György Lahner (also ''Láner'' or ''Láhner'', german: Georg Lahner; 6 October 1795, in Necpál (present-day

Necpaly Necpaly ( hu, Necpál) is a village and municipality in Martin District in the Žilina Region of northern Slovakia. Etymology The name is derived from an adjective ''necpalý'' referring to a low density village ( sk, cpať - to push, to overcrow ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

) – 6 October 1849, in Arad) was a honvéd general in the

Hungarian Army The Hungarian Ground Forces ( hu, Magyar Szárazföldi Haderő) is the land branch of the Hungarian Defence Forces, and is responsible for ground activities and troops including artillery, tanks, APCs, IFVs and ground support. Hungary's ground f ...

. He was executed for his part in the

Hungarian Revolution of 1848 The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 or fully Hungarian Civic Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 () was one of many European Revolutions of 1848 and was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas. Although th ...

, and is considered one of

the 13 Martyrs of Arad The Thirteen Martyrs of Arad ( hu, aradi vértanúk) were the thirteen Hungarian rebel generals who were executed by the Austrian Empire on 6 October 1849 in the city of Arad, then part of the Kingdom of Hungary (now in Romania), after the H ...

Life

Lahner was born in Necpál, Turóc County in 1795, to a German bourgeois family. Lahner's military career in the Imperial army began in 1816 when he joined the 33rd infantry. His wife, Conchetti Lucia, was of Italian descent, who bore him a daughter from this marriage.Özvegye eleinte Damjanichné édesanyjánál lakott, majd Makón, a Návay család vendégeként. Később visszatért Olaszországba, és 1895. augusztus 12-én halt meg Collecampigliben, Varese mellett. Lánya ott is temettette el a masnagói temetőben.() He offered military service in the Spring of 1848 to the Hungarian government during the uprising, although he only smattered in Hungarian. Becoming the third honvéd in September 1848 he acted as commander of the southern areas. In October, the Ministry of Defence appointed him as the superintendent of military equipment and armaments in the rank of colonel. In this capacity, he was focused on the Hungarian arms production and boosting production. Lahner successfully completed the most organized changes and productions then to date in Hungary and as a result boosted munitions supply. However, due to the onslaught of Windisch-Grätz, he was forced to retire in December 1848 from Pest, and re-establish facilities in the east. Lahner planned an organized and professional evacuation and decommissioning of the plants so that there was the possibility to continue on the fight. On February 6, 1849 he was promoted to the rank of general. Despite the hardship of evacuating the machinery, Lahner was able to erect new facilities in Nagyvárad (present-day

Oradea Oradea (, , ; german: Großwardein ; hu, Nagyvárad ) is a city in Romania, located in Crișana, a sub-region of Transylvania. The county seat, seat of Bihor County, Oradea is one of the most important economic, social and cultural centers in the ...

) in a minimum loss of time and began production again very quickly and made launching a spring offensive a possibility. Nagyvárad became the largest arms and munitions producer and cache in all of Hungary. The facilities for producing various weapons, firearms, bayonets, swords, were placed in different parts of the nearby castles, such as the dungeons. Lahner published a military science work under the headline "Do not hurt the Hungarians" in May 1849. The Military Council decided that after some months the munitions depots and factories should be moved back to Budapest, closer to the action on the front. Lahner was distinguished with exemplary leadership and performance.

Death

After the defeat of the uprising, Lahner was captured and sentenced to death by hanging, and carried out on his birthday. The sheriff of his home town bribed the executioners to allow him to take his body back to Necpál to be buried there where it rested until 1974, when the bones were moved to a crypt.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lahner, Gyorgy Hungarian-German people People from Martin District 1795 births 1849 deaths The 13 Martyrs of Arad Executed Hungarian people