Ferenc Deák

Ferenc Deák de Kehida (Croatian: Franjo Deák), (October 17, 1803, Söjtör - January 28, 1876, Budapest), was a Hungarian statesman and Minister of Justice. He was known as "The Wise Man of the Nation".

Early life and law career

Born in Söjtör in the county of Zala, in south-western Hungary, Deák belonged to an ancient noble family. He studied law, and became successively an advocate and notary. He first went into politics in 1833 when he attended the assembly of Pressburg (now Bratislava) as a replacement for his older brother, beginning his career that would make him one of the most important personalities in the Hungarian politics and reforms of the 1840s. His name became known as a result of his involvement in the suit of Miklós Wesselényi and his success in declaring the Hungarian Assembly's right to create laws.^[1]

Early activism

In 1836, he wrote and distributed a document about the cases that he supported without the permission of the censors; while it was confiscated, it was already widespread and made his name familiar in important circles. He was involved in the creation of the 1839–40 laws of the Assembly and became honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. After the death of his brother in 1842, he liberated his serfs and voluntarily chose to pay taxes to show that he was sincere about his reforms. The abolition of the exemption of the nobles from all taxation in the Kingdom of Hungary and the liberation of serfs were some of the most important endeavours of the Reformist movement of the era. However, he refused to attend the Diet of 1843-44, supposedly due to strife surrounding the election.^[2]

Political career

In 1846, after the bloody end of the Polish uprising in Galicia the reformers gained popularity and they released the "Ellenzéki nyilatkozat" (Manifesto of the Opposition) under the name of Deák, while it was in fact created by Kossuth. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 against the Habsburg Empire, Deák stayed calm and opposed violence as a political tool. He accepted a position as Minister of Justice in the Batthyány Government, mostly to show his support of Lajos Batthyány.^[3]

Once part of the revolutionary government, Deák made several overtures to the court in Vienna, seeking a compromise between the Habsburg monarchy and Kossuth’s Extreme Liberals. When his efforts failed, he resigned his ministerial post, but remained a member of the Diet, defending the constitutional legitimacy of the April laws. He retired to his estate at Kehida before the end of the War of Independence, and took no further active part in events surrounding the revolution. An Austrian court martial acquitted him after Hungary’s defeat.^[4]

Deák spent most of the 1850s in semi-retirement, tacitly supporting various national causes without engaging in active politics. He, however, refused to assume any public role, office or position, thus becoming an emblem of the so-called passive resistance. He sold his estate to István Széchenyi, and moved to Buda to become the de facto leader of Hungarian public life. He steered a middle course between advocates of a second anti-Habsburg uprising aligned with Kossuth, and pro-Austrian collaborationists. The crisis attending the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859, with strong Hungarian popular support for the Italian cause, returned him to active political life, although he opposed the initial Austrian reform proposals of 1860. In the 1861 Diet, he became the leader of the group calling for a petition to the Austrian crown, throwing the onus for a settlement onto the Habsburg court. In response to his prompting, Franz Joseph I dismissed his current administration and called for a new diet to negotiate the settlement. Deák led the committee tasked with drafting a formula, working alongside Kálmán Tisza and other prominent contemporary politicians. The Austro-Prussian War of 1866 came just as they had completed their work, but Deák resisted extremist pressure to reopen the issue.

Gradually, Deák moderated his views on Hungary's independence. He began taking the line that foreign affairs, defense and finance were "common" to both Austria and Hungary, and a constitutional arrangement could be worked out to incorporate these ideas while still respecting Hungary's internal independence. He supported the "Compromise" (Ausgleich or Kiegyezés) of 1867, which incorporated these ideas, with all his strength, leading the delegation that signed the actual accord. although he was the obvious choice as the first prime minister of the Hungarian half of the newly formed Austria-Hungary, he stood down in favour of Gyula Andrássy. After 1867 his health weakened the continuous work and the attacks on him by disappointed radical patriots used up most of his strength. His reformist ideas were often rejected by Parliament.

He died on January 28, 1876, and was buried with great pomp. Parliament created a law to remember his excellent service and ordered that a statue should be created from national donations. One of the central squares of Budapest, Deák Ferenc Square is today named after him, which is where the three lines of the Budapest Metro come together.

Legacy

• Deák Ferenc Bilingual High School was named after him.
• Deák Ferenc tér a major transport intersection in Budapest was also named after him.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• His picture on the biggest Hungarian denomination, the 20,000 forint banknote

Further reading

• Király, Béla K. Ferenc Deák. Twayne's world leaders series. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1975.
• Arnold-Forster, Florence Mary. Francis Deák : Hungarian Statesman : A Memoir. London: Macmillan, 1880. (online version available here)