Identity Statement

Reference Code

HU OSA 449

Title

László Mester Collection

Date(s)

2020

Description Level

Fonds

Extent and medium (processed)

16 Digital container, 0.02 linear meters

Context

Name of creator(s)

Domaniczky, Endre
Mester, László

Archival history

Before the archival acquisition, the series of interviews was in the possession of the donor.

Content and Structure

Scope and Content (Abstract)

László Mester, lawyer, was mayor of Budapest 18th District, Pestszentlőrinc and Pestszentimre, between 1994 and 2010, and a Hungarian Socialist Party representative in the Hungarian Parliament between 2002 and 2010. He began his political career in the Hungarian Communist Youth Organization, and joined the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party in 1975.

Mester worked in various high positions in these organizations at the district, regional and also national levels. In 1989 he was a founding member of the Hungarian Socialist Party, and he worked as the leader of the district organization of the party until 1991. He left the organization in 2014. From 1990 to 1994, he was a representative in the district local government, while working for the Tax and Financial Control Office and later for the Office of the Parliament. Starting from 1994, Mester was the mayor of Pestszentlőrinc-Pestszentimre for over 16 years, and between 2002 and 2010 was member of the Hungarian Parliament, representing the 18th District of Budapest.

After retirement, he gave a biographical interview in which he gave an account of the decades spent in politics. As his career spanned from the Hungarian Communist Youth Organization to the present stage of the history of the Hungarian Socialist Party, the resulting material provides an insight into the different segments of the internal life of the communist party and its successor organization as well as into local politics before and after the regime change.

The collection includes a series of interviews recorded by Endre Domaniczky with László Mester in 2020. The interview series covers László Mester's life until 2020, from his childhood to the end of his political career. In addition to giving a personal overview of his political career, László Mester mentions other important elements of his life such as the years spent in the air traffic control unit of Malév Hungarian Airlines and his entrepreneurial activity.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information

The collection contains electronically recorded sound files in good condition that have undergone digital noise filtering.

Accruals

Not Expected

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access

Partially Restricted

Languages

Hungarian

Notes

Note

The parts of the collection dealing with the year 1989 and the period after can be accessed upon the permission of the donor.

Description Control

Archivist's note

Processed by Örs Lehel Tari, January 10, 2021.