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 - The role of Frankfurt
'FABULOUS' IN HUNGARY office of the Ministry of Foreign Trade in West Germany,”296 it says in his autobiography. 296 ÁBTL 3.1.5. 0-12344/2 p. 179 János Sebestyérís autobiography, 6 August 1959 297 ÁBTL 3.1.5. 0-12344/2 p. 18 Report, 13 October 1958 298 Ibid. Until the outbreak of the revolution, most employees at the Frankfurt office, the central avenue of trade between East and West, were under the control of the Ministry of the Interior, and the majority of the staff and the foreign traders serving there left the building of the office during the days of the revolution and over the period afterwards, and refused to return home. The foreign trade office needed a new, reliable person, and although Sebestyén was a well-known and recognised representative of the Communist regime in 1957, he did not have any experience with foreign trade, so it is surprising he was appointed to a post that was so important from an economic policy perspective. According to the information of state security, Sebestyén requested that he be transferred to the Frankfurt office because he wanted to work at a place “where one can earn well, where one can build up savings.”297 If the historian tries to see logic underlying this less than obvious decision, he will presume that in Sebestyén they posted a person to West Germany, who, due to his previous positions, had a crystal-clear understanding of how developed Hungarian industry was, as well as its shortcomings and needs. They could not have found a more apt person to learn about German technology and purchase the required products. At the same time, the cited report of the Ministry of the Interior raises the possibility that this was probably also about something else. Sebestyén was allegedly related to Károly Junger; 298 it is unknown to what degree, but we do know that before his posting to Frankfurt, Junger was employed by the Heavy Industry Centre, where Sebestyén was his superior, so they must have known each other even if state security was wrong about the family ties. After Junger ‘defected’, Sebestyén was keen to get in touch with him and talk to the escaped trader before requesting his own transfer to Frankfurt. The intention of West German firms to enter eastern markets also provided major opportunities to benefit from bribery among the mediating traders, the system was well-known Ill
