LINHARDT Antal II Family Life Page

Biography of Antal LINHARDT

Antal Linhardt II was born on September 13, 1894 in Kispest as the lawful child of Antal Linhardt and Anna Belanszky. The exact address was 12 Vorosmarty Street. His parents, Antal Linhardt I, Roman Catholic, widowed, day laborer and Anna Belanszky, Roman Catholic, single were married on February 4, 1894 also in Kisplest (12 Damjanich Street). The origins of both the Linhardt and Belanszky lines can be found out from their marriage record: the Linhardt family came from Kladno, near Prague, Bohemia, the Belanszky family from Alsokereskeny, today Krskany, Slovakia.

Antal Linhardt II originally studied to be a printer, however, finding connection with the Hungarian Social Democrat Party (HSDP) (founded in 1890 and modeled on the Austrian party) in 1910 he devoted his further activity to the labor movement. After the fall of the Hungarian Soviet Republic (08.01.1919) it was he who controlled the reogranization of the HSDP in Kispest. Acknowledging his activity in 1922 he was elected as a member of the representative body of Kispest. Beside this he was gaining higher and higher positions within the fixed party hierarchy. In 1926 he became the member of the executive committee of the HSDP, then from 1934 on he organized the distribution of the Nepszava, the party newspaper in the country which resulted in the strengthening of the rural political base of the party. Between the two world wars he attended every congress of the HSDP as a delegate (his field of interest was the policy of settlements), where within the left side of the political spectrum he represented the so called right-wing social-democrat thoughts. Opposite to the left-wing social-democrat standpoints this thype of outlook was based on the evolutionism that is, accepting the civilian social-political system in certain respects, its main interest was the continuous and gradual transformation of it. Additionally it rejected the communist revolutionary rhetoric and consequently refused to cooperate with the otherwise marginal communist party.

Antal Linhardt II became the leader of the South Secretariat of the Budapest Electoral District in 1936, and soon he was already the head of the Budapest and Danube region Secretariat. Following this in 1938 he was elected as a member of the parliament for Kispest, and also became a member of the small convention of Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun County, however in 1941 he was expelled from there due to the fact he refused to pay a penalty. In the 1939 parliament election he was the candidate of the North district of Pest County for the HSFP, but was not elected. In the early 1940s he worked as the director of the Nepszava publishing office. On April 25, 1942 he was summoned to the 401. Numbered Special Penal Company, and against attempts to save him he was taken to the East Front. After the Soviet attack against the 2nd Hungarian army on January 12, 1943 Antal Linhardt II disappeared forever. However despite of the fact that he was officially declared dead in 1946, there are no documents to prove this. This is underlined by the fact that his name cannot be found - in any forms, died, disappeared, injured or captured - on the casualty list compiled by the Hungarian Royal Defense Ministry. According to one version he was captured by the Soviets, and he disappeared or was liquidated. This question, however, cannot be answered on the bases of our present knowledge.

The street which was named after Antal Linhardt II can unambiguously be identified from the Budapest City Directories. Though we did not manage to find a hospital or surgery that bore his name, we can assume with reason that the surgery that was to be found in this street was referred as "Linhardt Surgery" by the public. Documents and notes concerning this can be found in "Administration Index Book of Kispest town, 1945-1949".

prepared by FAMILY TREE Genealogical Research Bureau on 15 Jan 1998

Sources:
[1] Böske MOHOS (oral)
[2] SIMON family registry (from KELLNER SIMON Magda)
[3] Anthony LINHARDT III (oral)
[4] LINHARDT/BELANSZKY marriage registry record
[5] LINHARDT Antal II birth record (kispest)
[6] Biography (prepared by Family Tree Ltd. on 15-jan-98
[7] My mother told me that Boske had told her that Antal had been married before. The marriage was childless.
[8] According to my father: Nyilas Keresztes (Arrow Cross/Hungarian Nazi) Daily Newspaper sometime between end of 1943 and the siege of Budapest in 1944.
[9] City of Kispest, "Linhardt Antal, (1894 - 1943), A Kispest Díszpolgára cím posztumusz kitüntetettje 1894-ben született Kispesten. Nyomdászsegédként végzi el a középiskolát. Az I. világháborúból, 20 hónapos frontszolgálat után rokkantként szerel le. Pár évvel később részt vesz a Magyar Szociáldemokrata Párt kispesti szervezetének újjászervezésében, majd annak titkára lesz. Ezzel egyidőben a kispesti képviselő testület tagjává választják, 20 évig tagja a testületnek, mint frakcióvezető. Meghatározó szerepet játszott a Munkásotthon megépítésében, mely munkájának köszönhetően a népművelés központjává vált Kispesten. Politikai álláspontját a Népszava Nyomda igazgatójaként is vállalta. Harcos kiállása miatt 1941-ben kizárják a Pest Vármegye Törvényhatósági Bizottságából. 1942-ben büntetőszázadba vonultatták be, majd a frontra vitték."

29 January 2006; pml