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 - End game
'FABULOUS' IN HUNGARY researchable, the majority of the questions emerging when presenting the case cannot be definitively answered. A hunger for attention was clearly part of Emil Hoffmanns personality. Even after the war, he refused to give up the continuous sense of importance and secrecy he experienced as an intelligence agent, which made him a convenient pawn in the games of the Cold War. He was briefly used as a tool by the Hungarian trade elite, the aims and methods of which were changing after 1956 because they had to adapt to how Kádár ’ s regime wielded power. This in itself gave them more room for manoeuvre. Ensuring the inflow of capital and technology required to satisfy the living standards policy that would ensure Kádárs legitimacy demanded that Hungary’s politics were oriented towards the West, which valorised the significance of the economic relations in place for a decade even before the revolution. This opened up opportunities to expand the network and rendered the individuals who built and operated that system of nexuses indispensable. János Fekete, János Nyerges and János Sebestyén must have played a crucial role in this network: in this financial and economic interest group, Fekete, Nyerges and Sebestyén were decisive figures in finance, economic diplomacy and technological-scientific relations, respectively. Nyerges ’ diplomatic negotiations went far beyond economic and trade relations. We have already learned that, in Kiesinger and Todenhöfer, he earned political supporters for the Hungarian government, which extended into Kiesinger’s term of office as chancellor and beyond: “ Nyerges has old ties linking him to the Todenhöfer family, and he visits them when he travels to West Germany on a regular basis. On such occasions, Nyerges obtains information from prominent opposition politicians regarding current political and economic issues. Through the family, he maintains relations with former chancellor Kurt Kiesinger and Helmut Kohl, the CDU’s candidate for chancellor,”416 a report at the Ministry of Interior from 1975 says about Nyerges. One of the most significant politicians in modern Germany, Christian democratic chancellor Kohl, who is referred to as the father of German reunification, and who played a major role in the collapse of 416 ÁBTL 3.2.1 Bt-481/2, p. 170 Proposal, 10 September 1975 151
