Gyula Horn

The native form of this personal name is Horn Gyula. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Gyula Horn
Prime Minister of Hungary 3rd Prime Minister of the Third Republic of Hungary
In office 15 July 1994 – 8 July 1998
President	Árpád Göncz
Preceded by	Péter Boross
Succeeded by	Viktor Orbán
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 10 May 1989 – 23 May 1990
Preceded by	Péter Várkonyi
Succeeded by	Géza Jeszenszky
Personal details
Born	(1932-07-05)5 July 1932 Budapest, Hungary
Died	19 June 2013(2013-06-19) (aged 80) Budapest, Hungary
Political party	MSZP (1989–2013)
Other political affiliations	MDP (1954–1956) MSZMP (1956–1989)
Spouse	Anna Király

Gyula Horn (5 July 1932 – 19 June 2013) was a Hungarian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary from 1994 to 1998.

Horn is remembered as the last Communist Foreign Minister of Hungary who played a major role in the demolishing of the "Iron Curtain" for East Germans in 1989, contributing to the later unification of Germany, and for the Bokros package, the biggest fiscal austerity programme in post-communist Hungary, launched under his premiership, in 1995.

Early life and education

Horn was born in Budapest in 1932 as the third child of transport worker Géza Horn and factory worker Anna Csörnyei. They lived in in conditions of poverty at the so-called "Barrack" estate between Nagyicce and Sashalom. There were seven brothers in the family: filmmaker Géza (1925–1956), Károly (1930–1946), Tibor (1935), Sándor (1939), Tamás (1942) and Dénes (1944).

After the German occupation of Hungary, his father was kidnapped by the Gestapo due to communist activities in 1944 and and never returned home. Gyula Horn's niece is Szófia Havas, Member of Parliament between 2006 and 2010, whose father Géza, Jr. was killed unclear circumstances during the 1956 revolution.

He first studied in a lower technicians' school in Hungary. He graduated from the Rostov-on-Don College of Economics and Finance in 1954. He finished the political academy of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) in 1970. He received Candidate of Economic Sciences in 1977.

He married statistician Anna Király in February 1956 and had two children: Anna (1956) and Gyula, Jr. (1969).

Administration and party career

Communist Hungary

In 1954 Horn joined the Hungarian communist party, then called the Hungarian Working People's Party (MDP). In November 1956 he joined the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) established by János Kádár to lead the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian revolution against Soviet occupation and communist rule.

Horn worked in the Ministry of Finance from 1954 to 1959. He got a job in the Foreign Ministry in 1959, first as an official in the independent Soviet department. In the 1960s he was a diplomat in the Hungarian embassies in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.

Gyula Horn with German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher in 1989

In 1969 Horn became an official in the foreign affairs department of the MSZMP Central Committee. By 1983 he rose to the rank of department head. In 1985 he was appointed secretary of state (deputy minister) in the Foreign Ministry. In 1989 he stepped forward to become foreign minister in the country's last communist government led by Miklós Németh.

Horn was one of the leaders of the radical reformers who transformed the MSZMP into the Hungarian Socialist Party in 1989, and became its chairman in 1990. As a minister he was in charge of foreign affairs when Hungary decided to open the western border (the "Iron Curtain") to East Germans wishing to emigrate to West Germany. He is often credited with having a major part in the decision and, consequently, a role in German unification.

He and his Austrian counterpart Alois Mock posed for cameras on 27 June 1989 to cut through a barbed wire frontier fence, in a largely symbolic act of rapprochement which had been planned months before. As foreign minister he ordered the border to be opened to allow East Germans gathered in Hungary by the thousands to leave for West Germany. With this act he greatly contributed to the later unification of Germany. Within weeks tens of thousands of East Germans, who travelled to Hungary with "tourist" visas, headed straight for the unfortified border and walked into the West. The fall of East German communism and the process of German unification had been launched. With dizzying speed, communist governments in the region succumbed to popular uprisings and sheer fatigue. Within a few years, the Soviet Union itself had evaporated.

As foreign minister he prepared and signed the Hungarian-Soviet troop withdrawal agreement in March 1990. Among the politicians of the transitional era, including representatives of civil opposition, he was the first in Hungary who raised and suggested the issue of a possible NATO and the case of accession and membership to the European Union.

After communism

He was first elected to the Parliament in 1990 and retained a seat until the 2010 parliamentary election. He served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs between 1990 and 1993, until his resignation.

Between 1990 and 1995, he was a member of the Governing Board of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). He also functioned as one of the vice presidents of the Socialist International from 1996 to 2003.

Horn led the Socialists to a huge victory in the 1994 parliamentary election. The MSZP leaped from a paltry 33 seats in 1990 to 209, enough for an outright majority. However, Horn suspected he'd have trouble getting needed reforms past his own party's left wing. He also wanted to allay concerns both inside and outside Hungary of a former Communist party winning an absolute majority. With this in mind, he went into coalition with the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats, giving him a two-thirds majority.

Gyula Horn in 2005

In 1995, Horn's government enacted the "Bokros package", a major austerity program. This was a difficult decision for a social democratic party, and Horn had to expend considerable effort to get most of his party to agree to it.

Although Horn relinquished leadership of the party after the Socialists lost the 1998 election to Viktor Orbán and Fidesz, he was for a long time considered to have considerable influence in the party, partly because of his personal popularity among elderly voters. In the years after 2002, he hadn't taken a very active role in politics. The Medgyessy Cabinet appointed him Special Rapporteur for the European Union. He received second place in the election list of the MSZP during the 2004 European Parliament election in Hungary, however Horn stated before the election that will not take the position of MEP.

Horn has received several awards for his achievements in foreign relations, among others the Charlemagne Award of the city of Aachen in 1990. He did not, however, get the Magyar Köztársaság Érdemrendjének Polgári Tagozata prize in 2007, suggested by Ferenc Gyurcsány, as it was refused by Hungarian President László Sólyom, who explicitly stated Horn's views on the 1956 revolution as the reason.

In a 2011 survey, incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was found to be Hungary’s best premier since the political changes two decades ago. József Antall, the leader of a conservative governing coalition from 1990 to 1993, came second while Horn (1994–98) and Gordon Bajnai (2009–10) tied for third place.

His role in 1956

Although the fiscal austerity package under his rule eroded his popularity heavily, the most controversial part of his life is his role after the 1956 revolution, which started on 23 October and was crushed in the days following 4 November.

At the end of October he joined the National Guard, the armed body of the revolution consisting soldiers, policemen, and civic freedom fighters. In December he joined the "pufajkás" brigades (in German Steppjackenbrigade), a communist paramilitary body set up to help the invading Soviet troops restore the communist regime, and he served there until June 1957. His alleged role is controversial in some circles because such squads were accused of involvement in torturing, harassing and even executing civilians during and after the uprising.

According to him his elder brother was killed by the revolutionists during the uprising. However, his brother's death certificate states he died in a traffic accident in the countryside. His daughter was born on 30 October. "The conditions were bad. The uprising released many criminals who endangered public safety. In the pufajkás squad I defended the legal order," he told German paper Die Welt 50 years later. "First, I would like to make it clear that 1956 was not a fight against communism. Even the rebels did not want to wipe it out. This is incorrectly depicted today."

Horn's precise role in crushing the revolution is unclear as the reports of his brigade have gaps; however, in 1957 he received the award "For the Worker-Peasant Power", which was only granted to those whose services earned satisfaction. When decades later, already as a prime minister he was questioned and criticized over this part of his life, he only said: "I was a pufajkás. So what?"

Illness and death

Horn was hospitalized in August 2007 with a serious illness. Horn was being treated at Budapest’s Honvéd Hospital for a sleeping disorder, according to official reports, but other sources say he had a serious brain malfunction. According to newer informations his condition had deteriorated to the point that he was unable to leave the hospital. His condition had worsened to the point that he couldn't leave the Honvéd hospital where he was being treated, and thus missed out on the World Political Forum being held in Budapest, which has also seen the arrival of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to Budapest. The website tried to find out if Gorbachev, a longtime friend of Horn’s, would visit him in the hospital, but was unable find confirmation of this.

On 9 October 2007, Hungarian daily newspaper Népszabadság's online version reported mistakenly that Gyula Horn died.

As of 2008, Gyula Horn was no longer able to recognise his friends and was suffering from an illness similar to Alzheimer's disease. There were also reports that although Horn has lost weight, though he was in good physical condition. Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány was the last senior party official to visit him, the daily added. On 5 July 2011, the day of Horn's 79th birthday Népszava reported his state of health had not deteriorated; it continued to be stable. Senior Socialist Party officials presented him with a gift-parcel on the occasion of his birthday.

Horn turned 80 on 5 July 2012, when Prime Minister Viktor Orbán greeted in a letter. "First of all we are Hungarians and we work towards prosperity of the nation based on our faith and the best of our knowledge. Therefore there are more links than divisions between us", the letter said. The Hungarian Socialist Party also celebrated his round birthday.

After years of struggling with his illness, he died on 19 June 2013. He was survived by his wife and daughter, Anna, and son, Gyula Jr.

Germany's Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, said Horn's "courageous work as Hungarian foreign minister will remain unforgettable to us Germans." Reuters called Horn, whose picture taking a wire-cutter to the fence separating Hungary and Austria was iconic, the "man who tore the iron curtain". Domestic recognition was hampered by his communist history, and commendations voted on by the Hungarian parliament were defeated on the occasions of his 70th and 75th birthdays.

Attila Mesterházy, leader of the Socialist Party, said in a statement sent to MTI that "Horn will be remembered as the most defining leaders of the modern Hungarian left, one of the most successful prime ministers of Hungary and had made one of the greatest impacts on Europe during its sweeping changes over two decades ago. Horn played a key role in reviving the left and the Socialist party." Former PM Gyurcsány called Horn the "most contradictory" and "most talented" of politicians. In a Facebook entry, he added: "a great man has passed away."

The ruling Fidesz expressed condolences to Horn's family, as well as to the leadership and members of the Socialist party. LMP party’s leader András Schiffer told MTI that "Horn was one of the most important personalities of the post-communist Hungary and is one of the few politicians whose names are likely to go down in Hungarian history." Schiffer said that he could not identify with Horn's politics and political relations before the transition to democracy in Hungary, but it must be acknowledged that Horn had shown real humanity towards ordinary people. Gordon Bajnai, leader of the Together 2014, said that Hungary and Europe had lost a "true statesman". He added that Horn was a "symbol of a peaceful and successful regime change, and, as prime minister, he had done much to help Hungary find an exit from the post-communist economic and social crisis." President János Áder also expressed his condolences to the family of Horn in a letter.

Funeral

Horn received a state funeral and was buried at Fiume Road National Graveyard on 8 July 2013. A farewell of military honours accompanied Horn’s burial and thousands attended the funeral, many laying red carnations by the grave. EP President Martin Schulz, former German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, President János Áder, former presidents László Sólyom and Pál Schmitt, Archbishop Péter Erdő and former parliamentary speaker Katalin Szili were also in attendance, as well as representatives of the Socialist party, Fidesz, Christian Democrats, PM and DK, among others.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, former prime ministers Péter Boross, Péter Medgyessy, Ferenc Gyurcsány and Gordon Bajnai, as well as Socialist party leader Attila Mesterházy paid tribute at Horn’s grave. When Orbán paid his tribute, some in the crowed booed at the prime minister. Socialist lawmaker Ferenc Baja, a former minister in the Horn government, said in a Facebook entry that this was “unworthy” of the event.

Béla Katona, a former speaker of the parliament said the life of Gyula Horn itself encompassed the history of the twentieth century, and he shaped the fate of both Hungary and Europe as a whole. Katona said Horn as a prime minister and a statesman remained an ordinary man nevertheless. "He was not perfect; he made some bad decisions, but the good decisions outnumbered the bad ones. He was a successful man and a true statesman", he added.

Selected publications

• Baranyi, Mária: Egy előszoba titkai – Horn Gyula közelről 1994–1998. Athenaeum Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 2010.
• Horn, Gyula: Cölöpök. Zenit Könyvek, Budapest, 1991.
• Horn, Gyula: Azok a kilencvenes évek.... Kossuth Kiadó, Budapest, 1999.
• Kubinyi, Ferenc: Vaskorona. Edition Litfas, 1995.
• Pünkösti, Árpád: A Horn. Angyalföldtől a pártelnökségig 1932–1990. Kossuth Kiadó, Budapest, 2013.
• Szerdahelyi, Szabolcs: Hiányzó cölöpök – Ami a Horn Gyula életrajzból kimaradt. Kairosz Kiadó, Budapest, 2002.