Pál Count Teleki de Szék (
BudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe. In 2009, Budapest had 1,712,210 inhabitants, down from a mid-1980s...
,
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
, November 1, 1879 –
BudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe. In 2009, Budapest had 1,712,210 inhabitants, down from a mid-1980s...
,
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
, April 3, 1941) was prime minister of
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
from 19 July, 1920 to 14 April, 1921 and from 16 February, 1939 to 3 April 1941. He was also a famous expert in
geographyGeography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, a university professor, a member of the
Hungarian Academy of SciencesThe Hungarian Academy of Sciences is the most important learned society of Hungary...
, and Chief Scout of the
Hungarian Scout AssociationMagyar Cserkészszövetség , the primary national Scouting organization of Hungary, was founded in 1912, and became a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1922 and again after the rebirth of Scouting in the country in 1990...
. He descended from a noble family from
AlsótelekTeliucu Inferior is a Mining town in Hunedoara County, Romania....
in
TransylvaniaTransylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term frequently encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
.
He is a controversial figure in Hungarian history because while he was Prime Minister a number of anti-Jewish laws were enacted while he also walked a very difficult political tightrope, striving to preserve Hungarian autonomy up to the last moment of his life.
Early life
Teleki was born to Teleki Géza (1844–1913), a Hungarian politician, and his wife Muráty (Muratisz) Irén (1852–1941) in Budapest, Hungary. He attended lower school from 1885-1889, and higher school (gymnazium) from 1889-1897. In 1897 he started upper-division work at the university. After graduating in 1903, he went on to became a university professor and expert on geography and socio-economic affairs in pre-WWI Hungary and a well-respected educator. (
Erik von Kuehnelt-LeddihnErik Maria Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn was an Austrian Catholic aristocrat intellectual who described himself as an "extreme conservative arch-liberal." Kuehnelt-Leddihn often argued that majority rule in democracies is a threat to individual liberties, and declared himself a monarchist and an...
was one of his students).
His maps were an excellent composition of social and geographic data, even by today's well-developed
Geographic Information SystemA geographic information system , or geographical information system captures, stores, analyzes, manages, and presents data that is linked to location...
's point of view. He was a delegate to the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919.
Scouting
In the summer of 1927, Teleki's son
GézaGéza Teleki was a Hungarian field hockey player who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. He was born in Budapest, the son of Pál Teleki....
, a member of the
Hungarian Sea ScoutsMagyar Cserkészszövetség , the primary national Scouting organization of Hungary, was founded in 1912, and became a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1922 and again after the rebirth of Scouting in the country in 1990...
, was attending a
Sea ScoutSea Scouts are members of the international Scouting movement, with a particular emphasis on water-based activities, such as kayaking, canoeing, sailing, and rowing. Depending on the country and the available water these activities are on lakes, rivers or sea in small or large ships. Sea Scouting...
rally held at Helsingør,
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
. On a sailing cruise, he ignored a reprimand from his Scoutmaster, Fritz M. de Molnár, for failure to carry out a small but necessary exercise of seamanship. Molnár tried to drive home his point by threatening to tell the boy's father on their return to Budapest. Géza replied "Oh, Dad's not interested in
ScoutingScouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, so that they may play constructive roles in society....
." This roused Molnár's mettle, and he determined to take up the subject of Scouting with Count Teleki.
Molinar's talk about Scouting intrigued Teleki, and Hungary obtained the wholehearted support and encouragement of one of its most noted citizens, becoming Hungary's Chief Scout, a member of the International Scout Committee from 1929 until 1939, Camp Chief of the
4th World Scout JamboreeThe 4th World Scout Jamboree, a gathering of Boy Scouts from all over the world, was hosted by Hungary and held from August 2 to August 13, 1933. It was attended by 25,792 Scouts, representing 46 different nations and additional territories...
held at The Royal Forest at
GödöllőGödöllő is a town situated in Pest county, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary, about northeast from the outskirts of Budapest. Its population is about 31,000 according to the 2001 census. It can be easily reached from Budapest with the suburban railway...
, Hungary, Chief Scout of the
the Hungarian Scout AssociationMagyar Cserkészszövetség , the primary national Scouting organization of Hungary, was founded in 1912, and became a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1922 and again after the rebirth of Scouting in the country in 1990...
, and a close friend and contemporary of
Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-PowellRobert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB , also known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell, was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, and founder of the Scout Movement.After having been educated at Charterhouse School, Baden-Powell served in the British...
. His influence and inspiration were a major factor in the success of
Scouting in HungaryThe Scout and Guide movement in Hungary is served by* Magyar Cserkészlány Szövetség, member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts* Magyar Cserkészszövetség, member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement...
, and contributed to its success in other countries as well.
Preserved Hungarian autonomy
Some view Teleki as a moral hero who tried to avoid Hungary's involvement in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He sent Tibor Eckhard, a high ranking
Smallholders PartyThe Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party is a political party in Hungary...
politician, to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with $5 million dollars for the Hungarian Minister in the United States, János Pelenyi, to prepare the Hungarian government in exile, for when he and Regent
HorthyMiklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944...
would have to leave the country. According to supporters of this view, his object was to save what could be saved, under political and military pressure from
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
, and like the
Polish government in exileThe Polish government-in-exile was the government of Poland after the country had been occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union at the start of World War II...
, to try to survive in some fashion during the war years to come.
Teleki holds Hungary to "Non-belligerent" status
Rejoining the government in 1938 as Minister of Education, Teleki supported Germany's take over of Czechslovakia with the hopes that the dismemberment of Hungary completed in the 1920
Treaty of TrianonThe Treaty of Trianon was the peace treaty concluded in 1920 at the end of World War I by the Allies of World War I, on one side, and Hungary, seen as a successor of Austria-Hungary, on the other. The treaty established the borders of Hungary and regulated its international situation...
would be undone. On 16 February 1939, Hungary's Premier
Béla ImrédyBéla vitéz Imrédy de Ómoravicza was Prime Minister of Hungary from 1938 to 1939....
, who had been known as a pro-fascist, anti-Semitic leader, was forced from office after it was revealed that he was of Jewish descent. Teleki became Prime Minister for the second time on 15 February 1939. While he strove to close down several fascist political parties, he did nothing to end existing anti-Semitic laws.
On 24 August 1939,
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
and the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
signed the
Molotov-Ribbentrop PactThe Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, colloquially named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and signed in...
which among other things stipulated the Soviet Union's long-standing "interest" in
BessarabiaBessarabia is a historical term for the geographic entity in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west...
, Romania. One week later, on 1 September 1939, Germany
invaded PolandThe Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II...
. It demanded use of the Hungarian railway system through Kassa, Hungary, so that German troops could attack Poland from the south. Hungary had traditionally strong ties with Poland, and Teleki refused Germany's demand. Regent Horthy told the German ambassador that "he would sooner blow up the rail lines than to participate in an attack on Poland." Hungary declared that it was a "non-belligerent" nation and refused to allow German forces to travel through or over Hungary. As a result of Teleki's refusal to cooperate with Germany, during the autumn of 1939 and the summer of 1940 more than 100,000 Polish soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of them Jewish, escaped from Poland and crossed the border into Hungary. The Hungarian government then permitted the Polish Red Cross and the Polish Catholic Church to operate in the open. The Polish soldiers were formally interned, but most of them managed to flee to France by spring of 1940, thanks to indulgent or friendly attitude of officials.
However, with Germany's seizure of Austria Czechoslovakia and Poland, the buffer nations between Hungary and the belligerent nations of Germany and Russia had evaporated. Germany made economic demands on Hungary to support the war, and offered to repay with arms deliveries, but because of developments in the Balkans, these were routed to the Romanian Army instead.
In his diaries, Italian Foreign Minister and Mussolini's son-in-law
Galeazzo CianoGian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari , was Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Benito Mussolini's son-in-law.-Early life:Ciano was born in Livorno, Italy, in 1903...
wrote that during a visit to Rome by Teleki in March, 1940, Teleki "has avoided taking any open position one way or the other but has not hidden his sympathy for the Western Powers and fears an integral German victory like the plague." Ciano reported that Teleki later said that he hoped "for the defeat of Germany, not a complete defeat—that might provoke violent shocks—but a kind of defeat that would blunt her teeth and claws for a long time."
Germany demands Hungary's assistance
In 1940, Germany used Russia's imminent movement to take over Bessarabia as an excuse to prepare to occupy the vital Rumanian oil fields. Germany's General Staff approached Hungary's General Staff and sought passage of their troops through Hungary and for Hungary's participation in the takeover. Germany held out Transylvania as Hungary's reward. The Hungarian government resisted, desiring to remain neutral. It held out some hope for assistance from the Italians. They sent a special envoy to Rome with the message that, "For the Hungarians there arises the problem either of letting the Germans pass, or opposing them with force. In either case the Hungarian liberty would come to an end." Mussolini replied, "How could this ever be," he said, "since I am Hitler's ally and intend to remain so?"
In March 1941, Teleki strongly objected to Hungarian participation in the invasion of Yugoslavia. Given Hungary's resistance to aiding Germany, it in turn was not trusted by Germany. Hungary was not informed of Hitler's top-secret preparations for invading Russia and Hungary was not initially part of the invasion. "Hungary, in the period of preparation for Barbarossa, is not to be counted as an ally beyond the present status ..." Furthermore, German troops were not to cross Hungarian territories, and Hungarian airfields were not to be used by the Luftwaffe, according to the new directives of the High Command on March 22, 1941. Teleki believed that only a Danubian Federation could help the Balkan peoples—Yugoslavs, Romanians, Bulgarians, Transylvania, Austria, Czechoslovakia)—escape Germany's domination.
In the book,
Transylvania The Land Beyond the Forest Louis C. Cornish described how Teleki, under constant surveillance by the German Gestapo during 1941, sent a secret communication to contacts in America.
Journalist
Dorothy ThompsonDorothy Thompson was an American journalist, who was noted by Time magazine in 1939 as one of the two most influential women in America, the other being Eleanor Roosevelt....
in 1941 supported the statement of others. "I took from Count Teleki's office a monograph which he had written upon the structure of European nations. A distinguished geographer, he was developing a plan for regional federation, based upon geographical and economic realities." Teleki received no response to his ideas and was left to resolve the situation on his own.
Teleki must choose between Axis and Allies
The incident that eventually led to Teleki's suicide began on 25 March 1941 when the Yugoslavian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Lazar Marković, secretly traveled to Vienna and signed the
Tripartite PactThe Tripartite Pact, also called the Three-Power Pact, Axis Pact, Three-way Pact or Tripartite Treaty was a pact signed in Berlin, Germany on September 27, 1940, which established the Axis Powers of World War II...
. On 26 March 1941, he returned home to find that Air Force General Richard Simovic had executed a bloodless
coup d'étatA coup d'état , or coup for short, is the sudden unconstitutional deposition of a legitimate government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another, either civil or military...
and had refuted Marković's signature on the alliance and accepted a British guarantee of security instead. Germany saw its southern flank potentially exposed just as it was preparing
Operation BarbarossaOperation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km front...
, the invasion of Russia. Germany planned to
invade BelgradeThe Invasion of Yugoslavia , also known as the April War , was the Axis Powers' attack on Kingdom of Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941 during World War II...
and compel it to remain part of the Axis. Hitler used Hungary's membership in the
Tripartite PactThe Tripartite Pact, also called the Three-Power Pact, Axis Pact, Three-way Pact or Tripartite Treaty was a pact signed in Berlin, Germany on September 27, 1940, which established the Axis Powers of World War II...
of 1940 to demand that Hungary should also attack. The Hungarian Minister to Berlin was sent home by air with a message for Regent Horthy:
Teleki had signed a non-aggression and "Treaty of Eternal Friendship" with Yugoslavia in 12 December 1940, only five months previously, and would not assent to assisting with the invasion. Teleki's government chose a middle ground, opting to remain out of the German-Yugoslav conflict unless Magyar (Hungarian) minorities were in danger, or if
Yugoslavia collapsed. Teleki relayed his government's position to London, seeking allowance for Hungary’s difficult position.
On April 3, 1941, Teleki received a telegram from the Hungarian minister in London that the British Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr.
Anthony EdenRobert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Foreign Secretary for three periods between 1935 and 1955, including during World War II...
, had threatened to break diplomatic relations with Hungary if she did not actively resist the passage of German troops across her territory, and to declare war if she attacked Yugoslavia.
Teleki's enduring desire was to keep Hungary non-aligned, yet it could not ignore Nazi Germany's dominant influence. Prime Minister Teleki had two choices. He could continue to resist Germany's demands for their help in the invasion of Yugoslavia, although he knew this would likely mean the immediate invasion of Hungary and overthrow of its government by Germany, just as they had taken over the Sudentenland, Poland, Austria, and as they were threatening to do to Yugoslavia. Or he could allow passage of German military across Hungary, betraying Yugoslavia, openly defying the Allies, moving them to declare war on Hungary.
The Hungarian Regent, Admiral Horthy, who until this time had resisted Germany's pressure, agreed to Germany's demands. Teleki met with the cabinet council that evening. He complained that the Regent had "told me thirty-four times that he would never make war for foreign interests, and now he has changed his mind."
Before Teleki could chart a course through the political thicket, the decision was torn from him by General Werth, chief of the Hungarian General Staff. Without the sanction of the Hungarian government, Werth, of German origin, made private arrangements with the German High Command for the transport of the German troops across Hungary. Teleki denounced Werth's action as treason.
Germany enters Hungary, Teleki commits suicide
Shortly after 9:00 p.m., he left the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his apartment in the Sandor Palace. At around midnight he received a call that is thought to have advised him that the German army had just started its march into Hungary. Prime Minister Pál Teleki committed suicide with a pistol during the night of April 3, 1941 and was found the next morning. His suicide note said in part:
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
later wrote, "His suicide was a sacrifice to absolve himself and his people from guilt in the German attack on Yugoslavia." On 6 April 1941, Germany launched Operation Punishment (
Unternehmen Strafgericht), the bombing of
BelgradeBelgrade Belgrade Belgrade (Serbian Cyrillic: Београд, Serbian Latin: Beograd (meaning "White City" in Serbian) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies on two international waterways, at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where Central Europe's Pannonian Plain meets...
,
YugoslaviaYugoslavia is a term that describes three political entities that existed successively on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century.The first country to be known by this...
. "He is viewed by some Hungarians as a patriot who chose to die rather than collaborate with the Nazis." Britain shortly broke diplomatic relations but did not declare war until December that year.
Anti-Jewish actions
Regent Horthy appointed Teleki prime minister on 19 July 1920. While he was Prime Minister, the Hungarian parliament passed anti-Jewish legislation that banned non-Christians from attending universities. He and his government resigned less than a year later on 14 April 1921 when the former emperor, Karl IV, attempted to retake Hungary's throne.
From 1921 until 1938, Teleki was a professor at Budapest University. While there, journalists asked him what he thought about the anti-Jewish violence that had occurred on the university campus. He replied: "This din does not bother me. In any case, the students take examinations that test their knowledge of the sea and this din is aptly suited to that of the sea."
During the 1930s, the percentage of Jews in the general population was far smaller than the percentage whose work included business, finance, and the professions. In the 1930 census, Jews comprised only 5.1% of the population, but among physicians, 54.5 percent were Jewish, journalists 31.7%, and lawyers 49.2%. Persons of Jewish faith controlled four of the five major banks, from 19.5 to 33% of the national income, and around 80 percent of the country's industry. When the worldwide depression struck in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Jews were made scapegoats by anti-Semites for Hungary's economic plight.
In 1938, after a period of considerable economic turbulence and a general political turn to the far right, Teleki became Prime Minister once again on 16 February 1939. Hungary passed anti-Jewish law restricting the role played by Jews in the Hungarian economy to 20%. In 1939, after he became Prime Minister once again, Hungary required all young Jewish men of arms-bearing age to join forced-labor service. In 1940, this compulsory service was extended to all able-bodied male Jews. As a result of the laws established during Teleki's tenure, after his death in July 1941, the Hungarian government transferred responsibility for 18,000 Jews from Carpato-Ruthenian Hungary to the German armed forces. These Jews, without Hungarian citizenship, were sent to a location near Kamenets-Podolski, where in one of the first acts of mass killing during World War II, all but two thousand of these individuals were executed by the Nazi Einsatzgruppe (mobile killing unit).
Including the recently annexed territories, in 1941 Hungary's Jewish population totaled about 825,000. The Hungarian racial laws defined "Jews" in racial, not religious, terms, forbid marriage between Jews and non-Jews. Teleki wrote the preamble to the Second Anti-Jewish Law (1939) and prepared the Third Anti-Jewish Law in 1940. He also signed 52 anti-Jewish decrees during his rule, and members of his government issued 56 further decrees against Jews.
Later he denied writing the preamble to the Second Anti-Jewish Law, and said that if he had had the chance to word it, he would have presented a stricter one. During Teleki's second term in 1940, Hungarian
Arrow CrossA cross whose arms end in arrowheads is called a "cross barby" or "cross barbee" in the traditional terminology of heraldry. In Christian use, the ends of this cross resemble the barbs of fish hooks, or fish spears. This alludes to the Ichthys symbol of Christ, and is suggestive of the "fishers...
leader
Ferenc SzálasiFerenc Szálasi was the leader of the National Socialist Arrow Cross Party - Hungarist Movement, the "Leader of the Nation" , and the de facto Prime Minister of the Hungarian State for the final three months of Hungary's participation in World War II...
was given amnesty, and the Nazi movement became stronger.
Shortly after Teleki's death and after Hungary declared war, Jewish forced laborers were organized in labor battalions, commanded by Hungarian military officers. They were engaged in war-related construction, often subject to extreme cold, and given inadequate shelter, food, and medical care. (At least 27,000 Jewish forced laborers died before Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944, after which Germany rapidly increased the deportation of Jews to the death camps.)
Controversial figure
To many Hungarians, Teleki was a flawed hero and he remained a controversial person long after his death. This was reflected in a public dispute covered in the Hungarian media during early 2004 over a statue of him, marking the 63rd anniversary of his death, to be displayed in Budapest. The statue by Sculptor Tibor Rieger was originally to be installed opposite the President's official residence in Budapest. However, the Minister of Culture Istvan Hiller, following pressure from the Wiesenthal Center, canceled these plans. On 5 April 2004, the statue was finally placed in the courtyard of the Catholic Church in the town of
BalatonboglárBalatonboglár, in Hungary, is a resort town situated on the south shore of Lake Balaton. It is the professional centre of the Balatonboglár Wine Region, and is often called the "town of grapes and wine."-History:...
on the shore of
Lake BalatonLake Balaton, in the Transdanubian region of Hungary, is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of its foremost tourist destinations. As Hungary is landlocked, it is often affectionately called the "Hungarian Sea"...
. Balatonboglar had during World War II been host to thousands of Polish refugees who opened in that town one of only two secondary schools for Poles in Europe during 1939-1944. They credited Teleki with opening Hungary's borders to them and named a street in
WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River roughly from both the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains. Its population as of 2009 was estimated at 1,709,781, and the Warsaw metropolitan area at approximately 2,785,000...
for him after the war ended. In 2001 he was posthumously awarded Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
Befitting his commitment to Scouting and to Hungary, he was buried at
GödöllőGödöllő is a town situated in Pest county, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary, about northeast from the outskirts of Budapest. Its population is about 31,000 according to the 2001 census. It can be easily reached from Budapest with the suburban railway...
, the location of the Royal Palace.
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