Boros Géza: Statue Park - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2002)

The endless promenade dedicated to persons in the labour movement

i8 . Bust of József Kalamár (Tamás Gyenes, i960)

The labour movement personality represented here held important government, management and party positions after 1945, including that of chairman of the Csepel district council. In 1956 he hid from the wrath of the people in the Királyerdő forest in Csepel, but he was discovered and shot dead by his pursuers. Raised by the Patriotic People's Front and the Csepel Iron and Steel Works, the statue stood in the courtyard of the József Kalamár Primary School in Kalamár (today Szent István) utca. ln 1980, a copy also appeared in his native village of Seregélyes, in the local József Kalamár school.

'9 . János Asztalos Plaque (István János Nagy, 1968)

The instalment of this plaque was part of a larger project aiming systematically to reshape the environment of the Ludovika, the former military academy, bringing the neighbourhood in line with the accepted communist iconography of the period. The limestone relief embellished the entrance to the building at the corner of János Asztalos Youth Park (today Orczy Gardens) and Mező Imre (today Orczy) út. Like Imre Mező, János Asztalos fell during the siege of the Budapest communist party headquarters in Köztársaság tér in 1956, after which he was posthumously promoted to the rank of colonel. According to the language of the Kádár era, these men were 'victims of the counter-revolution', men who had given their lives for Hungary’s freedom'. Suggestive of how posterity's evaluation can differ is the mark of a hammer-strike where the martyr's broken-off nose once was.

20. Róbert Kreutz Plaque (1963)

This plaque, commemorating a young communist martyr imprisoned and executed in 1944 for the role he played in the anti-fascist resistance, was removed from the wall of his former home at Hámán Kató (today Haller) utca 54. According to the files kept by the Budapest Monument Inspectorate, the last maintenance work on the plaque was carried out in 1975, when Fti68o was paid for its cleaning and the gilding of 122 letters. Today the gilding has completely faded, with only the letters of the name preserving the memory of past glory. Characteristic of the political uncertainties (or forgetfulness) around the act of removal is the fact that on the wall of the former Pioneers’ Headquarters (in the former János Asztalos Youth Park) there is still a bronze relief made by András Kiss Nagy and unveiled in 1977, which shows the martyr blindfolded. Both monuments should be removed — or neither.

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