Page - 348 - in Österreich-Ungarns imperiale Herausforderungen - Nationalismen und Rivalitäten im Habsburgerreich um 1900

© 2020, V&R unipress GmbH, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847110606 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737010603 ments, and Bern#dy had to establish contacts with both political currents in ordertosecurethenecessaryfunds.Itisthereforenotsurprising,thatafter1913, as thenewly appointedLordLieutenant of the city, he successfully cooperated withTisza’s opposition in local politics.49While he still deviated from thepo- liticalmainstreamofhiscityandcounty,hecouldbridgethegapbetweencenter andperipheryandchannelfundsintoanoppositioncitythat,unlikeMaramures‚, neverdecided toaccept thealternativeof self-colonization. Onceagain, thisarrangementheldup–at least inpart–after1918.Although Tisza’sperson–murderedatOctober31,1918byagroupofsoldiers–wasnever again the main rallying point of political currents, Bern#dy’s experience as middlemanandinterlocutorbetweencenterandperipheryservedT.rguMures‚ well in the comingdecades.He spent the revolutionary times inBudapest and returnedonly in1919.Meanwhile, intheHungarianpolitics,healignedhimself with Istv#nBethlen, erstwhileopponentofTiszaandkey leaderof theTransyl- vanianAlliance, andsoon-to-becomeprimeministerofHungary.Uponarrival inRomania,Bern#dyrestartedhispoliticalcareer,andheneverfearedtodeviate fromthemain lineofHungarianminoritypolitics.50 Most importantly, he held significant positions in the boards of a series of companiesranging frommining toforestry, togetherwithprominentmembers oftheNationalLiberalParty,whichwasthepartythatgovernedGreaterRomania with a few interruptions, from 1922 to 1928 and from 1933 to 1937. In 1925 Budapest andBucharestdecidedtogether todesignateBern#dy,asa signofhis successas interlocutorbetweenthetwocapitals, tobecomethenewchairof the Hungarianminority party, but the party leadership refused to abide. Bern#dy soonleftthepartyandhewasrewardedbytheliberalswiththepositionofmayor of T.rguMures‚, with him effectively playing the same role as he had played before1918.51Hewas the representativeof the center, this timeBucharest, in a politically hostile city, where he, nevertheless, ensured the support from the center tohelpachievelocalgoals.Hissuccesswasdemonstratednotonlyby the celebrationsathis70thbirthdayandbycontemporaneousstatistics,52butalsoby his fondmemory inposterity. 49 Fodor,Bern#dy(seenote48),p. 109–128. 50 B#rdi,Otthon8shaza (seenote33),p. 148–162. 51 B#rdi,Otthon 8s haza (seenote 33), p. 148–162; Fodor, Bern#dy (seenote 48), p. 126–129, 144–195. 52 Fodor,Bern#dy(seenote48),p. 201–206. GáborEgry348