HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Mihály Táncsics (21 April 1799 – 28 June 1884) was a Hungarian writer, teacher, journalist and politician.


Life

Mihály Táncsics was born on 21 April 1799 in the village of Ácsteszér in the Veszprém county of the
Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...
. By his own account, his father was of
Croat The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...
ian antecedents and his mother was of Slovak origin, but he was brought up to be a Hungarian-speaker and an ardent Hungarian. He was incarcerated in Pest for his radical political convictions in 1846. He propagated in his pamphlet ''The Word of the People Is God's Word,'' a paraphrase of ''Vox populi, vox Dei''. The pamphlet resulted in his arrest. Táncsics was freed from the Habsburgs's prison on 15 March 1848, the very day when the Hungarian revolution broke out. Although Táncsics's role in the Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas is highly emphasized in Hungarian history books, however, in literature he does not rank among the great active heroes of these events. He is remembered as someone who is freed rather than someone who liberates others. As a teacher, Táncsics tirelessly worked to extend elementary education in Hungarian among children and adults in Hungary's urban centres, and his slim textbook on geography with a map of Hungary was part of a large educational project.


Commemoration

He is the namesake of a Hungarian national award for
journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...
, the . In 1948 a Hungarian 20 Forint coin was issued for the Centenary of the 1848 Revolution with his image. * On 15 March 1947 Hungary issued a postage stamp in his honor in Hungarian Freedom-fighters series. * On 15 March 1952 Hungary honoured him by a postage stamp in the Freedom-Fighters of 1848 series. * On 13 March 1998 he was remembered by issuing a postage stamp in the 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence series.http://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/182743-Mihály_Táncsics-1848-49_Revolution_and_War_of_Independence-Hungary. (Scott # 3600)


References

* 1799 births 1884 deaths People from Komárom-Esztergom County Writers from the Austrian Empire Writers from Austria-Hungary Opposition Party (Hungary) politicians Members of the House of Representatives of Hungary (1848–1849) Members of the House of Representatives of Hungary (1869–1872) Burials at Kerepesi Cemetery {{Hungary-writer-stub