Leó Frankel

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Leó Frankel (Léo Fränkel) (February 25, 1844, Újlak, Óbuda – March 29, 1896, Paris) was a Communist revolutionary of Hungarian and jewish origin.

[edit] Life

He was born in 1844, in Óbuda (now part of Budapest, Hungary). Trained as a goldsmith, he first went to work in Germany in 1861, to settle in France in 1867, to report for the newspaper Volksstimme of Vienna, Austria. In Paris he participated in the work of the First International. Arrested for his political activity, he was liberated by the revolution on September 4, 1870. On March 26, 1871 he was elected as a member of the Paris Commune. Upon the defeat of the Commune, wounded in its defence, the revolutionary escaped the impending death sentence to Switzerland. In 1871 he settled in London, where he joined the leadership of the First International.

He was extradited to Hungary by the Austrian police in 1876. From that point on, he was active organising the Hungarian workers' movement: he edited the German Language Arbeiter Wochen-Chronik and founded the Hungarian General Labour Party (1880) He was convicted and sent to prison for a year and a half for the infringement of the prevailing press law in 1881. Upon his release he emigrated to France once again.

He died in London in 1896. A commemorating obelisk was erected for him in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.