Civic spirit in the Ministry - Rezső Trautmann's tenure as Minister

The 3rd part of the series by our team leader Márkus KELLER is now available on the Építészfórum!

"His cultured, humanistic character made him stand out from the ranks of ministers with bad memories." This is how Rezső Trautmann was described after his death by László Császár, editor of the Műemlék newspaper. This apparently friendly description is confirmed by historical sources, since Trautmann's appearance at the head of the Ministry of Construction inevitably brought with it a change of style, if only because of his personal life story. Not just because Rezső Trautmann was a pupil at the Ferenc Toldy Gymnasium, or because he was the first of the ministers of construction to come from an intellectual family. A bigger factor in the change of style was the fact that Trautmann had graduated from a Hungarian university and was an architect practising in Hungary before his official, ministerial career, and perhaps more importantly, that unlike the ministers who preceded him, he had no history of the labour movement. He joined the MSZDP in 1945 and, as the personal report on him says: "It was only after the unification that he became active in party work." After 1956, he would not become a member of the MSZMP, moreover, "his reasons for this were only partially acceptable and his explanations were not entirely sincere." - is written in his characterisation before his appointment as minister. Nevertheless, because of his professional qualifications, his authority and his experience in managing the construction industry, the Industrial and Transport Department of the MSZMP KB and the then secretary of the KB, Jenő Fock, supported his appointment.

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