Pál Engel

Pál Engel played a key role in the representation of the Anglo-Austrian Bank in Budapest and has also held board positions in a number of other companies.

Pál Engel was born in Bonyhád in 1869, he had several brothers, one of them, Ármin, also made a career in banking. Although he was an Israelite, he enrolled in the Evangelical Grammar School of Bonyhád from 1878, and later supported the institution financially, as well as the local Israelite congregation. Although he went to an evangelical school, this did not mean that he converted, he remained faithful and even led an active religious life, becoming a new member of the 200-member chevra kadisha in Pest in 1911.

According to one of the few available records, he started working for the Anglo-Ottoman Bank relatively young, after graduating from high school, and worked there for most of his career. Engel was already deputy manager of the Anglo-Ottoman branch in Budapest in 1900. At that time he was engaged to Irene Laczkó, daughter of Károly Laczkó, a partner in the firm of Laczkó and Popper, but the engagement was broken off when Engel married Anna Milch, daughter of the wholesaler Dávid Milch, on 11 May 1902. The wedding was held in the Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest, where the ceremony was conducted by Chief Rabbi Sándor Kohn. The couple entered into a marriage contract, which shows that they lived at 48 Gyár Street, and that Pál Engel received a dowry of 200,000 crowns in cash. The contract also stipulated that the bride had brought into the marriage a sufficient amount and value of movable property.

They had no children, at least in 1929 the obituary of his mother, Sándorné Engel Sarolta Krausz Engel does not mention any children for Pál Engel and Anna Milch, but does for Ármin Engel and his wife.

Already somewhat known in professional circles as head of the Austro-Angolian Bank - he was a director in 1906 - he was a voice in the debate on the introduction of continuous bank tenure for bank officials. According to the Ujság newspaper of 25 December 1906, he said:

"Paul Engel, Director of the Anglo-Austrian Bank. Against the introduction of continuous working time. He considers that the manpower and working capacity of the clerical staff, who work 7 hours a day, is constantly being reduced, to the detriment of the interests of the bank. On the other hand, it does not consider it desirable from the point of view of hygiene either, since normally 5 or 6 clerks work in a room, and it is therefore necessary to ventilate these rooms for 1 or 2 hours during the day, which would be quite impossible with continuous working hours."

In addition to banking, he was also active in public life, becoming a member of the Municipal Committee of the Capital in 1912. In the 27 November 1912 issue of the Fővárosi Hírlap he was described as follows:

"Pál Engel is Managing Director of the Anglo-Austrian Bank's Budapest branch. He is 43 years old and has been with Anglo-Bank for 27 years. He was born in Bonyhád, Tolnamegye. He is a stock exchange adviser. Board member of several industrial companies'. A man of broad views and great knowledge, who will be a valuable member of the law authority."

Engels was elected to the Budapest Stock Exchange Council as a councillor in 1902, but resigned from this post in 1914 when he started working in Vienna. At that time he was the first director of the Anglo-Austrian Bank's branch in Pest, but was later transferred to Vienna, where he was appointed director of the Vienna headquarters. He therefore worked in Vienna during the First World War.

Engels was reported in the newspapers in 1920 as having been elected to the bank's General Council and transferred back to Budapest. Indeed, he returned to Budapest in 1920 and was elected to the Bank's General Council in October 1921.

In 1924 he was already CEO of the Anglo Bank, and in the 1920s he was a member of the board of directors of a number of companies owned by the Anglo-Austrian Bank.

He left the Anglo-Austrian bank in 1925 because the British owners were dissatisfied with Engel's performance, so Engel left his job and retired. However, he was still a board member of many of the companies founded by the Anglo-Austrian Bank, and was still a board member in 1927-1928, chairman of the Turul Shoe Factory, the United Brick and Cement Factory Ltd. and the Endre Thék Furniture, Piano and Building Works Factory Ltd.

In 1935, there was a rumour that Pál Engel and his brother Armin Engel (who was also a banker) were founding a private bank, but we have no later information about this.

In 1942, when his brother, Ármin Engel died, Paul Engel was summoned to the probate hearing. His name was on the list of 20 November 1943, which contained the names of the candidates to be sent from the ranks of the most taxpayers to the Budapest Metropolitan Municipal Committee. He died in 1943 and was declared a deceased in 1947 - also called Paul - and is not listed in the 1950 probate proceedings. That is, the fate of Pál Engel after November 1943 is unknown.

 

Points of interest

At the same time, two Engel Pauls were active in the domestic banking world. The other Engel Pál was also a banker, 16 years older than Engel Pál, and he changed his name to Engel in 1897, and was ennobled with the first name of Malomsk. Pál Engel and Pál Elek Malomszegi, two bankers, must have known each other, and there were times when they took turns in one office or another, for example in 1910, when Pál Elek resigned from the board of directors of Hengermalom because the company had moved to a new bank, Pál Engel was elected to replace him as the representative of the Anglo-Austrian Bank. In addition, at the same time they were both members of the Capital City Law Commission at the same time.

 

Literature:

• Imre Gúthi (ed.): Budapest Almanac, lexicon and guide 4. 1913-1915 (Budapest, 1915)