Goncz, Arpad, << gurnz, AHR pahd >> (1922-2015), served as president of Hungary from 1990 to 2000. Goncz wrote plays, short stories, and a novel and won several literary prizes.
Goncz was born in Budapest on Feb. 22, 1922. He earned a degree in law in 1944 from Peter Pazmany Catholic University in Budapest. In 1947 and 1948, he headed the Budapest youth organization of the Independent Smallholders’ Party and edited the youth journal Nezmedek (Generation). In the late 1940’s, Communists won control of Hungary’s government and banned all non-Communist parties. The Independent Smallholders’ Party was forced to dissolve.
From 1948 to 1951, Goncz worked as a welder because he could find no other employment. From 1952 to 1956, he studied at Godollo University of Agricultural Sciences and worked for the Agricultural Ministry.
In the mid-1950’s, there was much unrest in Hungary because of the Communist government’s increasing restrictions on freedom. In 1956, a revolution spread swiftly through the country. But troops from the Soviet Union poured into Hungary and put down the uprising. Goncz was among the many Hungarians who were jailed for taking part in the revolution. He remained in prison until a general pardon was given in 1963. From the time of his release until the late 1980’s, Goncz spent his time writing and doing literary translations.
In the late 1980’s, people throughout Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union demanded government reforms. In Hungary in 1989, the government made sweeping revisions in the country’s constitution. The revisions changed the structure of the Hungarian government from a one-party Communist state to a multiparty parliamentary system and created a new office of president. Goncz had helped to found a liberal political party, the Alliance of Free Democrats, in 1988. In elections held in mid-1990, Goncz’s party won the second largest number of votes. Goncz won a seat in the parliament, the National Assembly. He was chosen the Assembly leader and thus became acting president of Hungary. In August 1990, the Assembly members elected Goncz Hungary’s president. They reelected him in 1995. Goncz died on Oct. 6, 2015.
