following: the creation of the state of Austria-Hungary with a dual monarchy in the person of the emperor; the restoration of the Hungarian constitution of 1848; the separation of parliamentary bodies—the Hungarian parliament would meet in Budapest and the Austrian parliament in Vienna; the joint administration of military and foreign affairs by delegates from the two parliaments and three joint ministers (foreign affairs, war, and finance); and the renewal of terms of the Ausgleich every ten years. There was some opposition to the Ausgleich, especially from Kossuth. However, most Austrians and Hungarians rejoiced in the settlement, as it resolved a thirty-year-old conflict and provided stability for the empire (which lasted until World War I).

Deák also proposed a series of acts that created a new Hungary. The two most important were the Croatian-Hungarian Compromise and the Equality of the Nationalities Act. He finally saw fulfilled a lifetime of efforts to obtain and protect the rights of all people. Furthermore, Deák wanted Hungary to become a true democracy. After the Ausgleich, however, his party began to splinter, and his health deteriorated.

By 1871, Deák’s era was coming to an end. His influence also began to wane, and he experienced legislative defeats. His last political act created the Parliamentary Liberal Party in 1873, with Kálmán Tisza as head, but liberalism was also beginning to decline. Deák’s last speech was delivered to parliament on June 28, 1873. It was very reflective of his first presentation made forty years earlier in that his main emphasis was placed on the need for progressive legislation and liberalism.

In 1875, Deák was elected for the last time to parliament, but he was never seated. On January 28, 1876, he died in his hotel suite in Pest. The parliament, in his memory, commissioned a statue of him to be placed in front of the Academy of Sciences building in Budapest.

Significance

Ironically, while Ferenc Deák was the author of the greatest compromise in Hungarian history, he was uncompromising on moral, constitutional, and social issues. He believed firmly in the Christian ideals of the brotherhood of all men and the stern morality of the ancient Hebrews. He emulated the Romans in their respect for the law and admired the Hellenistic culture for its love of beauty. These ideals were the basis for his moral standards and behavior. His commitment to certain values became apparent when, on his second day as a freshman member of the Diet, he broke with tradition and asked for the floor. It was here that he demonstrated for the first time his excellent oratorical skills and took the first step in his long journey toward making laws more humane and liberal.

Deák gained almost immediate recognition as a reformer. He spent the greater part of his life working toward creating a more liberal government in Hungary. He strove to remove the last remnants of feudalism and to achieve equality for all citizens through peaceful legislation. He strongly believed that law was the backbone of society. He therefore advocated changing unjust laws—not violating them. He worked earnestly at strengthening and modernizing the judiciary.

Deák was a man before his time. This was proved in his first legal case, which illustrated his basic philosophy. The case involved József Babics, a man charged with highway robbery, murder, and several lesser offenses. Deák admitted his client’s guilt but not his fault. The defense rested on the premise that society was responsible for Babics’s actions because it had not provided him with an education and values. Deák lost the case, but he argued against capital punishment and for societal responsibility.

Deák’s life’s ambition was to achieve a true self-government for Hungary and to obtain the passage of liberal laws. He did not consider the Ausgleich the climax of his career. Instead, he viewed it as a necessary interruption to his real task, the completion of the work that the liberals had begun in Hungary during the Reform Era of the 1830’s and 1840’s. He attempted to create a truly democratic government and society; he sincerely cared about the deprived masses and sought reform in their name.

Bibliography

Freifeld, Alice. Nationalism and the Crowd in Liberal Hungary, 1848-1914. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2000. Information about Deák is included in this history of Hungarian nationalism after the failed revolutions of 1848 until the start of World War I. The “crowd” cited in the title refers to the Hungarian people who created their own nation inside the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Jászi, Oscar. The Dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929. Describes Deák’s political career from the 1830’s through 1867 and his role in the Compromise of 1867. Contains an excellent bibliographical section for research on the Habsburgs, Austria, and eastern Europe, although many of the materials are in German.

Kann, Robert A. The Multinational Empire: Nationalism and National Reform in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1848-1918. 2 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1950. Addresses Deák’s leadership ability and his drive for fair treatment of minorities. Volume 1 has somewhat more emphasis on Deák’s role in the government than volume 2. Each volume contains an introduction and notes section, and volume 2 has a selected bibliography and index.

Király, Béla K. Ferenc Deák. Boston: Twayne, 1975. An excellent although somewhat biased biography containing a chronology of the Deák family from 1665, when the family was ennobled, to Ferenc’s death in 1876. Stresses Ferenc’s devotion to his political career and contains a thorough discussion of his private life. Includes notes, references, bibliographical sections, and an index.

May, Arthur J. The Hapsburg Monarchy, 1867-1914. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1951. Focuses on Deák’s work on the Compromise of 1867, his role as the leader of the moderates, and his other political contributions. Emphasizes Deák’s great negotiating skills, needed to placate the various minority groups in Hungary. Contains quotes taken from Deák’s correspondences and speeches.

Murad, Anatol. Franz Joseph I of Austria and His Empire. Boston: Twayne, 1968. A standard biography of Franz Joseph. Contains information about the circumstances under which the Compromise of 1867 was agreed upon, Deák’s role in obtaining Franz Joseph’s approval, and he relationship between Deák and such important revolutionaries as Count Gyula Andrássy.

Ormos, Maria, and Béla K. Király. Hungary: Governments and Politics, 1848-2000. Highland Lakes, N.J.: Social Science Monographs, 2001. A detailed account of the evolution of Hungarian politics and government activities from the revolutions of 1848 to the end of the twentieth century. Provides context and background for understanding the political situation in which Deák worked.