The chronicle of Eger Tobacco Factory

The cigar factory

Following the disintegration of the monarchy, the number of Hungarian factories halved. Not much information is available to us from the time of the Republic of Councils. We know that the management of the factory, in accordance with the principles of the times, fell to a workers’ co-operative. The factory, working at four separate sites, in Budapest, Szentgotthard, Pápa and Eger, continued firing on all cylinders, doing all in its power to continue to satisfy the proletariat’s demand for tobacco. Lajos Mertz was transferred to the factory in Sátoraljaújhely, and his place was taken by Vilmos Haehnl, who led the factory back into the capitalist world. During this period of economic crisis the directors came and went with amazing frequency. From 1924 Béla Zámbó was at the helm for a year, from 1925 Jenő Dániel held the position for four years. In 1929 Adorján Oltványi took over, and he was to be the last man who would direct the factory in its cigar-making days. He was born in Pancsova, worked as a finance clerk in Lőcse, then worked in Temesvár (Timisoara) as a clerk’s assistant, from where he moved on to Kolozsvár (Cluj). In 1920 he was thrown out of Romania for refusing to acknowledge the Romanian State,

This early racing car offered little advertizing space for sponsors