Leó Frankel (; also ''Léo Fränkel''; 25 February 1844, – 29 March 1896, Paris) was a Hungarian socialist revolutionary and labour leader of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

origin.

Life

He was born in 1844, in (now part of

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Hungary). Trained as a goldsmith, he first went to work in Germany in 1861, where he became involved with Ferdinand Lassalle's ''Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein'' sometime between 1865 and 1866. In 1867, he was appointed as the Paris correspondent for the Sozialdemokraten, a Lassallist journal published in Switzerland. In Paris he participated in the work of the

First International The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organisation which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist groups and trad ...

, organizing German, Hungarian and other foreign workers within the city. Arrested in early 1870 for his political activity and being a member of the International, he was liberated by the revolution on 4 September 1870. During the Prussian Siege of Paris, he, along with other Internationalists, was highly critical of the Government of National Defense's efforts to oppose the Prussians. He also served as a member of the National Guard in defense of the city until its surrender to the Prussians on 28 January 1871. On 26 March 1871 he was elected as a member of the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...

. Upon the defeat of the Commune, wounded in its defence, the revolutionary escaped the impending death sentence to Switzerland, along with

Elisabeth Dmitrieff Elisabeth Dmitrieff (born Elizaveta Lukinichna Kusheleva, , also known as Elizaveta Tomanovskaya; 1 November 1850 – probably between 1916 and 1918) was a Russian revolutionary and feminist activist. The illegitimate daughter of a Russian ari ...

. In 1871 he settled in London, where he joined the leadership of the First International. He was extradited to Hungary by the Austrian police in 1876. From that point on, he was active organising the Hungarian workers' movement: he edited the

German Language German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is als ...

Arbeiter Wochen-Chronik and founded the Hungarian General Labour Party (1880) He was convicted and sent to prison for a year and a half for the infringement of the prevailing press law in 1881. Upon his release he emigrated to France once again. He died in Paris in 1896. A commemorating obelisk was erected for him in

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (french: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise ; formerly , "East Cemetery") is the largest cemetery in Paris, France (). With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Notable figure ...

in Paris.

Honors

Hungary issued a commemorative postage stamp on 20 May 1951 on the 80th anniversary of Paris Commune.

References

External links

Julien Chuzeville, ''Léo Frankel, communard sans frontières'', 2021

Life

Honors

References

External links

See also