Németh, László (1901–1975)
Writer. Németh qualified as a doctor in 1925. In the same year, he won a story competition run by the journal Nyugat and contributed to the periodicals Protestáns Szemle, Napkelet and Nyugat while working as a dentist. In 1932, he launched his one-man periodical Tanú, which lasted for four years. He was one of the leading figures and ideologists in the ‘populist’ writers’ movement. In 1945–8, he worked as a supply teacher at the Gábor Bethlen Grammar School in Hódmezővásárhely and also on the periodical Válasz, edited by Gyula Illyés. He was excluded from literary and public life after the communist takeover, but in September 1956, he was elected to the presidential committee of the Writers’ Union. During the 1956 Revolution, he was elected onto the directing body formed by writers in the new Pétőfi Party—the former National Peasants’ Party (NPP). Németh mended relations with the regime towards the end of the 1950s, although some of his studies could still not be published.
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