COUNT JÁNOS MAILÁTH (1847)

Writer and historian who interpreted Magyar culture to the Germans and who wrote a sympathetic account of the Habsburg monarchy.

Mailáth, the son of Count Jozsef Mailáth, an imperial minister of state, entered government service, but soon had to resign because of an injury to his eyesight.

Devoting himself to literary work he edited two important collections of medieval German poetry (1818 and 1819) and wrote some German verse of his own (1824) before producing his German translations of Hungarian poems (1825 and 1829).

Writing in German he brought out a number of major works including: his "Magyar Legends, Fables and Tales" (1825), a five-volume "History of the Magyars" (1828-31), and his perceptive five-volume "History of the Austrian Empire" (1834-50). He also wrote on mnemonics (1842) and on the healing power of animal magnetism (1852).

In the political ferment of the Revolution of 1848 he stood aloof siding with neither the revolutionaries nor the conservatives.

In 1848 he left Vienna for Munich where after several years he found himself destitute. Despondent he made suicide pact with his daughter Henrika who had long been his secretary. The two weighted their clothes with stones, tied themselves together at the wrists, and threw themselves into the Starnberger See.