György Dalos (born 23 September 1943) is a Hungarian

Jew 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""Th ...

ish writer and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

. He is best known for his novel '' 1985'', and ''The Guest from the Future:

Anna Akhmatova Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; uk, А́нна Андрі́ївна Горе́нко, Ánna Andríyivn ...

and Isaiah Berlin''.

Life

Dalos was born in

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 ...

and spent his childhood with his grandparents, as his father had died in 1945 in a labor camp, where he had been sent to as a Jew during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. From 1962 to 1967, he studied

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

at the Lomonossov University in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. He then returned to his native town Budapest to work as a

museologist Museology or museum studies is the study of museums. It explores the history of museums and their role in society, as well as the activities they engage in, including Curator, curating, Conservation-restoration of cultural heritage, preservation, ...

. In 1968, Dalos was accused of "

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

activities" and was handed seven months prison on probation and a

Berufsverbot is an order of "professional disqualification" under German law. Berufsverbot may be translated into English as "professional ban". A disqualifies the recipient from engaging in certain professions or activities on the grounds of their criminal ...

(professional disqualification) and a publication ban; due to that, he worked as a translator. In 1977, he was among the founders of the opposition movement against the

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

regime of Hungary. In 1988/89 he was co-editor of the

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ...

opposition paper ''Ostkreuz''. From 1995 to 1999, Dalos was head of the Institute for Hungarian Culture in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. Since 2009 he is member of the International Council of

Austrian Service Abroad The Austrian Service Abroad is a non-profit organization founded by Andreas Hörtnagl, Andreas Maislinger and Michael Prochazka in 1998, which sends young Austrians to work in partner institutions worldwide serving Holocaust commemoration in f ...

. Dalos lived in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

from 1987 to 1995. Since 1995, he has lived in Berlin as a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

and editor.

Awards

* 2010 Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding

Work

* '' 1985'' (1983) is a sequel to George Orwell's ''

Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and fina ...

''. This novel begins with the death of Big Brother and reflects an intermediate period between ''1984'' and a more optimistic future characterized with a decline in orthodoxy of the totalitarian system, struggles of the ensuing powers and the near destruction of the Oceania air force by Eurasia. * ''The Circumcision'' (1990) * ''Proletarier aller Lander, entschuldigt mich! (Ende des Ostblockwitzes)'' (Proletariats of all countries, I apologize! (End of the East Block joke)) (1993) * ''The Guest from the Future'' (1996) * ''Der Gottsucher (Godseeker)'' (1999) * ''Ungarn in der Nusschale. Geschichte meines Landes'' (''Hungary in a Nutshell. History of My Country'') (2004). In ''Hungary in a Nutshell'' Dalos prophetically warns his homeland not to attempt to solve social problems in an authoritarian manner.Andreas Dorschel, 'Tausend Jahre Würdenträger', in: ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

'' Nr. 68, 22 March 2004, Literature Section, p. 27. * ''Die Balaton Brigade (2006)'' * ''1956: Aufstand in Ungarn'' 956: Uprising in Hungary(2006) * ''Jugenstil'' (Art Nouveau) (2007) Articles * ''Zum Ende der Diktaturen in Osteuropa: Ein Blick auf Ungarn und die DDR'', in:

Robertson-von Trotha, Caroline Y. Caroline Y. Robertson-von Trotha (born 22 February 1951 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish sociologist and cultural scientist, working in Germany. Biography and career After the unexpected death of her father Robertson-von Trotha left Oba ...

(ed.): Herausforderung Demokratie. Demokratisch, parlamentarisch, gut? (= Kulturwissenschaft interdisziplinär/Interdisciplinary Studies on Culture and Society, Vol. 6), Baden-Baden 2011

External links

A Peaceless Democracy
by Gyorgy Dalos, article, English, June 2009, on the current polarization of the political culture and politics in Hungary.

References

1943 births Living people Hungarian writers Hungarian Jews {{hungary-writer-stub