László Rajk Jr. (26 January 1949,

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 ...

– 11 September 2019) was a Hungarian

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, designer and political activist.

Biography

As an architect, he became the member of the Hungarian

avantgarde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable t ...

movement. From 1975, he joined the Democratic Opposition, the underground

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

movement in Hungary, therefore from 1980 he was

blacklist Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considere ...

ed, and was not allowed to work under his own name. In 1981, with

Gábor Demszky Gábor Demszky (, born 4 August 1952) is a Hungarian politician, lawyer and sociologist by qualification. Demszky was the Mayor of Budapest from 1990 to 2010. He was a founding member of the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) between 1988 and ...

(

Mayor of Budapest The Mayor of Budapest (, ) is the head of the General Assembly in Budapest, Hungary, elected directly for 5-year term since 2014 (previously municipal elections were held quadrennially). Until 1994 the mayor was elected by the General Assembly. ...

from 1990) he founded the independent, underground AB Publishing House, and ran an illegal bookstore from his

apartment An apartment (American English, Canadian English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), tenement (Scots English), or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that ...

called "Samizdat Boutique". In 1988, he was one of the founders of the Network of Free Initiatives and the liberal party, the

Alliance of Free Democrats The Alliance of Free Democrats – Hungarian Liberal Party (, , SZDSZ ) was a liberal political party in Hungary. The SZDSZ was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and of Liberal International. It drew its su ...

, and served six years in the

Hungarian Parliament The National Assembly ( ) is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 199 (386 between 1990 and 2014) members elected to four-year terms. Election of members is done using a semi-proportional representation: a mixed-member ...

after free elections in 1990. Recently he worked as an architect and a

production designer In film and television, a production designer is the individual responsible for the overall aesthetic of the story. The production design gives the viewers a sense of the time period, the plot location, and character actions and feelings. Work ...

for

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

s and taught film architecture at the

Hungarian Film Academy Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians/Magyars, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the ...

in Budapest. Married to Judit Rajk (1991-)

Politics

The son of the well known

show trial A show trial is a public trial in which the guilt (law), guilt or innocence of the defendant has already been determined. The purpose of holding a show trial is to present both accusation and verdict to the public, serving as an example and a d ...

victim, Hungary's foreign minister

László Rajk László Rajk (8 March 1909 – 15 October 1949) was a Hungary, Hungarian Communist politician, who served as Minister of Interior and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was an important organizer of the Hungarian Communists' power (for example, ...

, Rajk Jr. was famous in his own right for political/anti-regime activities.THE SONS OF COMMUNISM
by

Michael T. Kaufman Michael Tyler Kaufman (March 23, 1938 – January 15, 2010) was an American author and journalist known for his work at ''The New York Times''. He won the 1978 George Polk Award in foreign reporting for his coverage of Africa and was a recipient ...

, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', 8 March 1987.

Awards

He was a Chevalier in the Ordre National du Merite, 1999, France.

Works

Buildings

Film sets

Over 25 years' experience in building filmsets for international and Hungarian films and documentaries including:

References

Sources

* * Kofahajó {{DEFAULTSORT:Rajk, Laszlo, Jr 1949 births 2019 deaths Architects from Budapest Alliance of Free Democrats politicians 20th-century Hungarian architects 21st-century Hungarian architects Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1990–1994) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1994–1998) Politicians from Budapest Members of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts