Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)
‘FABULOUS’ IN HUNGARY - Economic diplomacy
'FABULOUS' IN HUNGARY put on for his superiors by playing the part of kingmaker. We cannot know for certain, but given how Todenhöfer tried to explain things, we must consider the first possibility: “In his view, Chancellor Adenauer has dictatorial tendencies, ministers do not have independent roles with him around, and he also drives them completely insane. Kiesinger does not want to take this on. This is why he went for this post, because his chances of becoming chancellor a few years later when Adenauer dies are greater.”284 In 1958, this may have appeared to be an unrealistic hope, and Nyerges did not seriously consider this possibility, but he did acknowledge that there could have been some rationale behind the explanation. The point was that “given the current circumstances, Kiesinger’s influence on direct foreign politics has diminished.” 284 Ibid. 285 Kiesinger’s political qualities are often likened to Angela Merkels political aptitude regarding governing in a grand coalition, so Kiesinger’s image as a politician is becoming increasingly positive nowadays. See: Olsen 2011; Mushaben 2016 286 ÁBTL 3.2.3. Mt-1072/1, p. 63 Report, 12 December 1966 287 Ibid. Todenhöfer and Kiesinger s strategy did eventually come through in 1966 when the former member of the Nazi Party became Chancellor for one term of office.285 It may have appeared to the Hungarian party leadership for a moment that two decades of work had come to fruition, and the Hungarian foreign trade lobby had got itself a chancellor, to use Nyerges slightly pompous phrase. Kiesinger did not enjoy wide-ranging support and popularity, and his international authority was not significant either, so it is not surprising he was trying “to build constructive political, economic and cultural relationships with European socialist countries to enhance his prestige. To set up these relationships, he would start with the Hungarian Peoples Republic as number one,” said the assessment from 1966.286 Gerhard Todenhöfer conveyed the greetings of Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger to János Nyerges, the head of division of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Trade in person, and extended the Chancellors invitation to a private meeting in January 1967, providing Nyerges with a separate vehicle in Vienna to make his journey more comfortable.287 This was anything but a run-of-the-mill meeting in accordance with diplomatic 107
