E.M. Jellinek: The Hungarian connectionsalis.org/salisjournal/vol1/42_Ward_2014.pdf · Jellinek as his name, but the letter o looks more like an a in the title, thus showing Marton:

Substance Abuse Library and Information Studies: Proceedings of the 36th

Annual SALIS Conference

42 E.M. Jellinek: The Hungarian connection

E.M. Jellinek: The Hungarian connection JuditHajnalWard,PhD,MLISCenter of Alcohol Studies Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

This is the second in a series of papers depicting the mostly undocumented life of E.M. Jellinek. This paper establishes the connection between Jellinek Morton, a well-known figure in Hungary in the early part of the 20th Century, and E.M. Jellinek, one of the founders of alcohol studies. Newly found documents in Hungary and at the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies Library and Archives provide compelling evidence of this connection and shed some light on the mysterious circumstances of his 1920 disappearance from Hungary. The information in these papers was first presented at the 36th Annual Substance Abuse Librarians and Information Specialists (SALIS) Conference on May 1st, 2014, by seven presenters in a panel entitled “Mystery and speculations: Piecing together E.M. Jellinek’s redemption.”

Hungariannamesandotherreferencestoa Hungarian connection in Jellinek’s life areclearlynoticeableforthenativespeaker1.TheWorcesterStateHospitalAnnualReports list

1All translations from the original Hungarian for the panel

were made by the author, a native of Hungary.

five Hungarian names as follows: RalphBanay, who became a renowned andcontroversial psychiatrist; his brother,George was the librarian. The physicianAndrásAngyalandphysicistBélaLengyelarealso listed, and in 1938, another Hungarian,anthropologist Géza Róheim joined the

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E.M. Jellinek: The Hungarian connection 43

Worcester State Hospital. At the Yale CAS,AndrásAngyalandGeorgeBanaywereonthefaculty of the Summer School of AlcoholStudies. András Angyal was also AssociateEditor of theQuarterly Journal of StudiesonAlcohol(1950-1960).GeorgeBanayandGézaRóheimbothpublishedinthejournal.Finally,Hedda Bolgar, who later became a famouspsychoanalyst,alsoworkedfortheCenterforawhile.

For all the discrepancies in the availablebiographicalsourcesonJellinek,onecommonelement prevails: the Hungarian connection.What it actually entails is an obscure pastwithvaguedetailsandhazy facts. Inmostoftheavailableprivatecommunications,suchasletterswrittenbyMarkKeller,VeraEfron,i.e.,his closest coworkers, and Thelma PierceAnderson, his second wife, several cluesindicate that there ismore to the story thantheywishtocirculate.Thelmasuggeststhatabiographical article should begin not earlierthan the banana book, and preferably withthe Worcester years, i.e., in the 1930s. Sheexplains: “I should be happy to tell you my reasons privately, but I do not want to put them on paper; believe me they are good reasons!” (Anderson to Keller 1963). Thequestion will probably remain unanswered:Was Jellinek hiding his Hungarian yearsdeliberately?

There was no mention of him being ofHungarian origin in any publication duringhis scholarship activities in alcohol studies.From theHungarian perspective, the idea ofhis potential Hungarian roots was literallyrejected,eventhoughhisinterestinHungarywas later confirmed (Métneky, 1996). Anarticle claims that Jellinek’s work “entirelylacks any interest in Hungary or Central-Eastern-Europeor features reflecting relatedmentality”(Kelemen,1990).ThesameauthorrecentlyrevisitedhisviewafteraphysicianofHungarian origin, Antal Sólyom, fromVirginia,pointedouttohimthathisneighborfor two years in Detroit (1972-1974) wasEdna Jellinek. Jellinek’s younger sister, whospoke perfect Hungarian, explained that herparentsmet inParis, andafter living inNewYork, they relocated to Budapest where she

wasborn.However,herbrother,Mortonhadbeen born in Brooklyn (Kelemen and Márk,2012,KelemenandMárk,2013).

Up to that point, the world separatedthese two identities. There was a JellinekMorton (pronounced “yelinek”, last namecomesfirstinHungarian),apromisingyoungHungarian scholar from an affluent family,who became involved in some extralegalcurrency trading activities and fled thecountryin1920.HisstorywaspassedonbyapopularcommunistpropagandabookentitledConmen, vagabonds (Frank, 1957), where awholechapterwasdedicatedtohimasoneofthefourmajorHungariancon-artists.

Conmen, vagabonds (Frank, 1957)

Another book, The good old world: the

biggest panamas from the Horthy-era(Horváth et al., 1959) also depicts him in achapter entitled Morton Jellinek disappearswiththemoney.Jellinek’sotherclaimtofameintheHungarianliteraturewashisfriendshipand close professional relationship to anoutstanding anthropologist, Géza Róheim.Biographies on Róheim do not missmentioningthefactthatJellineklaterbecameknownforhisswindles(e.g.,Verebélyi,1977).




ThebetterknownidentityofE.M.Jellinekasthefatherofalcoholstudiesincludesalonglist of achievements, presented in details inbiographical articles. Although there wereseveralindicatorsthatthesetwopeoplewerethe same, until recently, it was virtuallyimpossible to establish the connectionwithoutreasonabledoubt.Withtheadvancesofmoderntechnology,archivesarebecomingmore and more accessible, which allowsresearchanddiscoveriesonbothcontinents.His handwriting from the early years of the20th century looks very similar to the onefrom his personal correspondence in 1947.Word of mouth and facts based on a singlesource, although unacceptable on their ownasresearchmethods,canserveasusefultoolstopointresearcherstotherightdirectiononbothcontinentswhenseekingforanswersinarchives.

Name variations He is known in alcohol studies as E.M.

Jellinek. His identity has been concealed bythe name variations found not only inpublications about him, but also in primarysources in both English and Hungarian.Noteworthy is the reverse use of first nameand last name in Hungarian (as Jellinek Morton),andtheconsistentuseofthemiddlename as first name, instead of Elvin. Welocated his birth certificate issued by theState of New York, which has E. Morton Jellinek as his name, but the letter o looksmore like an a in the title, thus showingMarton: it would be the Hungarian version,less the diacritic on the á (Márton). He islisted as E. Morton Jellinek in theWorcesterState Hospital Annual Reports in the 1930s,butasElvin Jellinek intheCurrentBiographyentry in1947(Jellinek,1947).His firstnamevaries as Elvin, Erwin, and evenAlvin in thevarioussources.Hismiddlenameshowsevenmorevariety:Morton, Marton, Márton, Martin, Merton, Morty,andMortimer.

Of evenmore interest is his well-knownnickname, Bunky, which will be discussedlaterindetail.Lessknownarehisotheralteregos, Petronius (his satirical persona) andHabakkuk (a nickname for his ulcer), used

during the Worcester years. With Jellinek’sinterests and background in classics andreligion in mind, these seem to beheteronyms, i.e, imaginary personas createdby awriter towrite in different styles. BothnamesleadusbacktohisHungarianera, i.e.,to his high school studies and his Jewishheritage. The mysterious Nikita Hartmannalter ego played a role in his life in the late1920s. The name variations go down in theentire Jellinek family. The start date of thislifelong crafting of various personalities hasremained unknown. Jellinek’s biographyseems to present self-imposed multiplepersonalitiesasshownbythesevariations.

With twogivennames,Elvin andMorton,Jellinek was casually called Bunky by hiscolleagues and friends. According to severalsources,heinsistedonbeingcalledBunky.Heoften signed his letters as Bunky too. He ismentioned as “Bunky Jellinek” (Greenberg,2008). Jellinek’s popular nickname has beenclaimedtooriginatefromhisfather,meaning‘little radish’ inHungarian (e.g., Page, 1988).The first occurrence of the nickname isunknown, there is no evidence of its usebefore theWorcester Hospital years. By thetime he was introduced to Mark Keller in1939,hehadalreadybeenknownasBunky.

In his unpublished and unfinishedmemoir on Jellinek, Keller mentions howdifficultitwasforhimtousethisnicknameatfirst.

Bunky means “little radish” – a pet name in Hungarian. Very early in our acquaintance he mentioned that it was his nickname and he invited me to call him so. For many years I was unable to do so – even when I heard colleagues and minor assistants who had known him at Worcester familiarly calling him Bunky, even when I realized he liked to be called Bunky. I did finally manage it, after several years of close association and




collaboration. (Keller to Anderson, 1988, p. 5). ItisverypossiblethatbythetimeThelma

Pierce,hissoon-to-behisfirstAmericanwife,started toworkwith Jellinek onOctober 10,1932attheMemorialFoundationforNeuro-Endocrin Research at the Worcester StateHospital, the Bunky nickname had alreadybeeninuse.Thelmaconsistentlyreferstoherex-husband as Bunky in her letters to MarkKellerbetween1963-1988(e.g.,Anderson toKeller,1963).

Elvin Morton Jellinek’s early writtencommunications in the United States, wellrepresented by our collection, are mostlysigned simply as E. M. Jellinek. Letters andpostcards from the 1930s till his death areconsistently signed as Bunky. He was alsoaddressedormentionedasBunkybymanyinofficial and casual texts. According to theHistorical-etymological dictionary of theHungarian language (Benkő, 1967), there isnorootbunk-meaning“radish”inHungarian.TheHungarianwordfor“radish”isretek.ThenicknameBunky in itswritten form showsamore closer resemblance to the Hungarianword bunkó (pronounced boonko), which ispresentedasanentry intheoldestandmostcomprehensive dictionary of the Hungarianlanguage published in six volumes between1862 and 1874 in Budapest (Czuczor andFogarasi,1862).Itreferstoanodeontheendofabranchcutoffatree,ofaclub(dorong)orstick,oramace.Italsoreferstotheclubitself.Another meaning evolved in the Hungarianslang referring to an ill-mannered, rude, oruneducated person. The ending –y is ratheran English y than a Hungarian diminutive(whichwouldbe–i, see forexample, Jellinekdaughter’s nickname Dundi, meaning“chubby”).Finally,theletteruinHungarianisalwayspronouncedas“oo”,soitwouldsound“boonko” in English. A linguisticallysophisticated person, such as Jellinek, wasprobably aware of all these meanings inHungarian, and he could be called anythingbutill-mannered.

Proficient in many other languages,including English andSpanish, and aman of

card games as member of high society inHungary,hemighthavechosenandworntheBunky nickname as some playful self-deprecationafterhis1920capertoinsinuatehimself for the restofhis life.Analternativeexplanation to the origin of the Bunkynickname is suggestedhereoriginating fromgambling,basedonacardgamecalledbanca(“bank”)inSpanish,knownasbuncoorbunkoin English, one of the three variations of baccarat.

As reported by Hungarian newspapers(e.g., Pesti Napló, June 19, 1920), Jellinek’sfavorite card games before he left Hungarywere chemin de fer (a variation of baccarat)and baccarat, also known as bakk inHungarian. These were very popular andillegal at the turn of the century, butnonethelesswidelyplayedinHungariancafesof big hotels frequented by writers, poets,journalists, and other affluent or aspiringmembers of the high society. Baccarat wasalways played with a group of friends, veryrarely with strangers. Banco and punto aretwo baccarat terms (pronounced as ”bunco”inHungarian). It'sstill speculative,butmorejustifiedetymologicallythanthe”littleradish”explanation.

EMJ: The early years According to a birth certificate dated

August25,1890retrievedfromtheNewYorkCityBirthrecordsarchive,E.Morton Jellinekwas born on August 15, 1890 in New York.His mother was Rosa Jacobson, 24, and hisfather was Marcell Jellinek of Austro-Hungary,32.

The family address on the certificate is1202 Fulton Ave. The New York CityDirectory from 1891 has Marcell Jellinekliving at 12 Lincoln Place, Brooklyn (NewYork City Directory, 1891, p. 677). MarcellJellinek married Rose Jacobson (stage nameMarcellaLindh)inNewYorkCitysometimein1889. Their marriage certificate is #1727ID#0000023902 (Dept of Health, 1869-1880). It isnotclearwhenexactlythefamilyleft theUnitedStates torelocate toHungary,but1895seemstobethemostprobableyear.




E.M. Jellinek’s birth certificate

(Obtained from NYC Department of Records)

According to the data collected in the

BudapestArchives,JellinekwenttotheVácziStreetelementaryschoolinthesixthdistrict.He attended high school first at the BarcsayStreetHighSchoolintheseventhdistrict,andtookhismaturation exams, i.e., graduated in1908fromtheRoyalStateHighSchoolinthefifthdistrict(BudapestArchives,VI.502.D).

His college years seem to be a bit moreobscure. According to a transcript acquiredby Ron Roizen in 1996 from the school,Jellinek studied philosophy at the LeipzigUniversity from November 11, 1911 to July29,1913,andthenagainfromNovember22,1913 to February 12, 1914. The letter fromthe Leipzig registrar also added that Jellineklived in Berlin and Grenoble between thetwo dates. The document also contains thelistof courses Jellinek tookat theuniversity,and claims that he was not awarded adoctorate (Roizen, 1996). The courses listedincludelinguistics(Introductiontolinguistics,German syntax, German linguistics,phonetics), ethnology (Introduction toethnology, comparative ethnology, Americanethnology) and religious studies(Roizen,1996).JellinekstudiedinLeipzigatthesametime as Géza Róheim. It seems that they

shared interest in anthropology andpsychoanalysis. Jellinek was registered in1913,butdidnottakeanycourses.Nosimilardocumentshaveresurfacedsofarfromotheruniversities, such as Berlin or Grenoble. Athorough search has not found any trace ofJellinek attending any universities inBudapest(KelemenandMárk,2012).

Morton Jellinek’s report card from 1908

(Budapest Archives)

At this point we have to emphasize that

Jellinek’s education is more important thanhiscredentials. It isnotonly Jellinek’s familybackground that guaranteed above-averageerudition, but growing up in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy at the turn of thecentury, which assumed a great culturalsignificance. Vienna and Budapest becamecultural centers of Europe with excitingintellectual and artistic events daily. Todemonstratethispoint,hereisanincompletelist of Jellinek’s contemporaries inBudapest,which was a major cultural and scientificcenter in Europe: Béla Bartók, Karl Polányi, Georg Lukács, László Moholy-Nagy, Ernő Dohnányi, Sándor Ferenczi, Tódor Kármán, Leo Szilárd, Eugene Ormándy, and Albert




Szentgyörgyi, who all made significantcontributionstocultureandsciencelater.

Hungarian sources collected so far offerseveralotherexamples to illustrate Jellinek’sbroad interests and early scholarly activitiessuch as his membership listing from theHungarian Folklore Society as a humanitiesstudent in 1912 (Magyar Néprajzi…, 1912).He was boardmember of the Hunnia Press,hisfather’scompany(Magyarország…,1917).Healsoreceivedamedal,theWWIGoldMeritCrosswithCrownonMilitaryDrape in1916for driving an ambulance during the war(HungarianNationalArchives,K1481916-2-9028).

In his early years as a scholar, Jellinekfocused on anthropology and psychiatry,tryingtomarrythetwo.Hisfirstknownbookentitled The origin of the shoe (A sarúeredete)isdated1917andreadsmorelikealongarticlethanabook(Jellinek,1917a).

The origin of the shoe by Jellinek

from 1917. In Hungarian.

The publisher is not his father’s Hunnia

Press, but a popular book vendor andpublisher, Manó Dick, of Jewish origin. Dick

operated his business in the 7th district inBudapest. He also published Freud’s Totem and taboo as first Hungarian edition (Freud,1918) and Sándor Ferenczi’s Hysteria and pathoneurosis (Ferenczi, 1919). According toacommentbefore thededicationand thanksto Róheim, Jellinek’s book is meant toelaborate on his presentation at theEthnography Society inNovember, 1916. Hethanks Róheim for "valuable references".Contrarytowhatthetitlepromises,themaintopic is not the origin of the shoe, but itsvarious appearances in traditions, folkcustoms, or even religions and cults fromallover the world. Some Jellinekian traits aredefinitely noticeable in the text, such asfinding new connections, approachinggloballyandfromafreshperspective,quotingin four different languages, and providingevidenceofawealthofknowledgeinseveralfields.

Jellinekalsopublishedbook reviews inafolklorejournal,Ethnographia(Jellinek,1912,Jellinek, 1917b).More importantly, hewas aspeaker at the 5th International Congress ofPsychoanalysis, Sept 28-29, 1918, Budapest,where Freud was the keynote speaker.According to a conference report, theauditorium of the Hungarian NationalAcademy was so crowded that “not eventhree more people would fit in” and theaudience listened to Freud’s presentation in“…religious silence”. Jellinekpresentedonthepsychologicalexplanationofbloodpactsandsimilar contract ceremonies. In his report,Róheimwrites:

The most ancient ontogenetical approach to the world is hatred. The child receives his first positive stimulus from the world via his contact with his mother’s breasts and via nutrition, this archaic situation serves as unconscious prototype any time he has to overcome his neophobia in the form of adaptation to an individual new to him. Blood or saliva in blood pacts serves as breast milk, and rope also present there is the symbol or remainder of the umbilical cord. Hopefully this paper will be fully




mature to be published soon. (Róheim, 1918). It shouldbenoted thatoneof theguests

listed is a Mrs. Hedwig Jellinek, the onlyreferencebynamewehavefoundtohisfirst,Hungarian wife. Court documents andnewspaperarticlesmentionedheras Jellinek Mortonné according to Hungarian namingrules for married woman at that time, i.e.,Mrs.Morton Jellinek(BudapestArchives,VII.18.d.18460).

A close friend: Géza Róheim One of Jellinek’s closest friend was Géza

Róheim, anthropologist-psychoanalyst, thesecond most read Hungarian scholar (afterphilosopherGeorg Lukács).His lifewaswellresearched and documented, and may shedlightonJellinek’slifetoo.

JustasJellinek’snameisrelatedtoalcoholstudies, Róheim is credited for founding thefield of psychoanalytic anthropology. Bothcoming from prosperous Jewish-Hungarianfamilies, their lives crossed paths severaltimes.

They both studied subjects such asphilosophy, psychology, anthropology,linguistics,andliteratureattheuniversitiesofLeipzigandBerlin.Theybothtookclassesonethnology, which discusses social andhistorical topics from the perspective ofscience. with Karl Weule in Berlin, whoseimpact can be traced in their early texts.Róheim was a member of the HungarianEthnographical Society since high school,Oct 21, 1909 and also a Folklore Fellow.Róheim was very active in the HungarianEthnographical Society. He was boardmember since 1914, and seems to haveinvolved Jellinek in many activities. Róheimwas analyzed by Ferenczi and Vilma Kovácsin1915-16(whichrefers to laymenanalysis,i.e., the person analyzed received trainingin analysis and started toworkwith others,such asVilmaKovács, apractice reoccurringat Worcester State Hospital). Róheimpresentedatthe5thInternationalCongressofPsychoanalysis, Sept 28-29, 1918, Budapest,wherehemetFreud.

Géza Róheim (1891-1953)

Róheim’s rising career was broken after

he was fired from his job at the NationalMuseum based on charges that he activelyparticipated in the Hungarian Soviet Unionin 1919. He was unable to get hired intoan academic position in Hungary after that,but he completed several successful fieldtrips to carry out anthropological researchin Australia, Africa, and Central America.He gave talks in the United States and wasin New York fromMarch 6 through April 4,1931. In 1938, after the Anschluss, uponhis friends’ advice and with their help,he emigrated to the US. He worked atWorcester State Hospital, gave professionaldevelopment lectures to the doctors andtreated schizophrenic patients. Hisconnection to Jellinekcanbe illustratedwitha quote from a letter to Vilma Kovács fromthis time. Since Róheim is afraid of hismother,hewritesthefollowing:

I can see Morton coming on the road. We are going over to have lunch, goulash. […] I got a letter from my mother… Don’t




mention Morton to her, for the obvious reasons (Róheim, 1992, 128). The relationship between Jellinek and

Róheimwould deserve an article of its own.They seem to have a lot in common inaddition to their family and educationalbackground, the exceptional talent forlanguages, and their interests inanthropology, psychoanalysis, and researchmethods.Theybothacquiredvastknowledgefrommany areas and felt committed to notonly book science, but fieldwork andstatistics. They both developed effectivemethodstofindrelationshipinlargematerial,and often times they were the first to findconnections. They were both full of brilliantideas, but had to struggle with theconsequences of a broken career path forvariousreasons.

Jellinek’s Caper As presented in the SALIS newsletter’s

collage (Ward & Bejarano, 2013), Jellinek’sname showed up in the title of articles ofmany Hungarian newspapers starting fromJune 18, 1920, for example, The mysterious disappearance of Morton Jellinek, secretary to the Prime Minister. Where did Morton Jellinek’s diamonds go? Police questioning Jellinek’s agents. Chasing the currency speculators’ half billion. Arrest warrant against Morton Jellinek. Was Jellinek mentally ill?

Hungarian newspaper headlines from the 1920

To put these headlines into context, itshouldbenotedthattherewasanenormousamountofnewspaperstofillwithsensationalnews daily in Hungary in the early 1920s,such asBudapesti Hírlap, Az Est, Friss Újság, Kis Újság, Magyarország, Magyar Újság, Neues Politisches Volksblatt, Neues Pester Journal, Népszava, 8 Órai Újság, Pester Lloyd, Pesti Hírlap, Pesti Napló, Új Lap, Az Újság, Világ.By1925,therewerealtogether934newspaperspublished inHungary: 618 in Budapest, 316local(Buzinkay,1993).

Thearticlesretrieved fromthemicrofilmcollection at the National Széchényi Librarytellus the followingstory.On June18,1920,Hungarian newspapers appeared withsensationalheadlines such asCurrency fraud for half a billion (Népszava, June 18, 1920).These articles revealed a complicated Ponzischeme starting earlier that year,whichwasmade possible by the political and financialturmoil. After the dismantled Austro-Hungarian Monarchy introduced stampingold bank notes of crowns in the successorcountries to be used as currency of the newstate,withthedeadlinescheduledatdifferenttimes in each. According to the articles, amysterious currencybroker acquireddollarsfor140crowns,whichcost230crownsinthemarket, promising a quick turnover withlarge profit. If needed, he even provided awritten warranty issued by Gusztáv Létay,directorof theHungarianUnioBank.Partofthetrickwasreportedaspurchasing jewelryforcrown tobesmuggledoutof thecountryand sold there for good currency. Then theforeigncurrencywasbroughttoBudapestbydiplomatic couriers of the allied countries,whoseluggagewasnevercheckedatcustoms.

The mastermind behind the operationwas said to be Dr. Morton Jellinek, theministerial secretary of the primeminister’soffice, who allegedly worked with severalfemaleagents.AtthebeginningofJune1920,he was reported to have collected a largeamount of money to exchange, but hedisappeared instead. According to thenewspaperarticles, JellinekandLétay tookatraintoSzeged(insouthernHungary,locatedclose to the Yugoslavian and Romanian




border) to meet a courier on the SimpsonExpress. Lacking proper documents, theywerenotallowedtocrosstheTiszaBridgetomaketheappointment.However,Jellinekstillwanted to go, without Létay. The trip wasrisky as the Serbs shot at every boat. Thestory goes that wearing only a sports coat,Jellinekgotinasmallboat.Helefthisleatherbriefcase,containingdocuments,butnotanyvaluables,withLétay.Thatwas the last timeanyonesawJellinekinHungary.

A few days later, his wife reported himmissing at the Budapest Police. The familylawyer,MihályVándor,went looking forhimin Vienna. Meanwhile, the creditors andinvestorsdemanded theirprofit, and rumorsofhisescapewerespreadalloverthecapital.Eventually,onJune18,1920,thenewspaperspickedupthestory.Thevictims,amongthembanks, barons, several millionaires,government officers, artists, and owners ofcompanies, were unwilling to press charges,even though they claimed to have sufferedsignificant losses. This can be interpreted asan admission of co-conspiracy, i.e., that theywere all aware of the illegal ways of profit-making,butstilloptedforthequickmoney.

On June 29, 1920 an arrestwarrantwasissued in Hungary and was sent to majornewspapers in four languages. Jellinek wasaccused of fraud, embezzlement, andsmuggling.Thewarrantisreportedtohaveaphoto of him too, which hasn’t beenrecovered.

The judge of the Budapest criminal court issues an arrest warrant for fraud, embezzlement, and smuggling unstamped Hungarian currency outside the country against Jellinek Morton, born in New York, 30 year old, religion reformed, former secretary of the prime minister’s office, citizen of Budapest, who caused a damage of several million crowns to several individual and groups by setting up fraudulent transactions with foreign currency and who collected large amounts of money recently to do more transactions and then he fled. The above mentioned is of medium height, slim, with bluish grey eyes,

with dark and slim face, dark brown or rather black hair, clean shaven, speaks Hungarian, German, English, French and Italian quickly and nervously, and he was wearing a dark grey suit a similar color overcoat, soft hat, and black shoes with laces. We want that under your auspices search for Jellinek Morton in case of locating him please secure any values on him, arrest him, and inform us about this. [sic! *poor phrasing] (Az Est, June 29, 1920).

An overstamped banknote

(Courtesy of Andrea Hajnal Kicsák)

Thehistoricalcontexttounderstandhow

the scheme was possible is as follows. TheAustro-Hungarian Empire just collapsed inthefallof1918,asaresultofbeingdefeatedin World War I. An attempt to set up aCommunist Hungarian Soviet Republic wascrushed in the spring of 1919. Instead, theKingdom of Hungary was restored,spearheadedbythelastcommandingadmiraloftheAustro-HungarianNavy,RegentMiklósHorthy.TheTreatyofTrianonwassignedonJune4,1920,toregulatenewborders,whichbecame major economic barriers. Hungarylost 72% of its territory and themajority ofits natural resources. The successor statescontinuedtousetheAustro-Hungariancrown(krone, korona), limiting the validity to itsown territories by overstamping thebanknotes.Forexample,Austriastampedtheword DEUTSCHÖSTERREICH, on the notescirculating inAustria.Thenewcurrencywasundergoing inflationata fast ratedue to theconsequences of the War and Trianon, andpeople were concerned about their assetslosingitsvaluedaybyday.Assuch,theywere




willing to take serious risks in thehopeof aquickprofit.Stampingnotescreatedaninfluxof unstamped notes in certain regions, andthelaxproceduresthemovementsofcrownsbetween the successor states allowedsignificant profits (formore on cross-bordercurrencyflowsseeGerber&Spencer,1994).

Jellinek: Myths and legends The first legends about Jellinek were

created around the time of his escape fromHungary by word of mouth and the dailynewspapers.Thearticleswrittenat thistimeprovideamixtureofaccurateandinaccurateinformation in addition to editorializing thestory. A few examples of articles from thatperiod(translationbyauthor):

Jellinek Morton is the son of Marcell Jellinek and Marcella Lindh, who was born in the United States and was brought up in England and the Netherlands and arrived in Budapest five years ago. The 35 year old, elegantly dressed, short, and hearing impaired ministerial secretary speaks seven languages perfectly (Budapesti Hírlap, June 18, 1920).

In an editorial entitled “The Craze ofSpeculation” the Pesti Hírlap describes him:“This young man is from a respected family, wealthy himself, he lived an exorbitant gambling life” (Pesti Hírlap, June 18, 1920).More details, true and false mixed, can befoundinanotherearlynewspaperarticle:

As for the person of Morton Jellinek, we can report Dr. Morton Jellinek is the son of Marcell Jellinek, the brother of the well-known director of the Budapest train company and of Marcella Lindt, the famous singer, who was born in America, raised in England and the Netherlands, and arrived in Budapest five years ago, now is 35 years old, very well dressed, short, and hearing impaired. He speaks several languages perfectly, English, French, Hungarian, German, Dutch, and Danish. Due to his language proficiency, he was a member of

the press department of the prime minister’s office, and later he was the secretary of Dr. Henrik Gonda, ministerial advisor, press secretary of Dr. Sándor Wekerle, and he gained the rank of ministerial secretary. (Pesti Napló, June 18, 1920).

His interest ingamblingwas the focusofmanyarticles:

Jellinek played two card games—bakk (baccarat) and chemin de fer. Especially with the second one, his style raised some eyebrows even among experts. There was no amount high enough that he wouldn’t “knock” without blinking, which means whenever it was his turn, he always called. He would play throughout the entire night and knocked very frequently, calling 30-40,000 crowns. One night the difference was half a million. Jellinek usually lost when he was gambling, and we can state that the lost amounts were negligible compared to the millions he conned from others. (Pesti Napló, June 19, 1920). The existence of the first wife can be

tracedbacktonotonlycourtdocuments,buttovariousnewsitems,suchas:

Investigating officials haven’t yet started their work because no official victim showed up yet, no charges have been pressed, but the police are running inquiries and started investigation within their own capacity. Police proceedings are based on the report made by Morton Jellinek’s wife at the police headquarters in which she informed them that her husband disappeared, and she related them the mysterious circumstances of her husband’s disappearance. (Az Est, June 19, 1920). TheJellinekstorywithitsbuddingmyths,

however, quickly disappeared from thenewspapers and was replaced by other andmoresensationalstoriesof the time,suchas




the international labor boycott of HungarybeginningonJune20.

Summary Little has been known about Jellinek’s

Hungarian period so far. The newspaperarticles above would never be sufficient toverifytheevents,especiallygiventhefactthatprominent players in the scandal wereaffiliated with some newspapers. That iswhere librarians, archivists, and digitizationeffortswillcomeintoplay.Wecollectedmostof the currently availablematerials from theBudapest Archives, and with their ongoingdigitization supported by European Unionfunding, hopefully more material willresurface in addition to the folder related tothe Jellinek trial,whichdoesnot contain theactual trial documents. Its docket number,B.7069/1920,iswellcited,butitonlyleadstoanotheraccessionnumber,which loopsbackto the original docket number for unknownreasons. Some tampering with the ledger isevident. However, documents from therelated procedures and trials, including theHungarian Royal Attorney's reports andnotes, provide plenty of details about theJellinek case too. Indictments, witnesstestimonies, and other legal documents areavailable about other partners in crime,written by lawyers or the Royal Attorney,includingalistofthetransactions.

It should be noted that many pages oftheRoyalAttorney's report soundsimilar oreven identical with Frank's text, Conmen, vagabonds. References are made to thecircumstances of the transactions as well astotheeventsofthedayJellinekdisappeared.The legal documents prove clearly that hisalleged partners still accepted money frominvestors after he left the country. It is alsospeculatedthatallpartnerswereinthefraudtogether, and eventually helped Jellinekescape, then split the profit. There is somereference to jewelry transactions too.Noteworthy is the full documentation howMarcell, his father, was involved, while thename and address of Mrs. Jellinek is alsolisted livingwithMarcell Jellinek in theNyúlStreet apartment. However, the Jellinekdockethasnotshownupyet.

Jellinek disappeared from Hungary forgood in June 1920. Perhaps it remains amystery forever whether he was themastermind behind the currencytransactions, or simply took the blame forothers. His story pops up in obscureTransylvanian newspapers and in the New York Times as lateas1925 (New York Times,1925),containingfalseinformationabouthislocation. Private correspondence and evenlibrarians have been perpetuating mythswithout enough details. Our work aims toput an end to this by collecting, digitizing,andprovidingaccesstoallrelatedmaterials.

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Contact the author JuditWardDirectorofInformationServices,CenterofAlcoholStudies,Rutgers,TheStateUniversityofNewJersey607AllisonRoadPiscataway,NJ08854-8001USAPhone:[email protected]

Documents

E.M. Jellinek: The Hungarian connectionsalis.org/salisjournal/vol1/42_Ward_2014.pdf · Jellinek as his name, but the letter o looks more like an a in the title, thus showing Marton: