Magyar News, 1999. szeptember-2000. augusztus (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2000-03-01 / 7. szám

bered for reading to illiterate prisoners and teaching others the principles of the law. Like many of the other prisoners, he was pardoned after a few years imprisonment. He was released from Josefstadt and returned home.

But, by the terms of his parole, he was prohibited from practicing law for several years. So, he became principal agent for a Trieste insurance company, and lived in Pest where he was a founder and superintendent of the first Hungarian insurance

Osztróvszky tombstone in Pécel

company. When the time was ripe, Osztróvszky again decided to seek political office, and returned with his family to Szeged.

In the post-war period, he was again an enthusiastic supporter of Deák’s efforts to find an acceptable compromise with Austria, and in 1861 was elected Szeged’s mayor. Later in the year, he resigned in protest when compromise talks led by Deák broke down, and Hungary’s constitutional assembly was suspended, returning the country to absolutism.

In 1866, the catastrophic defeat of the Austrian army by the Prussians led to the compromise with the empire’s minorities. It was a necessity. “The chief architect in bringing Hungary from the dark abyss to a peak of splendor and reconciliation was Ferenc Deák.” The Compromise of 1867 for the Magyar side was hammered out by him and Count Gyula Andrássy. They were fortunate to have a “guardian angel” on the Emperor’s side, in the person of his wife

the Empress Elisabeth. The compromise resulted in a 50-year experiment in multi-ethnic government, called the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In the year of Compromise, Osztróvszky again ran for mayor in Szeged, but lost. Among other things, the new Hungarian constitution, which came into being with the compromise, established a system of courts. Two years later, the Justice Minister Boldizsár Horváth, appointed József Osztróvszky to the Hétszemélyes Tábla — the Board of Seven Men, later known as the Kúria. This was Hungary’s equivalent of our Supreme Court.

The author, Vic Berecz, at the right and sculptor Jenő Kiss at the dedication in Szeged

(Városliget) in Pest.

Later he was promoted to the high position of presiding judge of that court, a position he held for seventeen years until his retirement.

József Osztróvszky was married to Leopoldina Lujza Palásty in 1846. My great-great grandmother, she was the daughter of an estate manager in nearby Algyö. She served as an army nurse during the War for Independence. She died in 1880 in Pest.

Since my great-grandparents died young, my grandfather, Gyula Heszlényi was raised by his maternal grandfather, József Osztróvszky, and his maiden aunt Vilma. They lived in a lovely house that is still standing near the City Park

The father, József Osztróvszky, Sr

József Osztróvszky died a hundred years ago on April 22, 1899 in Budapest and was buried in the famous old Kerepesi cemetery, where most 19th century Hungarian notables were interred. But his moving around in the world wasn’t over. In the 1960’s, his grave was moved to the Reformed Church Cemetery in the town of Pécel — good Catholic though he was — to make room for a “Hero of Communism” at Kerepesi Cemetery.

While he did not receive the acclaim of the martyred generals who were hung following the War for Independence of 1848-49, József Osztróvszky was an example of a 19th century survivor. He lived to make important contributions to Hungarian law and justice, based on the liberal principles of Széchenyi and Deák. He survived, and with never ending devotion helped rebuild the nation, and made a difference.

On last October 6, I was proud to be part of the dedication of a monument honoring József Osztróvszky by the people of Szeged and the Hungarian nation. It took place in a square at the end of a street named after József Osztróvszky, the revolutionary, the rebuilder, who survived with his people.

Vic Berecz is a retired Computer Software Engineering Manager who lives in Fairfield. His retirement hobby is genealogy. Besides tracing his family and his Hungarian ancestors, he does genealogical lecturing, presentations in Hungarian areas and the use of computers in the research of ancestors.

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