Béla Imrédy

The native form of this personal name is vitéz ómoraviczai Imrédy Béla. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Vitéz Béla Imrédy de Ómoravicza
Imrédy in 1939
Prime Minister of Hungary
In office 14 May 1938 – 16 February 1939
Regent	Miklós Horthy
Preceded by	Kálmán Darányi
Succeeded by	Pál Teleki
Personal details
Born	(1891-12-29)29 December 1891 Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary
Died	28 February 1946(1946-02-28) (aged 54) Budapest, Second Hungarian Republic
Cause of death	Execution by firing squad
Nationality	Hungarian
Political party	Unity Party, Party of National Unity, Party of Hungarian Life, Party of Hungarian Renewal
Spouse	Irén Nelky
Profession	politician, economist

Béla vitéz Imrédy de Ómoravicza (Hungarian: Vitéz ómoraviczai Imrédy Béla; 29 December 1891 – 28 February 1946) was Prime Minister of Hungary from 1938 to 1939.

Born in Budapest to a Catholic family, Imrédy studied law as a young man before he started working for the Hungarian Ministry of Finance. Eventually becoming a skilled economist and financier, Imrédy was made Director of the Hungarian National Bank in 1928. In 1932, he was appointed Minister of Finance under the fascist Prime Minister Gyula Gömbös. Following his resignation in 1935, Imrédy took on the role of President of the Hungarian National Bank. A highly ambitious individual, Imrédy was recognized for his right-wing perspectives on domestic and social issues. However, in matters of foreign policy, he held a pro-British stance, which ultimately contributed to his appointment as Minister of Economic Coordination under the leadership of Prime Minister Kálmán Darányi. When Darányi stepped down in May 1938, Regent Miklós Horthy appointed Imrédy as the new prime minister, marking a significant shift in Hungary's political landscape. Imrédy's diplomatic efforts to strengthen Hungary's ties with Britain were viewed unfavorably by Germany and Italy. However, he realized that alienating the two fascist powers on a long term basis was not a good strategy, and from the autumn of 1938 onward, he pivoted -Hungary's foreign policy towards pro-German and pro-Italian. Imrédy sought to establish himself as a prominent figure in Hungary's right-wing political scene by founding the Movement of Hungarian Life. In his pursuit of power, he didn't hesitate to elimininate rivals, and notable fascists like Ferenc Szálasi faced harassment from his administration. As Imrédy's ideology shifted further to the right, he advocated for a totalitarian overhaul of the government and introduced laws that curtailed press freedom and had devastating economic consequences for many Jewish people.

Béla Imrédy on trial before the People's Tribunal in Budapest

In February 1939, Imrédy's moderate opponents, dissatisfied with his increasing alignment with Germany and Hungary's right-wing, presented Regent Horthy with evidence suggesting that Imrédy had Jewish ancestry through his great-grandfather. When confronted with the evidence, Imrédy was unable to refute the claims and subsequently resigned as prime minister on February 13, 1939. Imrédy went on to serve in the Hungarian Army in 1940 and later founded the Party of Hungarian Renewal, a pro-fascist and anti-Semitic organization, in October of that year. Following Germany's occupation of Hungary in 1944, Imrédy was considered by German Plenipotentiary Edmund Veesenmayer as the top candidate to succeed Miklós Kállay as prime minister. However, Regent Horthy refused to support the idea, and Döme Sztójay was appointed prime minister instead. Imrédy became Sztójay's Minister of Economic Coordination in May 1944, but he was forced to resign in August. After German forces were driven out of Hungary, Imrédy was arrested and tried by a People's Tribunal in November 1945. Found guilty of war crimes and collaboration with the Nazis, he was sentenced to death and executed by a firing squad in the courtyard of the jail in Markó street, Budapest, in 1946.

References

• Magyar életrajzi lexikon
• Életrajz SZTE Egyetemi Könyvtár Hadtörténeti gyűjtemény
• Az ezenanapon.hu összefoglalója
• Az Imrédy-kormány belpolitikája
• Az Imrédy-kormány külpolitikája
• Fotó Imrédy Béláról A kivégzés előtti percekben
• (Pincus Lauder) Markó Gergely: Imrédy Béla
• Imrédy Béla csodás forradalma mult-kor.hu

External links

• Newspaper clippings about Béla Imrédy in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW