Árpád Göncz | |
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Official portrait of Árpád Göncz
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President of Hungary | |
In office 2 May 1990 – 4 August 2000 Acting to 3 August 1990 |
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Prime Minister |
Miklós Németh (interim) József Antall Péter Boross Gyula Horn Viktor Orbán |
Preceded by | Mátyás Szűrös (interim) |
Succeeded by | Ferenc Mádl |
Speaker of the National Assembly | |
In office 2 May 1990 – 3 August 1990 |
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Preceded by |
Mátyás Szűrös (István Fodor) |
Succeeded by | György Szabad |
Member of the National Assembly | |
In office 2 May 1990 – 3 August 1990 |
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Personal details | |
Born |
Budapest, Hungary |
10 February 1922
Died | 6 October 2015 Budapest, Hungary |
(aged 93)
Nationality | Hungarian |
Political party |
FKGP (1945–1949) SZDSZ (1988–1990) |
Spouse(s) | Zsuzsanna Göntér (m. 1946) |
Children |
Kinga Benedek Annamária Dániel |
Parents |
Lajos Göncz Ilona Haimann |
Alma mater | Pázmány Péter University |
Profession |
Writer Politician |
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Signature |
Árpád Göncz (Göncz Árpád, Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈɡønt͡s ˈaːrpaːd]; 10 February 1922 – 6 October 2015) was a Hungarian liberal politician, who served as President of Hungary from 2 May 1990 to 4 August 2000. Göncz played a role in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He was also founding member of the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) and Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary before becoming President.
He was a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
Árpád Göncz was born on 10 February 1922 in Budapest into a petty bourgeois family of noble origin as the son of Lajos Göncz de Gönc (1887–1974), who worked as a post officer, and Ilona Haimann (b. 1892). The Roman Catholic Göncz family originated from Csáktornya, Zala County (today Čakovec, Croatia), where Göncz's great-grandfather, Lajos Göncz, Sr. was a pharmacist. He later participated in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and following the defeat, he was sentenced to nine years in prison. Árpád Göncz's father, Lajos Göncz was also a successful tennis player, who participated in the 1924 Summer Olympics, where defeated by René Lacoste in men's single at the second round. Árpád Göncz's parents divorced when he was six years old, thus his relationship with his father became tense in the following years. Göncz's mother, who was a Unitarian, was born in Transylvania, she had Jewish and Székely roots. She became orphan as a child and after a brief orphanage, raised by the merchant Báthy family from Budapest.