Gyula Háy

From left to right: Julius Hay, Bertolt Brecht, Ernst Legal, Alexander Abusch in 1948

Gyula Háy (Julius Hay) (May 5, 1900 – May 7, 1975) was a Hungarian communist intellectual and playwright.

Gyula Háy was born in 1900 in Abony, Hungary. He was involved in the German communist movement in the 1920s, particularly in agitprop plays. During World War II, he lived for a time in Moscow's Hotel Lux, along with scores of other Communist exiles.^[1]

In the 1950s he was a dissident in the Hungarian Writers' Union, and advocated for workers' councils in the months leading up to the Hungarian revolution of 1956. During the revolution, he played a significant role in the Hungarian Writers' Union, as a revolutionary body. He was involved in the workers council movement, and wrote the radio appeal to the intellectuals of the world which was broadcast as the Parliament building fell to Soviet troops.

Háy was arrested and sentenced to 6 years in prison in November 1957. After three and a half years in prison, he was released and a few years later in 1965, left Hungary for Switzerland with his wife Eva where he continued to write plays in the west as an emigre.

He died 1975 in Ascona, Switzerland. His son, Peter Háy, is a retired Canadian author, publisher and bookseller.

Works in English

• Born 1900: a memoir
• "The Horse" (Das Pferd) in Three East European Plays Penguin: 1970.
• "Have" a play, first UK performance at the Pit, London 1990.

Sources

• Eva Hay, "Auf beiden Seiten der Barrikaden"

References