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'''Count Albert Wass de Szentegyed et Czege''' (Hungarian ''gróf szentegyedi és czegei Wass Albert''; ] (now ], ], ]), 1908 – ], ], ]) was a ] ], forest engineer, ] and ] from ]. '''Count Albert Wass de Szentegyed et Czege''' (Hungarian ''gróf szentegyedi és czegei Wass Albert''; ] (now ], ], ]), 1908 – ], ], ]) was a ] ], forest engineer, ] and ] from ].
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His works appeared in Hungary after the overturn of the Communist regime in 1989. His works appeared in Hungary after the overturn of the Communist regime in 1989.


In recent years, the Hungarian minority in Romania attempted his rehabilitation. A statue of Albert Wass was unveiled in ] (Székelyudvarhely). The monument bears no name, only the inscription in Hungarian "Vandor Székely" (The Wandering Szekler). There are other two of his statues which have been moved to the interior of the Hungarian churches in the cities of ] (Szászrégen) and ]. In recent years, the Hungarian minority in Romania attempted his rehabilitation. A statue of Albert Wass was unveiled in ]. The monument bears no name, only the inscription in Hungarian "Vandor Székely" (The Wandering Szekler). There are other two of his statues which have been moved to the interior of the Hungarian churches in the cities of ] and ].


==Novels== ==Novels==

Revision as of 16:45, 12 February 2007

File:Wassalbert.jpg
Albert Wass

Count Albert Wass de Szentegyed et Czege (Hungarian gróf szentegyedi és czegei Wass Albert; Válaszút (now Răscruci, Cluj County, Romania), 1908 – Astor, Florida, February 17, 1998) was a Hungarian noble, forest engineer, writer and poet from Transylvania.

Youth

He was the son of Count Endre Wass (1886-1975) and Baroness Ilona Bánffy of Losonc. He attended the Reformed Church Secondary School in Kolozsvár (Romanian: Cluj-Napoca), then he graduated from the Academy of Economics in Hungary. He continued his studies of forestry and horticulture in Germany and France, then settled to run the family estate in Mezőség, Transylvania (today in Romania). He wrote poems, short stories and articles. His first books were published in 1927 and 1929 in Cluj. In 1934, his novel Wolfpit was published by the Transylvanian Guild of Arts. It was the start of a series of work and acknowledgement: He was accepted member of the Transylvanian Guild of Arts in 1935, and at the same time he was the first young Transylvanian to be awarded the Baumgarten Prize. In his 1939 epic masterpiece, he described how the Trianon generation found their feet again: the unity of the presentation of social reality, the quest for meting out justice in history, together with ancient language, music, rhythm conquered the hearts of many readers in Hungary. In 1939, he was elected member of the Transylvanian Literary Society and the Kisfaludy Society. In 1940, among the best scientists and artists of the nation, he was awarded the Baumgarten Prize the second time.

Activity during the Hungarian reoccupation of Northern Transylvania

His writings were patriotic but exacerbated the tensions between the Romanian and Hungarian population during the reoccupation of Northern Transylvania as a consequence of the second Vienna award. In 1942, he received the Klebensberg prize and in the same year on a memorable round tour in Hungary he represented Transylvanian literature together with three of his peers. As a reward for his military front work, first he got a second class then a first class iron cross. He was even elected member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences as appreciation for his knowledge in forestry.

In May 1946, both Albert Wass and his father, Endre Wass, were sentenced to death in absentia by the People's Court of Cluj, and their possessions were confiscated. They were held responsible for events that happened in September, 1940, when a Hungarian Lieutenant, Pakucs, arrested six inhabitants of Sucutard (Szentgothárd), and then shot to death four of them in Ţaga (Cege), when they attempted to escape. Albert Wass was also held responsible, as the alleged instigator, for the slaughter at Mureşenii de Câmpie (Omboztelke), when Hungarian soldiers, led by Lieutenant Gergely Csordás, killed 11 people.

Emigration

Wass left Northern Transylvania in 1944, and made his first stop in Germany. After spending some time in Bavaria, he moved to Hamburg in 1947, where the family of his first wife, Éva Siemers, had been living. He found a job as a night-watchman at a construction site.

In 1951, Wass emigrated to the United States, together with four of his sons (Vid, Huba, Miklós, and Géza). He settled in Florida, and became professor of German, French, European literature and history at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He founded the American Hungarian Guild of Arts, managing its academic work and publishing activities, and editing its newsletter. He launched his own publishing house, the Danubian Press, which published not only books but English language magazines of the American Hungarian Guild of Arts, too. The Transylvanian Quarterly dealing with Transylvania and related issues, then the Hungarian Quarterly undertaking the general problems of the Hungarian nation became the most important anti-Bolshevik forum of Hungarian exiles.

Even in the 1970s several attempts were made on his life by the agents of the Securitate, the bullet marks of whose guns Albert Wass could show in the film shot about him in 1996. Although the two perpetrators of that attempt had been captured by American police, they were released on account of their Romanian diplomatic passport. Albert Wass' application for naturalisation in Hungary was first refused by the left-wing liberal government between 1994 and 1998, as his death sentence in Hungary had not been revoked, then impeded by a humiliating reply to the effect that the naturalisation certificate of the 90-year-old author would have been valid for a year from the date of issue. His life ended at age 90, on February 17, 1998, in Florida, by his own hand.

His son, Huba Wass de Czege (born in 1941 in Cluj), is a retired U.S. Army brigadier general, known as a principal designer of the "AirLand Battle" military doctrine.

Rehabilitation attempts

His works appeared in Hungary after the overturn of the Communist regime in 1989.

In recent years, the Hungarian minority in Romania attempted his rehabilitation. A statue of Albert Wass was unveiled in Odorheiu Secuiesc. The monument bears no name, only the inscription in Hungarian "Vandor Székely" (The Wandering Szekler). There are other two of his statues which have been moved to the interior of the Hungarian churches in the cities of Reghin and Lunca Mureşului.

Novels

Poems, fables, narrations

  • 1927 Virágtemetés (Flower burial) (poem)
  • 1943 Tavak könyve (Book of the lakes) (fable)
  • 1947 Erdők könyve (Book of the woods) (fable)
  • 1947 A láthatatlan lobogó (The invisble flag) (poem)
  • 1970 Valaki tévedett (Somebody is mistaken) (narrations)
  • 1972 Válogatott magyar mondák és népmesék (Assorted Hungarian legends and folk fables)
  • 1978 A költő és a macska (The poet and the cat) (narration)

References

  1. ^ András W. Kovács, "The History of the Wass de Czege Family", Hamburg, 2005
  2. "Brigadier General (Ret.) Huba Wass de Czege"

External links

Hungarian literature
The list is by chronological order.
Early sources
14th century
15th century
15th – 16th century
16th century
16th – 17th century
17th century
17th – 18th century
18th century
18th – 19th century
19th century
19th – 20th century
20th century
20th – 21st century
Contemporary
Category:Hungarian writers
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