Suicide or assassination?

Széchenyi: Sad End of the Great Visionary

Erika Papp Faber
http://www.magyarnews.org/news.php?viewStory=1865

Following the events of March 1848, when Petőfi’s ”Talpra, magyar!” stirred the ember of independence into flame, a Hungarian government was formed, independent of Austria. Count Batthyány Lajos, who agreed with most of Széchenyi’s ideas, was leader of the Opposition Party in the Upper House, and became the first Prime Minister of the new Hungarian government. At the same time, Kossuth was the Opposition leader in the Lower House, and Batthyány began to lean towards Kossuth’s idea of independence.

It was Batthyány who appointed Széchenyi to be Minister of Transportation. This seemed to be a natural culmination of Széchenyi’s monumental projects to develop and improve navigation and rail transport throughout the country.

Although Széchenyi was fundamentally opposed to Kossuth’s radical idea of total independence from Austrian rule and had great reservations about accepting the appointment, he did so nevertheless (March 23rd, 1848) for the sake of presenting a united front.  But he noted in his diary that he had thereby signed his own death sentence, that he was sure to be hung,  together with Kossuth. Because he feared that Kossuth’s policy would bring national disaster: ”I clearly see outlined before me the most complete dissolution of all the elements of Hungarian life”, he wrote in his diary on July 5th.

He had always considered working with the Habsburgs the only way to achieve viable progress, and so he still spoke out in the new parliament against a break with the empire, but he did not prevail. By this time, Kossuth’s ideas of total independence had become the heady inspiration of the people, while Széchenyi’s ideas were no longer fashionable. 

As the Viennese Court began to backtrack on its initial acceptance of certain reforms, Széchenyi  endured increasingly serious pangs of conscience, reproaching  himself with causing the ruin of the nation by his ideas that had opened the way for this liberal, and what he regarded as a dangerous and destructive, process.  ”There has never been anyone who has brought greater chaos into this world than I ! O my God, have mercy on me!”

So after five months, in September 1848, he resigned as Minister of Transportation. And had a nervous breakdown.

His doctor took him to the neurological Goergen Clinic in Döbling, on the outskirts of Vienna, Austria, which he would never leave again.  His wife Crescence (see the June 2016 issue of Magyar News Online) moved to Vienna to be near him, and they were in constant contact.  She would visit him, bringing him personal items he requested, and in the letters they exchanged almost daily, they discussed their sons Béla and Ödön. Neither of them was willing, or able, to continue their father’s zealous commitment to service for the betterment of their native land. They were both a sore disappointment to Széchenyi.

His condition improved with the treatment provided at the Clinic. After a while he was able to receive visitors, many of whom also had the welfare of Hungary at heart, and who came seeking his advice. He even helped some of them to publish their writings. He also began writing again, revising his ”Pesti por és sár” (Dust and Mud of Pest), and ”Hunnia”, and starting a new book titled ”Önismeret” (Self-knowledge, expounding on different pedagogical themes), but these were never published.

More important, and having fatal consequences, was his rebuttal of an ”anonymous” work entitled ”Rückblick” (”A Backward Glance”), which attempted to justify the Austrian Minister of the Interior, Alexander Bach’s repressive terrorist measures applied in Hungary. Popular opinion guessed that the author had been Bach himself. Széchenyi entitled his reponse ”Ein Blick” (”A Glance”), making Bach and his politics a laughing stock through ridicule and puns.  It was published in London in 1859, and became known as ”The Yellow Book”.  It caused the fall of the Bach regime, but also Széchenyi’s death.

On March 3rd, 1860, the Viennese police carried out a house search in Széchenyi’s quarters at the Goergen Clinic, and seized his writings, on the basis of which they presumed to discover a wide political conspiracy. They told him that he could not stay at the Clinic any longer. He feared they would take him away by force.

On Easter Sunday, April 7th, 1860, Count Széchenyi István was found dead in his suite of rooms at the Goergen Clinic in Döbling, with a pistol on his left thigh.

Suicide or assassination?

While historians tend to accept Széchenyi’s death as a suicide, there seems to be sufficient circumstantial evidence for his having been murdered by Austrian decree. Details supporting this view were provided by dr. Kacziány Géza in his book ”Széchenyi meggyilkoltatása” (The Assassination of Széchenyi), originally published in 1931, and reprinted in 2000.

Széchenyi had sometimes received visitors who were served a meal from the Clinic’s kitchen.  One such visitor was Baron Jósika Samu, Chancellor of Transylvania and a strong proponent of the Empire among the Hungarians. On the day of his latest visit, the main dish was truffles, which Széchenyi was fond of, and it was very likely that he would eat a good portion of it.  However, he had digestive problems that day, and did not take any.  His guest, on the other hand, had several helpings. On arriving home, Jósika became sick, and they called the Court doctor who diagnosed intestinal cramps and treated him for them. Twelve days later, the Baron, who had a strong physique,  was dead. It is worth noting that, while Jósika was sick, no one from the Court inquired about his health!

It is also interesting to note that Széchenyi himself had asked Dr. Goldberg whether it might be possible that, for 20,000 forints, an assistant doctor would mix poison into a patient’s food ?  The doctor objected, horrified, whereupon Széchenyi remarked, ”For that much anyone would do it.” Dr. Goldberg left, highly insulted.

When the investigating magistrate examined Count Széchenyi’s corpse, he found him sitting in an easychair, both arms resting on his thighs, with the discharged pistol on his left thigh.  The left side of the head was totally smashed, the skullbone several steps away on the floor. The bird shot found in his brain could not have had such a violent effect. There was no blood spattered anywhere.

It is obvious from this report that the shot that killed Széchenyi came from the left side.  Now the Count was not left-handed!  And it is not likely that the hand that pulled the suicidal trigger would fall on his thigh, together with the pistol that he used. It would rather have fallen by his side, and the pistol to the floor!  It is thus more than probable that the body’s position had been tampered with.

Dr. Goldberg testified that Széchenyi was often thinking about suicide and the immortality of the soul.  True, this was one of the recurring topics in his diary.  But the day before his demise he played chess with Count Zichy, some game with two servants, and chess again with his secretary Kiss until 10 o’clock.

The old servant Brach, who locked the door at 10 o’clock every night, testified that he knocked on the Count’s door at 7 in the morning, and getting no answer, sent for assistant doctor Goldberg, and then stepped into the room with him. He said they found him in the easychair with the discharged pistol in his right hand. – Presumably this was not the first time the servant received no answer to his knock. Why did he right away send for the assistant doctor only on this particular morning?  He probably knew about what was to happen the previous night and to whom he had given the key. A week later Brach too was dead.     

Dr. Goldberg blew out his own brains, and his suicide was never explained. Széchenyi’s old valet Grosz became seriously depressed and died within a short time. Kiss, the last person to see Széchenyi alive, locked himself into his own room when he heard the horrendous news, and when Széchenyi’s son Béla came looking for him to discuss funeral arrangements, yelled that he wouldn’t let himself be murdered like his master, and attacked Béla with a dagger. He had to be subdued by force and also died soon thereafter.

Biography of the remarkable
Count may be found on Amazon.

The investigation into Széchenyi’s death revealed that Dr. Goergen, owner of the Clinic, had been an informer for the Vienna police, reporting on Széchenyi’s doings and on his visitors. He had requested earlier that he be relieved of ”this dangerous patient”. He even asked Széchenyi’s relatives to move him somewhere else. But the family did not want to disturb Széchenyi, to deprive him of the comfort of the five-room suite he enjoyed at Döbling. And so he stayed. (In a work entitled "Gróf Széchenyi István intelmei Béla fiához" - Admonitions of Count Széchenyi István to his Son - Fenyő Ervin asserts that Dr. Goergen was censured for not supervising better Széchenyi's visitors, and for the fact that Széchenyi had a pistol in his possession.   He survived Széchenyi only by a few months, and whereas Kacziány states that the circumstances of his death were never disclosed, Fenyő claims he died of peritonitis that same October.)

Although no suicide note was found, the last entry in his diary was, “I can’t save myself.”  Count Széchenyi István is buried in the family mausoleum at Nagycenk.

Erika Papp Faber is Editor of Magyar News Online.