György Konrád facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
György Konrád
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| Born | 2 April 1933 Berettyóújfalu, Hungary |
| Died | 13 September 2019 (aged 86) Budapest, Hungary |
| Notable works | The Case Worker (A látogató, 1969) |
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| Children | 5 |
| President of PEN International |
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| In office May 1990 – October 1993 |
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| Preceded by | Per Wästberg |
| Succeeded by | Ronald Harwood |
György Konrád (born April 2, 1933 – died September 13, 2019) was a famous Hungarian writer. He wrote novels, essays, and was also a sociologist. He was known for supporting individual freedom and speaking up for what he believed in.
Contents
Life of György Konrád
György Konrád was born on April 2, 1933, in a town called Berettyóújfalu in Hungary. His family was Jewish. His father, József Konrád, owned a hardware store. György also had an older sister named Éva.
Childhood and World War II
During World War II, when György was young, his parents were arrested. They were sent away to Austria. György, his sister, and two cousins went to live with relatives in Budapest. This happened just before all Jewish people in their hometown were sent to a ghetto and then to Auschwitz. Many of György's classmates died in the war.
In February 1945, György and his sister returned home. In June, their parents were released from a concentration camp. The Konrád family was one of the few Jewish families from their town who survived the war together.
Education and Early Career
György started school in 1946 in Debrecen. He later moved to Budapest and finished high school there in 1951. He then studied literature, sociology, and psychology at Eötvös Loránd University. In 1950, the government took over his father's business and their family home.
In 1956, György was involved in the Hungarian Uprising. He was part of the National Guard, which was mostly made up of university students. Most of his family left Hungary, but György chose to stay. He later wrote about his childhood experiences in his book Departure and Return.
After university, György took many different jobs. He was a tutor, a translator, and even worked in a factory. In 1959, he became a children's welfare supervisor in Budapest. He worked in this role for seven years. These experiences helped him write his first novel, The Case Worker, which came out in 1969. The book was very popular and sold out quickly.
Writing and Research
From 1960 to 1965, György worked as an editor at a publishing house. He helped publish works by famous writers like Gogol and Tolstoy. In 1965, he joined the Urban Science and Planning Institute. Here, he researched cities and how people live in them. He worked with another sociologist, Iván Szelényi.
His research on cities inspired his next novel, The City Builder. This book was published in Hungary in 1977, but only a censored version was allowed. It was published fully in other countries.
Challenges and Activism
In 1973, György lost his job because of political reasons. For a while, he worked as a nurse's aide. In 1974, he and Iván Szelényi published a book called The Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power. Soon after, the political police searched their homes. They were arrested for speaking out against the government. They were told they could leave Hungary with their families. Iván Szelényi left, but György decided to stay.
From this time until 1989, György was a "forbidden author" in Hungary. This meant his books could not be officially published there. He earned money from his books published in other countries. He was also not allowed to speak on radio or television. When he was finally allowed to travel in 1976, he spent time in Berlin and the U.S. During this time, he wrote his novel The Loser.
Between 1977 and 1982, György wrote essays that questioned the political situation in Europe. His book Antipolitics talked about the Yalta Agreement. He believed this agreement could lead to another world war. He was one of the first to predict that the Iron Curtain would soon disappear.
Role in Democratic Change
From 1973 to 1989, many artists and thinkers in Hungary worked outside of official government control. György was a key voice in this group, which pushed for democracy. His writings appeared in underground newspapers. He also gave interviews to Radio Free Europe, which helped his ideas reach more Hungarians.
In 1986, György visited Jerusalem. He wrote essays and diary entries that were later collected in his book The Invisible Voice. In 1988, he taught world literature in Colorado, USA.
After the old government fell in 1989, György became very active in public life. He helped Hungary become a democracy. He was a founding member of the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ). He also appeared often in newspapers and on TV.
In 1990, György was elected President of PEN International. This is a worldwide association of writers. He worked hard to help writers who were imprisoned or treated unfairly. He also brought writers from different countries together to talk about peace.
From 1997 to 2003, György was elected President of the Academy of Arts, Berlin twice. He was the first non-German to hold this position. He helped bring together writers and artists from Eastern and Western Europe. He also introduced many Hungarian writers to the West. For his efforts, he received important awards from Germany.
Later Works and Family Life
György often wrote about his childhood in his novels, especially in The Feast in the Garden. He also wrote two books, Departure and Return (2001) and Up on the Hill During a Solar Eclipse (2003), which shared more factual details about his early life. These books were later combined into A Guest in My Own Country (2007).
His later books, like Figures of Wonder (2006) and The Rooster’s Sorrow (2005), shared his thoughts on life.
György Konrád was married three times. He had two children with his second wife, Júlia Lángh: Anna Dóra and Miklós István. With his third wife, Judith Lakner, he had three children: Áron, József, and Zsuzsanna.
Death
György Konrád died at his home in Budapest on September 13, 2019. His family said he had been very ill.
Awards and Honors
- Herder Prize (1983)
- Charles Veillon Prize (1985)
- Manes-Sperber Prize (1990)
- Kossuth Prize (1990)
- Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels (1991)
- Goethe Medal (2000)
- Internationaler Karlspreis zu Aachen (2001)
- Franz Werfel Human Rights Award (2007)
- National Jewish Book Award in the memoir category (2008)
György Konrád received top awards from France, Hungary, and Germany. He also received honorary doctorates from the University of Antwerp and the University of Novi Sad. He was made an honorary citizen of his hometown, Berettyóújfalu, and of Budapest.
Partial list of works
Fiction
- The Case Worker
- The City Builder
- The Loser
- A Feast in the Garden
- The Stone Dial
Non-fiction
- The Intellectual on the Road to Class Power (1978), with Iván Szelényi
- Antipolitics (1999)
- The Melancholy of Rebirth (1995)
- The Invisible Voice: Meditations on Jewish Themes
- A jugoszláviai háború (és ami utána jöhet) (1999)
- Jugoslovenski rat (i ono što posle može da usledi) (2000)
- A Guest in My Own Country: A Hungarian Life (2003)
- Departure and Return (2011)
Articles
- “The Intelligentsia and Social Structure”. Telos 38 (Winter 1978–79). New York: Telos Press.
See also
In Spanish: György Konrád para niños
