Arrabona - Múzeumi közlemények 40/1-2. (Győr, 2002)

Tanulmányok - Tóth Imre: Simon Elemér Sopron megyei főispán életújta és munkássága

ARRABONA40.2002. TANULMÁNYOK zurück, seinen Posten als Präsident des Roten Kreuzes versah er aber bis 1944 und er blieb bis zum letzten Moment, also bis Endes des Krieges Oberhausabgeordnete. Die Wechselfällen nach 1945 untergraben immer mehr seine Gesundheit und er starb im März 1954. Imre Tóth: Elemér Simon. A political biography Elemér Simon was the Lord Lieutenant of Sopron County and that of Sopron. He followed family traditions when pursuing a political career. (His father, Ödön Simon was also the Lord Lieutenant of Sopron County.) After acquiring a degree in law he worked in the administration of the county, then he became a Member of Parliament. During World War I he got into close relationship with the organisation of the Red Cross and between the two wars he became one of the most distinguished leaders of it in Hungary. After the Great War, the dissolution of the Monarchy and the revolutions, he experienced a period of looking for a position, then in 1922, as a member of the governing party of the time, he obtained the position of the Lord Lieutenant of Sopron County, which he served for 13 years, an exceptionally long period. During István Bethlen's service as the Prime Minister (up to 1931), his activity as the Lord Lieutenant was successful, balanced and stable. In the '30s the political climate changed, and the right-wing radicalism that characterised the government while Gyula Gömbös, Prime Minister was in office did not suit Simon's political ideas. He experienced more and more ill success. As the county president of the reorganised governing party, he was expected to agitate and organise masses, instead of discussing élite politics. He could not meet these new requirements. After several instances of attempted resignation he left his position in 1935. He kept on his public activity in the county, and he was even elected as a Member of the Upper House in the Parliament in 1937. In the meantime he had to suffer numerous occasions of ill success. As World War II evolved, he retired into his estate in Csáford, but he retained his presidency in the Red Cross until the end of 1944, an also his membership in the Upper House until the end, that is till the end of the war. The vicissitudes after 1945 destroyed his health more and more, and he died in March 1954. 1. kép: Hűségkapu avatása 1931-ben 353