Pál Teleki, Hungarian academic and politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1879)
Count Pál János Ede Teleki de Szék in English : Paul John Edward Teleki, or in short: Paul Teleki (1 November 1879 – 3 April 1941) was a Hungarian politician who served as prime minister of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1920 to 1921 and from 1939 to 1941. He was also a famous expert in geography, a university professor, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Chief Scout of the Hungarian Scout Association. He descended from an aristocratic family from Alsótelek (Teliucu Inferior) in Transylvania.
Teleki tried to keep Hungary neutral during the early stages of the Second World War despite cooperating with Nazi Germany to regain Hungarian territory lost in the Treaty of Trianon. When Teleki learned that German troops had entered Hungary en route to invade Yugoslavia, effectively killing hopes of Hungarian neutrality, Teleki committed suicide.
He is a controversial figure in Hungarian history because as Prime Minister he tried to preserve Hungarian autonomy under difficult political circumstances, but also proposed and enacted far-reaching anti-Jewish laws.