Ifj. Ferenc Chorin

Born in Budapest in 1879, id. Ferenc Chorin and Amália Russ. His father was the chairman and managing director of the Salgótarján Kőszénbánya Rt., a member of the House of Representatives and then of the House of Lords from 1903, the founder of the National Association of Hungarian Industrialists (MGYOSZ) (1902) and its president until his death in January 1925.

After his university studies in Budapest and Berlin, Ferenc Chorin Jr. in 1901 sub auspicüs regis[1] was awarded a doctorate in law and political science. Three years later, he qualified as a lawyer. As a lawyer, he also worked mainly on industrial issues. He served on the boards of several mining and construction, textile and clothing, mechanical and electrical engineering companies from 1906 onwards, most of them from their inception. From 1910 he was a member of the board of directors of the National Currency Exchange Company, and from 1912 he also broadened his knowledge of Hungarian economic life as a member of the executive board of the National Association of Hungarian Industrialists (MGYOSZ).

From 1915 he was a member of the executive committee of the Association of Hungarian Mining and Metallurgical Companies, from 1917 he was a member of the executive committee of the National Coal Committee, established by the Prime Minister's decree to manage the country's scarce coal reserves, and from 1916 he was the prosecutor of the Wool Centre.[2]

By 1921, the list of companies on whose boards he sat had been extended, mainly by the mining companies under his influence in Salgótarján.[3] From 1921 to 1941, he was a member of the board of one of the country's leading financial institutions, the Hungarian Commercial Bank of Pest (PMKB).

In 1921 he married Baron Manfréd Weiss of Csepel, daughter of Baron Margit Daisy Weiss. They had three children. After his death in 1922, Manfréd Weiss, together with his Chorin brothers-in-law Baron Móric Kornfeld and Alfréd Mauthner, controlled the companies of the Weiss-Kornfeld-Chorin-Mauthner families.

He was vice-president of the MGYOSZ from 1926 and president from December 1932. From the early 1920s he was a member of the governing party and one of the main supporters of István Bethlen's consolidation policy.[4] In June 1928, the Governor appointed him as a candidate of the MGYOSZ to the Upper House of the Parliament.[5], and has been elected to this office in successive legislative cycles.

In 1922, the Governor appointed Chorin, the chairman of the department of the Hungarian Trade Statistics Valuation Committee, as Chief Commercial Counsellor in recognition of his merits, and in 1934 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit for his effective work in the fields of public life, economy and industry, and in 1936 he was given the title of Privy Counsellor.[6]

Chorin's personality is revealed by the fact that, although he was among the wealth and income elite of the time, he still made his children account for every penny of their pocket money in order to teach them to be frugal.[7] He was described by a contemporary biographer as a clear-sighted, broad-minded, quick-witted and fair-minded man.[8]

Although Chorin converted to Roman Catholicism in 1919, the Jewish laws and the growing anti-Semitic sentiment forced him to give up some of his professional and public functions. In May 1941 he resigned his position as president of the MGYOSZ, although he remained an elected member of the executive board[9], similarly resigned from his position as Executive Vice President of PMKB, although he remained a member of the Board. However, he retained his board memberships in key companies, such as Chairman and CEO of Salgótarjáni, Chairman of the Board of Hungária Electricity Ltd, Vice Chairman of the Board of Hungária Chemical and Metallurgical Works Ltd, and Chairman of the Board of Rimamurány-Salgótarján Ironworks Ltd, the Weiss Manfréd Steel and Metal Works Ltd. and the Labor Trust Ltd., the company which manages the assets jointly owned by the heirs of Weiss Manfréd.[10]

Chorin retained its informal influence during the war. He belonged to the Anglo-Saxon oriented group led by István Bethlen, who advocated a break with Germany and the restoration of relations with England and America. From 1943, together with Móric Kornfeld, as a member of the Hungarian National Society, he also sought to counter the influence of radical anti-Semitic and Nazi politicians in economic life, and negotiated with trade union leaders on the post-war economic settlement. He and his family members actively supported Polish and Jewish refugees financially and developed various charitable activities to support Jews.[11]  In 1943, he was again a member of the Upper House of Parliament, and later of the Council for Industrial Materials Management, set up under the Ministry of Industry, representing MGYOSZ.[12]

When the country was invaded in March 1944, he was deported by the Gestapo, along with many leading figures of the Hungarian economic life. Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, took him back to Budapest from the Oberlanzensdorf internment camp near Vienna. Himmler wanted to (apparently) legally get his hands on the Weiss Manfréd Iron and Steel Works Ltd., an industrial group controlled by the Weiss-Kornfeld-Chorin-Mauthner families, which included an aluminium works, aircraft factories, canneries and trading companies, and was a key player in Hungary's war economy.

1944. On 17 May 2004, Ferenc Chorin, on behalf of the Weiss family, transferred the above-mentioned industrial concern and other significant blocks of shares owned by family members, as well as the management of the family's land, houses, movable and immovable property, to the economic group of SS forces represented by Kurt Becher, for a period of 25 years. In return, the family received only 600,000 dollars and 250,000 German Reichsmarks, and 40 members of the family were allowed to leave for neutral countries, Portugal and Switzerland, but 5 were held hostage by the Germans.[13]

The Soviet Union claimed the entire Weiss Manfred group under the Potsdam Agreement. After lengthy negotiations with the Soviet Union, the companies were reorganised and nationalised. On 31 December 1948, the Hungarian national company Weiss Manfréd Stahl- und Metallmművek was established, which from 1950 produced under the name Rákosi Mátyás Vas- és Fémművek and later Csepel Vas- és Fémművek.[14]

In 1947, Ferenc Chorin and his family settled in New York, where he founded several companies, supported the needy and served as co-chairman of the Hungarian National Committee..[15] He died in 1964. His ashes were repatriated at his request and he is buried with his family in Kerepesi cemetery.

Professional activity

The focus of his industrial management activities was the Salgótarján Kőszénbánya Rt., of which he became a member of the board of directors from 1906, CEO from 1919, and from 1925, after his father's death, he became chairman and CEO. During his tenure, Salgótarjáni Kőszénbánya Rt. strengthened its position as one of the leading mining companies in the country.

From 1921 he was a member of the board of directors of the two most important mining companies in Northern Hungary, the Salgótarján and the Rimamurány-Salgótarján Ironworks, and Chorin became a member of the board of directors of the latter company. The Zsil Valley mines of Salgótarjáni, which were purchased and significantly improved in 1894, were transferred to Romanian territory after the Trianon decision. Chorin (with the participation of PMKB) secured access to them by transferring half of the shares of Petrosani societate anonima romana pentru exploatarea mineral de carboni (Petrosani Romanian Coal Mining Company), established in 1921 with a share capital of 100 million lei, to Salgótarjáni and the other half to a Romanian group of capitalists.[16]

During the time of Chorin's operation, Salgótarjáni made significant technical improvements and attracted other mining companies. Partly as a means of adapting to the shrinking market, the company expanded its activities into the production of building materials, chemicals and glass. Salgótarjáni was also involved in the electrification of the country from the mid-1920s. With three main generating stations in Salgótarján, Dorog, Máza-Szászvár and later Várpalota, the company supplied the surrounding villages in addition to its own needs.

In 1939, Salgótarjáni was the second largest mining company in the country, with a capital of 27.3 million pengo and about 10,000 workers, and its shares were listed on the Budapest and Vienna stock exchanges.

Public activities

Chorin's public activities centred on the MGYOSZ, of which he was vice-president from 1926 and president from 1933 to 1941. As the representative body of manufacturing industry, MGYOSZ provided the government and the competent authorities with expert opinions on industrial and commercial matters.[17] In 1923, with the help of the MGYOSZ and the industrial trade associations, Chorin founded the Hungarian Employers' Centre, of which he became the first president.[18] In 1928, he became a member of the board of directors of the National Hungarian Industrial Mortgage Institute Ltd., founded by the Financial Institution Centre and the MGYOSZ on behalf of the Treasury to provide long-term mortgage loans to industrial enterprises, a position he held until 1940.

Chorin's wide-ranging public activities are illustrated by the other posts he held in 1938. He was co-president of the Association of Hungarian Mining and Metallurgical Companies and of the National Association of Hungarian Cement Works and Lime Kilns. Co-President of the Hungarian-American Chamber of Commerce. He has also served as Chairman of the Hungarian Rationalization Committee for the rationalization of industrial enterprises, Chairman of the Hungarian Standards Institute, and as Chairman of the Hungarian Customs Policy Centre. He was the Chairman of the Manufacturing Section of the National Industry Council, later the National Industry Council, which was the opinion-forming body of the Ministry of Industry, Co-Chairman of the Budapest International Fair, Member of the Presidential Board of the Hungarian Economic Research Institute Association, Vice-Chairman of the Budapest Voluntary Rescue Association, Section Chairman of the Hungarian Trade Statistics Value Determination Committee, Member of the Hungarian National Committee of the World Energy Conference.[19]

In 1910, together with his father-in-law, his brother-in-law Móric Kornfeld and Lajos Hatvany, he was one of the first supporters of Nyugat. From 1910 to 1916, Ferenc Chorin was a member of the board of directors of the Nyugat literary and printing company, and a supporter of the paper between the two world wars.[20] He supported the following journals: Pester Lloyd, Magyar Szemle, Nouvelle Revue de Hongrie, Hungarian Quaterly, Magyar Nemzet.[21] His articles were regularly published in newspapers and the specialised press, he spoke on the radio several times, and abroad he wrote about the Hungarian economic situation mainly in the columns of the Neue Freie Presse.[22]

In the Upper House of Parliament, he served on the Economic and Transport Committee, then the Industry Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Finance Committee, and from the time of its creation he was a member of the so-called Committee 33, which was set up to deal with the global economic crisis but remained in existence throughout the period.[23] was one of the members elected by the upper house.[24]

His last speech to the House of Lords in 1939, during the second Jewish law debate, focused - in typical Chorin moderation - on economic rather than emotional arguments.[25] He warned his contemporaries that, instead of a constructive solution to the problem of finding employment for the unemployed middle class, the rapid removal of large numbers of Jews from economic life would cause a severe shock to the operation of individual enterprises and their external relations, and would permanently curb capital formation and entrepreneurship. And in a climate of war it would be particularly important that the country's industry should function well. He warned, "Who knows how the stone thrown up will find whom, where the rings of the wave will stop?"

In memory of

In Salgótarján, the memory of Ferenc Chorin Sr. and Ferenc Chorin Jr. is commemorated by a joint memorial plaque.[26]

 

References

[1] Sub auspiciis regis (lat.) "a. m. under the patronage of the king; a university institution whereby certain graduates who have passed all their examinations and doctoral theses with distinction are solemnly inaugurated under the patronage of the king (...) only two of the students of all the faculties of the University of Budapest and one of the students of the University of Cluj are solemnly promoted (...)." Pallas Encyclopaedia https://www.arcanum.com/hu/online-kiadvanyok/Lexikonok-a-pallas-nagy-lexikona-2/s-16BBE/sub-auspiciis-regis-1812D/

[2] Nagy Magyar Compass (formerly Mihók's) 1916-1917, XLIV. évf., vol. 2, Budapest, 1917 (hereafter abbreviated according to this scheme: NMC 44/2 (1916-1917)), p. 489, 830, 974; NMC 46- 47/2 (1918/19 - 1919/20), p. 293, 837, 997.

[3] Mining and construction companies: the Salgótarján Coal Mine Ltd., the Rimamurány-Salgótarján Ironworks Ltd., the South Hungarian Coal Mine Ltd., the Esztergom-Sászvár Coal Mine Ltd., the Esztergomvidéki Coal Mine Ltd, Hatvanvidéki szénbánya rt., Nyugatmagyarországi kőszoenbánya rt., Egyesült brick and cement factory rt., Tordai cement factory rt.; metal and engineering companies, First Hungarian Economic Machine Works Ltd.; textile companies: the Hungarian Wool Industry Ltd. (its former company: the Hungarian Wool Yarn Factory Ltd.), the National United Textile Works Ltd.; chemical companies: the Hunnia Hungarian Explosives Ltd., the National Tar, Petroleum and Chemical Industry Ltd., the Resinol Volatile Oil Factory Ltd.; and the Telephone Factory Ltd. and the Union Forest Industry Ltd., in: volumes 46-47/2 (1918/19 - 1919/20) and 48/2 (1920/21) of the NMC.

[4] Vida, István, Three Chorin Letters, in: Centuries 111 (1977) 2, p. 362-380.

[5] Proceedings of the Upper House of Parliament convened on 25 January 1927, Volume VII. Budapest, Pesti Könyvnyomda Rt, 1928, p. 346-347.

[6] Directory of the officers of Hungary 1937, Vol. XLV. Hungarian Kir. Hungarian Central Statistical Office / Hungarian Kir. State Printing House, Budapest, 1937, p. 548-549.

[7] Pogány, 2007, p. 30.

[8] Vécsey, Miklós, One Hundred Valuable Hungarians. Budapest, [Hungária Ny.], 1931, p. 56-58.

[9] Resignation of our President Ferenc Chorin, in: Hungarian manufacturing industry XXXII (1941) 6, p. 2-4.

[10] The relevant volumes of the NMC.

[11] Vida, 1977, p. 364-378.

[12] Directory of the officers of Hungary 1944, p. 345.

[13] Karsai, Elek; Szinai, Miklós, The history of the German takeover of the Weiss Manfréd property, in: Centuries 95 (1961) 4-5, pp. 680-719.

[14] https://www.archivnet.hu/politika/a_weiss_manfred_konszerntol_a_rakosi_matyas_muvekig_egy_csaladi_vagyon_vegnapjai.html

[15] From Andrassy Avenue to Park Avenue. Chapters from the life of Ferenc Chorin, 1879-1964; ed. András D. Bán, ill. Daisy Strasserné Chorin, foreword by Ottó Habsburg. Osiris, Budapest, 1999.

[16] NMC 49/1 (1923), p. 84; NMC 63/2 (1939), p. 81-83.

[17] https://www.mgyosz.hu/tortenet/

[18] The Hungarian Employers' Centre, in: Hungarian manufacturing industry XIV (1923) 1-2, p. 15; Resignation of our President Ferenc Chorin, in: Hungarian manufacturing industry XXXII (1941) 6, p. 2-4.

[19] NMC 62/2 (1938), p. 32-42; Directory of Officers and Names of Hungary 1938, p. 198, 201, 202, 217, 222, 462.

[20] Széchenyi, Ágnes, Mecénások a 20. century magyar irodalom és kultúrában, in: Bridge 80 (2016) 6, pp. 99-114, p. 101; relevant volumes of NMC.

[21] Vida, 1977, p. 368; Directory of Officers and Names of Hungary 1938, p. 471-475.

[22] Vécsey 1931, pp. 56-58.

[23] "the National Committee No 33 established under Decree No XXVI of 1931 on the regulation of economic and credit life and the balance of public finances"

[24] The relevant volumes of the Sturm Parliamentary Almanac.

[25] Speech by Chorin at the 68th session of the House of Lords, 17 April 1939. Journal of the Upper House of the Diet of 27 April 1935, Volume IV. Budapest, Athenaeum, 1939, pp. 179-181.

[26] https://www.kozterkep.hu/28005/id-es-ifj-chorin-ferenc-emlektablaja