Miksa Falk (or sometimes Maximilian Falk, 7 October 1828 – 10 September 1908) was a Hungarian

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

, member of the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...

and the editor-in-chief of the German-language newspaper ''

Pester Lloyd ''Pester Lloyd'' is a German-language online daily newspaper from Budapest, Hungary with a focus "on Hungary and Eastern Europe". History during the Austrian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire Its first stint of existence was from 1854 to 1 ...

''.

Early life

Falk was born to an impoverished Hungarian-Jewish merchant family in Pest, which was a separate town (on the east bank of the river

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

) that was later united with the towns of

Buda Buda (, ) is the part of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, that lies on the western bank of the Danube. Historically, “Buda” referred only to the royal walled city on Castle Hill (), which was constructed by Béla IV between 1247 and ...

and

Óbuda Óbuda (, ) is, together with Buda and Pest, one of the three cities that were unified to form the Hungarian capital city of Budapest in 1873. Today, together with Békásmegyer, Óbuda forms a part of the city's third district, although the to ...

(on the west bank of the river Danube) in 1873 to form

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, the capital of

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. At the age of 15, he already wrote articles for German-speaking newspapers in Pest. He studied at the Faculty of Arts in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. He returned to Pest in 1848, but soon he went back to Vienna. From 1867 he lived in Hungary. Hungarian urban legend states that Miksa Falk was a distant relative of the American actor

Peter Falk Peter Michael Falk (September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011) was an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Columbo (character), Lieutenant Columbo on the NBC/American Broadcasting Company, ABC series ''Columbo'' (196 ...

, but there is no known evidence of their relation. A statue of Peter Falk is located on Miksa Falk Street in Budapest.

Works

Initially, Falk worked for the magazine ''Ungar'' (''Hungarian''), then he moved to Vienna. He started to write articles at the newspaper ''Oesterreichische Zeitung'', but when the newspaper was banned, he went to work for the newspaper ''Wanderer''. In Hungary, he had articles in ''

Pesti Napló ''Pesti Napló'' () was a Hungarian newspaper published from March 1850 to October 1939. The paper was based in Budapest, Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, ...

'', where he criticized absolutism. At the same time, he wrote supporter conservative articles anonymously for the ''

Budapesti Hírlap The ''Budapesti Hírlap'' () was a Hungarian daily newspaper published in Budapest from 16 June 1881 to 1938. Between 25 March and 28 September 1919 it was temporarily closed down. The paper had a conservative Conservatism is a cultural, ...

''. After the

Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (, ) established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, which was a military and diplomatic alliance of two sovereign states. The Compromise only partially re-established the former pre-1848 sovereign ...

, he returned to Hungary for good and became the editor-in-chief of the German-language newspaper ''

'', and also worked for the ''Politikai Hetilap'' (''Political Weekly Newspaper''). He taught the Hungarian language to Austrian-Hungarian Empress

Elisabeth of Bavaria Elisabeth (born Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria; 24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898), nicknamed Sisi or Sissi, was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Franz Joseph I of Austria on 24 April 1854 until h ...

.Gábor Ujváry: Auf den Spuren ungarischer Geschichte in Wien
in Collegium Hungaricum. Accessed 27 January 2010

Political life

Between 1850 and 1860, he joined the circle of

István Széchenyi Count István Széchenyi de Sárvár-Felsővidék (, ; archaically English: Stephen Széchenyi; 21 September 1791 – 8 April 1860) was a Hungarian politician, political theorist, and writer. Widely considered one of the greatest statesme ...

, who at that time lived in

Döbling Döbling () is the 19th Districts of Vienna, district in the city of Vienna, Austria (). It is located in the north of Vienna, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing. Döbling has some heavily populated urban areas with many residential bui ...

, Austria. He supported the Compromise of 1867 with his articles. From 1875, he became the representative of the Liberal Party founded by Ferenc Deák. He was representative of cities

Kőszeg Kőszeg (; ; ; ; ) is a town in Vas County, Hungary. The town is known for its historical character. History Medieval Period The origins of the only free royal town in the historical garrison county of Vas (Eisenburg) go back to the third quart ...

, Arad and

Keszthely Keszthely (; also known by alternative names) is a Hungarian city of 20,895 inhabitants located on the western shore of Lake Balaton. It is the second largest city by the lake and one of the more important cultural, educational and economic hub ...

in several periods. The party collapsed in 1905 and Miksa Falk retired.

References

External links

Miksa Falk in the Hungarian Biograpyical Lexicon

from the

Miksa Falk: The last days and death of István Széchenyi
(from MEK)
Miksa Falk on Jewish.hu's list of famous Hungarian Jews
{{DEFAULTSORT:Falk, Miksa Politicians from Austria-Hungary Journalists from Austria-Hungary Jewish Hungarian politicians Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Writers from Budapest People from Pest, Hungary 1828 births 1908 deaths Hungarian newspaper editors