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{{short description|Hungarian Prime Minister and trade union leader}}
{{Infobox President
| name                = Gyula Peidl
| image               = Peidl Gyula official.jpg
| caption             = Peidl in 1919
| nationality         = [[Hungary|Hungarian]]
| order               = Acting [[President of Hungary|Head of State of Hungary]]
| term_start          = 1 August 1919
| term_end            = 6 August 1919
| primeminister       = ''Himself''
| predecessor         = [[Sándor Garbai]]<BR><small>(as Chairman of the Central Executive Council)</small>
| successor           = [[Archduke Joseph August of Austria|Archduke Joseph]]<BR><small>(as Regent of Hungary)</small>
| order1              = [[List of Prime Ministers of Hungary|Prime Minister of Hungary]]
| term_start1         = 1 August 1919
| term_end1           = 6 August 1919
| 1blankname1         = Head of State
| 1namedata1          = ''Himself'' <small>(acting)</small>
| predecessor1        = [[Sándor Garbai]]
| successor1          = [[István Friedrich]]
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1873|4|4|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Ravazd]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1943|1|22|1873|4|4|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Budapest]], [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]]
| spouse              = 
| party               = [[Hungarian Social Democratic Party|MSZDP]]
| profession          = [[politician]]
}}
'''Gyula Peidl''' (4 April 1873 &ndash; 22 January 1943) was a [[Hungary|Hungarian]] trade union leader and social democrat politician who served as [[Prime Minister of Hungary|prime minister]] and [[List of heads of state of Hungary|acting head of state]] of Hungary for 6 days in August 1919.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MxlqVedWBQoC&q=gyula+peidl&pg=PA204|title=A twentieth-century prophet: Oszkár Jászi, 1875 - 1957|date=2006-01-01|publisher=Central European University Press|isbn=9789637326424|pages=204|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QMB_CwAAQBAJ&q=gyula+peidl&pg=PA13|title=Meddling in Middle Europe: Britain and the 'Lands Between, 1919-1925|last=Lojkó|first=Miklós|date=2006-01-01|publisher=Central European University Press|isbn=9789637326233|pages=13|language=en}}</ref> His tenure coincided with a [[Revolutions and interventions in Hungary (1918–20)|period of political instability in Hungary]] immediately after [[World War I]], during which several successive governments ruled the country.

== Biography ==

=== Early life and career ===
Gyula Peidl was born on 4 April 1873 in [[Ravazd]], [[Győr County]]. His father, a butcher, died early, thus Peidl was raised by his mother. During his apprentice years from 1886 to 1890, he became a typesetter at the printing facility of the Franklin Company.<ref name="marko">Markó, László (2006). ''A magyar állam főméltóságai Szent Istvántól napjainkig: Életrajzi Lexikon'' [Great Officers of State in Hungary from King Saint Stephen to Our Days: A Biographical Encyclopedia] (in Hungarian). Helikon Kiadó. p. 191–192. {{ISBN|963-547-085-1}}.</ref> Following this he participated in study tours to [[Austria]], [[Switzerland]] and [[German Empire|Germany]], where came in contact with Social Democratic movements and also learnt [[German language|German]].<ref name="marko"/> Returning home, he headed the printer's union from 1900 to 1908, and from 1909 onwards.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Revolutionary Hungary 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=Danubian Press. P. 141.|year=1971|isbn=9780879340056|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/49 49]|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/49}}</ref> He was one of the founding members of the General Consumer Cooperative (ÁFOSZ) in 1904. He was elected secretary of the organisation in 1908. As a journalist, he edited the weekly newspapers ''Typographia'' and ''Szövetkezeti Értesítő''. He also served as a Board Member of the National Workers' Insurance Fund ({{langx|hu|Országos Munkásbiztosító Pénztár}}).<ref name="marko"/>

In 1909 he joined the leadership of the [[Social Democratic Party of Hungary]] (MSZDP).<ref name=":0" /> During the [[Mihály Károlyi]] era following [[World War I]] and proclamation of the [[First Hungarian Republic|First Hungarian People's Republic]], he was Minister of Labour and Welfare in the government of [[Dénes Berinkey]]. In opposition to the union of the party with the [[Hungarian Communist Party|Party of Communists in Hungary]] (KMP) at the beginning of the [[Hungarian Soviet Republic]], he resigned his position in the leadership but maintained his membership in the new unified party, called the Socialist Party of Hungary (MSZP).<ref name=":0" />

In July 1919, [[Hungarian–Romanian War#The Romanian Army reaches the Tisza River|Romanian troops crossed]] the [[Tisza]] river and marched towards [[Budapest]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Hungary at the Brink of the Cliff 1918-1919|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=East European Quarterly 3 (1): 95-109.|year=1969|pages=100}}</ref> On 1 August 1919, the Hungarian Soviet Republic ended and a government formed by Social Democrats<ref>{{Cite book|title=Istvan Friedrich and the Hungarian coup d'etat of 1919: A Reevaluation|last=Balogh|first=Eva S.|publisher=Slavic Review 35 (2): 269-286.|year=1976|pages=269}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Uprooted: Hungarian Refugees and Their Impact on Hungary's Domestic Politics, 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Mocsy|first=Istvan I.|publisher=East European Monographs. P. 252.|year=1983|isbn=9780880330398|pages=133}}</ref> and controlled by union leaders replaced it; the leader of the former government, [[Béla Kun]], left the country the next day.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> The new government unanimously accepted the transfer of power<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Revolutionary Hungary 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=Danubian Press. P. 141.|year=1971|isbn=9780879340056|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/50 50]|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/50}}</ref> after the Romanian invasion of the capital and, subsequently, the end of the Hungarian Soviet Republic.<ref name=":1" /> [[Sándor Garbai]], the Chairman of the Central Executive Council summoned Peidl and communicated his request to form a government, as well as a list of ministers, which Peidl reluctantly accepted because of his closeness to the former cabinet.<ref name=":2" />

The government's position was weak, subject to various pressures: opponents in the capital, [[Miklós Horthy|Horthy]]'s [[counter-revolutionary]] [[Royal Hungarian Army|National Army]], desertion by some smaller military units, or defectors who left the Socialists after having supported the Hungarian Soviet Republic.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Revolutionary Hungary 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=Danubian Press. P. 141.|year=1971|isbn=9780879340056|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/53 53]|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/53}}</ref>

=== His government ===
The cabinet, which contained four of [[Béla Kun|Kun]]'s former government commissioners (including Garbai himself), quickly transformed into Social Democrats, who retained important ministerial portfolios (including Defence and Foreign Affairs).<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Hungary at the Brink of the Cliff 1918-1919|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=East European Quarterly 3 (1): 95-109.|year=1969|pages=101}}</ref> At its first meeting on 2 August 1919, it officially dissolved the Hungarian Soviet Republic and declared again the [[First Hungarian Republic|Hungarian People's Republic]]; the people's courts were disbanded and former political prisoners were released from prisons.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite book|title=The Uprooted: Hungarian Refugees and Their Impact on Hungary's Domestic Politics, 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Mocsy|first=Istvan I|publisher=East European Monographs. P. 252.|year=1983|isbn=9780880330398|pages=134}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite book|title=Revolutionary Hungary 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=Danubian Press. P. 141.|year=1971|isbn=9780879340056|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/52 52]|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/52}}</ref> The release of the opponents reinforced the counter-revolutionaries.<ref name=":6" /> The country worked without a head of the state nor head of government.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|title=Hungary at the Brink of the Cliff 1918-1919|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=East European Quarterly 3 (1): 95-109.|year=1969|pages=103}}</ref>

[[File:Peidl Cabinet.jpg|thumb|300px|left|The short-lived Peidl Cabinet in August 1919]]

Former private owners were given nationalised former properties.<ref name=":5" /> Landowners were not transferred nationalised estates, however, as a gesture to the peasantry.<ref name=":5" />

On the same day, the National Smallholders and Agrarian Workers Party (OKGFP) was invited into the government, and the [[Triple Entente|Allied]] representative promised an end to the economic blockade.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Revolutionary Hungary 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=Danubian Press. P. 141.|year=1971|isbn=9780879340056|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/50 50, 53]|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/50}}</ref> Peidl's government tried to demonstrate to the Allies its break with the previous government and its willingness to pursue a policy of moderation.<ref name=":5" /> The Allies, however, refused to recognise the new government for having only socialist members.<ref name=":5" /> The Romanian occupation army was not willing either to support the new government or to protect it from the counterrevolutionary forces.<ref name=":5" />

Meanwhile, on the same day, the army recovered [[Szolnok]] on the outskirts of [[Budapest]] and ejected the Romanians.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":3" /> The Allies ordered their representative to begin negotiations with Peidl if he accepted, as he did, the [[Hungarian–Romanian War#Hungary|Belgrade armistice]]; At the same time Peidl requested an army of occupation, partly to counter the Romanians and Czechs and partly to reinforce the power of his government.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" />

On 4 August 1919, the Hungarian Red Guard was dissolved and the Hungarian police force was established.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":4" /> The capture of communist leaders was secretly ordered.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":8">{{Cite book|title=Revolutionary Hungary 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=Danubian Press. P. 141.|year=1971|isbn=9780879340056|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/54 54]|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/54}}</ref> The new government, however, had no real control over any armed force, and the battalions of the workers had been dissolved.<ref name=":5" />

The measures taken quickly by the new government tried to win the sympathies of the bourgeoisie and the peasantry, while the cabinet began on 5 August 1919 a round of talks with the liberal parties.<ref name=":5" /> On the same day, and at the request of the Allied representative, the Red Guard, now particularly and disorganised and weak,<ref name=":8" /> and the other volunteer units were fully dissolved.<ref name=":3" />  Also on that day, Peidl's government ordered the withdrawal of the printed currency of the Hungarian Soviet Republic and the currency of the monarchy was reinstituted into legal circulation.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book|title=Revolutionary Hungary 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=Danubian Press. P. 141.|year=1971|isbn=9780879340056|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/55 55]|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/55}}</ref>

==== Overthrow ====
At the same time, the counterrevolutionary forces conspired to overthrow the government and put the Hungarian prince (and Austrian archduke) [[Archduke Joseph August of Austria|Joseph August]] in power.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":4" /> On the night of the 4 August 1919, the prince was brought from his castle to [[Budapest]]<ref name=":9" /> with the idea of seizing power the next day.<ref name=":10">{{Cite book|title=Hungary at the Brink of the Cliff 1918-1919|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=East European Quarterly 3 (1): 95-109.|year=1969|pages=102}}</ref><ref name=":11">{{Cite book|title=Revolutionary Hungary 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=Danubian Press. P. 141.|year=1971|isbn=9780879340056|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/56 56]|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/56}}</ref> Peidl received a communication from [[Vienna]] announcing that the Allies would support the government if it included bourgeois elements, which encouraged the counterrevolutionaries to accelerate their plans, backed by [[Traian Moșoiu]], the Romanian military governor of Budapest, but rejected by the Allied representative.<ref name=":10" /><ref name=":11" />

The Romanians seized the capital on the request of refugee counterrevolutionaries in [[Vienna]], against Allied warnings.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book|title=Revolutionary Hungary 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=Danubian Press. P. 141.|year=1971|isbn=9780879340056|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/57 57]|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/57}}</ref><ref name=":10" /> In the rest of the country, the collapse of the communist administration and the power vacuum left behind led to chaos.<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":10" /> The situation was not much better in the occupied capital, where looting and retaliation took place.<ref name=":10" />

On 6 August 1919, the police and part of the army were already in the hands of the counterrevolutionary conspirators.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":13">{{Cite book|title=Revolutionary Hungary 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=Danubian Press. P. 141.|year=1971|isbn=9780879340056|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/61 61]|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/61}}</ref><ref name=":7" /> That afternoon they arrested [[Károly Peyer]], the Minister of the Interior, and learned that the government was meeting in the [[Sándor Palace, Budapest|Sándor Palace]].<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":7" /> [[Ferenc Schnetzer|General Ferenc Schnetzer]] occupied, with Romanian support, the Ministry of Defense, without resistance.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":13" /> At the same time, a representative of the Allies appeared before the cabinet, backed by forty mounted policemen<ref name=":14">{{Cite book|title=Romanian and Allied Involvement in the Hungarian Coup d'Etat of 1919|last=Balogh|first=Eva S.|publisher=East European Quarterly 9 (3): 297-314.|year=1975|pages=301}}</ref> and some officers.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":13" /> He demanded, with threats of arrest, the resignation of the government.<ref name=":15">{{Cite book|title=Revolutionary Hungary 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=Danubian Press. P. 141.|year=1971|isbn=9780879340056|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/62 62]|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/62}}</ref><ref name=":7" /> Peidl protested feebly and asked the assailants to withdraw.<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":7" /> After receiving promises of personal security and the formation, in a few months, of a coalition government, the government decided to cede<ref name=":14" /> to the ultimatum.<ref name=":16">{{Cite book|title=Hungary at the Brink of the Cliff 1918-1919|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=East European Quarterly 3 (1): 95-109.|year=1969|pages=104}}</ref><ref name=":15" /> A Romanian contingent in the vicinity of the palace did not intervene.<ref name=":14" />

On 7 August 1919, the [[King of Romania]], [[Ferdinand I of Romania|Ferdinand I]], entered the capital.<ref name=":16" /><ref name=":17">{{Cite book|title=Revolutionary Hungary 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=Danubian Press. P. 141.|year=1971|isbn=9780879340056|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/63 63]|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/63}}</ref> On the same day, Prince Joseph August<ref name=":14" /> became regent<ref name=":18">{{Cite book|title=The Uprooted: Hungarian Refugees and Their Impact on Hungary's Domestic Politics, 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Mocsy|first=Istvan I.|publisher=East European Monographs. P. 252.|year=1983|isbn=9780880330398|pages=135}}</ref><ref name=":16" /> and [[István Friedrich]], an industrialist, built a new government<ref>{{Cite book|title=Istvan Friedrich and the Hungarian coup d'etat of 1919: A Reevaluation|last=Balogh|first=Eva S.|publisher=Slavic Review 35 (2): 269-286.|year=1976|pages=269–271}}</ref><ref name=":18" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Revolutionary Hungary 1918-1921 (in English)|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=Danubian Press. P. 141.|year=1971|isbn=9780879340056|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/64 64]|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryhun0000szil/page/64}}</ref><ref name=":14" /> with career officials from the various ministries and part of the conspirators, generally bourgeois plebeians.<ref name=":18" />

The coup frustrated the possibilities of collaboration between socialists and liberals, and took away from the government some prominent political figures opposed to the seizure of power by force.<ref name=":17" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Hungary at the Brink of the Cliff 1918-1919|last=Szilassy|first=Sándor|publisher=East European Quarterly 3 (1): 95-109.|year=1969|pages=109}}</ref>

=== After the government ===
After the coup, Peidl became chair of the printer's trade union again. Representing the working class, he participated in the grand coalition talks intermediated by Allied representative [[George Clerk (diplomat)|George Clerk]] in early November. Peidl went into exile in Austria on 18 November 1919, after receiving an increasing number of death threats from [[Far-right politics|far-right]] paramilitary groups.<ref name="marko"/> He resided in [[Vienna]] and [[Sankt Radegund bei Graz]], where he worked as a proofreader, until his return to Hungary in November 1921, where he resumed his trade union activity. He became President of the General Consumer Cooperative. He actively participated in the restructuring process of the Social Democratic Party as a prominent member of the moderate and anti-communist wing.<ref name="marko"/>

Peidl was elected Member of Parliament for [[Szeged]] (2nd constituency) in the [[1922 Hungarian parliamentary election|1922 parliamentary election]]. From 1922 to 1931 he led the Hungarian Social Democratic Party parliamentary group in the unicameral [[National Assembly (Hungary)|National Assembly]] then the [[National Assembly (Hungary)|House of Representatives]].<ref name="marko"/> When the conservative cabinet of [[István Bethlen]] applied for a loan from the [[League of Nations]] in 1924, Peidl was a member of a Social Democratic delegation to [[London]] which urged the British government not to fulfill the request until the re-adoption of universal suffrage, the abolition of the [[numerus clausus]] and the extension of assembly act.<ref name="marko"/> Peidl retired from politics just before the [[1931 Hungarian parliamentary election|1931 parliamentary election]]. He died in Budapest on 22 January 1943.<ref name="marko"/>

== See also ==
* [[Revolutions and interventions in Hungary (1918–20)]]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

{{S-start}}
{{S-off}}
{{Succession box|title=Minister of Labour and Welfare|before=[[Zsigmond Kunfi]]|after=[[Dezső Bokányi]]|years=January–March 1919}}
{{S-bef| rows   = 2 | before = [[Sándor Garbai]] }}
{{S-ttl| title  = [[List of heads of state of Hungary|Acting Head of State of Hungary]]
       | years  = 1–6 August 1919 }}
{{S-aft| after  = [[Archduke Joseph August of Austria|Prince Joseph August]] }}
{{S-ttl| title  = [[Prime Minister of Hungary]]
       | years  = 1–6 August 1919 }}
{{S-aft| after  = [[István Friedrich]] }}
{{succession box|title=[[Minister of Finance of Hungary|Minister of Finance]]|before=[[Ferenc Miákits]]|after=[[János Grünn]]|years=2–6 August 1919}}
{{s-par|hu}}
{{s-bef|before=''First''}}
{{s-ttl|title=Leader of the [[Social Democratic Party of Hungary|MSZDP]] parliamentary group|years=1922–1931}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Károly Peyer]]}}
{{S-end}}

{{HungarianPrimeMinisters}}
{{HungarianPresidents}}
{{HungarianFinanceMinisters}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peidl, Gyula}}
[[Category:1873 births]]
[[Category:1943 deaths]]
[[Category:Prime ministers of Hungary]]
[[Category:Finance ministers of Hungary]]
[[Category:Social Democratic Party of Hungary politicians]]
[[Category:Members of the Executive of the Labour and Socialist International]]
[[Category:Leaders ousted by a coup]]
[[Category:Hungarian male journalists]]
[[Category:Hungarian trade unionists]]
[[Category:People from Győr-Moson-Sopron County]]
[[Category:Hungarian people of German descent]]
[[Category:Hungarian people of the Hungarian–Romanian War]]