JÓZSEF MADAS (1905–1988)

The historical literature of the city of Pécs is poor in comparison to other cities of comparable size and past. There are no monographs on the town's history; an interested party can inform himself from touristic literature or from a selection of popular studies on specific questions. The major buildings of the city are known from artistically motivated studies, of the architectural history of the city as a whole, their apparent growth on maps, of the development of the town itself, there is no comprehensive work. This lack of a history of the built-up city inspired the retired mining engineer, József Madas, as he, in his endeavour to learn about the past of his place of residence, came across plenty of unanswered questions. József Madas was born on April 27, 1905 in Arad; after completing his local upper school studies he enrolled at the Selmec Academy, [Hung.] Selmecbánya, [Ger.] Schemnitz, [Slovak.] Banská Štiavnica, but in Sopron, Hungary he acquired the diploma of a mining engineer. From 1931 on he worked as a miner, then as deputy mining director, from 1943 as manager in the Padrager mine of Egyesült Izzólámpa és Villamossági RT [United Lamp bulb and Electricity AG = Tungsram]. From October 1945 he was manager in the mines of Gant and Iszkaszentgyörgy of the Magyar Szovjet Aluminiumművek [Hungarian-Soviet aluminium works] and was involved in elimination of end of the war damages and the start of the production. From 1947 he was head of the Pécs coal mine’s Organisation -and Planning Department where he developed concepts and made arrangements to ensure a constant quantity and quality of coke production. From 1963 on he was in Komlói és Pécs Szén tröszt [Komlóer and Pécs coal trust] as the head of the Department of Coal Enrichment and Recycling until his retirement in 1965. After this, with indefatigable diligence and profound conscientiousness until the day of his death, February 25, 1988, his time was dedicated to the research of the history of the city. His research methods and ethics can be an example for every demanding local historian - after acquisition of knowledge found in the libraries, he began research in the archives with the aim to get to know the history of the modern buildings of the city. For this he chose the only correct method leading to the target by studying, thread by thread, the literature of the City Council from 1707 and adding the obtained information with data from conscriptions and land registers. Eleven years he spent in this activity – in the mornings he collected the data in the archives, in the afternoon and in the summer months he ordered them. He has achieved an unprecedented work: 44 downtown streets, a database describing more than 700 sites used by art and local historians, as well as active architects who profit from their appearance. This and its continuation of the organic work of more than double the size dealing with the suburb of Buda and the associated map reconstructions could have been created only by him who united the vision and precision of an engineer and the interest in the history and the skills essential for the archive research, patience and thoroughness in one. In the course of his collecting activities, he became the living encyclopedia of the past three centuries, but only a fraction of his knowledge and his collected data became available to the public good in printed form. He was always approachable for researchers, no matter what questions on the history of the city were posed; he was a responsive and reliable resource for information, always helpful with details and source notes. He followed the published literature attentively, the ongoing archaeological excavations in the city, the begun and planned construction activities - and if he considered it necessary, he engaged himself unasked, helped, advised and brought his ideas; to the resulting problems he made careful remarks to those seeking solutions, from hardly known writings and archival material. The city awarded him in recognition of his successful work the badge "Pro Urbe Pécs".


Mária Anna Móró