Károly Molter

The native form of this personal name is Molter Károly. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Károly Molter (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈkaːroj ˈmoltɛr]; 2 December 1890 – 30 November 1981) was a Hungarian novelist, dramatist, literary critic, journalist and academic. He spent most of his life in the region of Transylvania, being successively a national of Austria-Hungary and Romania.

Károly Molter

Biography

Born in Óverbász (Vrbas), Vojvodina region, Molter was from an ethnic German (Danube Swabian) family, but adopted Hungarian as his language.^[1] He studied at the College of Kecskemét, and then at the University of Budapest Faculty of Philosophy in Letter (the Hungarian-German section).^[1]

In 1913, he moved to Transylvania, settling down in Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mureş).^[1] Between 1913 and 1945, he was a teacher in the Bolyai Gymnasium, a Reformed Church college in the city.^[1] In the interwar period, after the union of Transylvania with Romania, he became a member of the Erdélyi Helikon group in Marosvécs (Brâncoveneşti), as well as sitting on the editorial staff of Zord Idő magazine.^[1] In 1937, he published one of his most successful works, the novel Tibold Márton, which depicted a Swabian family in the process of adopting Hungarian culture, as well as the problems faced by ethnic minorities in their relation to the majority.^[1]

After 1945, Molter was employed by the Bolyai faculty in Cluj, where he lectured in German language and literature.^[1] Retiring in 1950, he moved back to Târgu Mureș, and died there 31 years later.^[1]

Works

• F. m. Melánia R. T. (1929)
• Tibold Márton (1937)
• Bolond kisváros ("Foolish Little Town", 1942)
• Reformáció és magyar műveltség ("Reformation and the Hungarian Culture", 1944)
• Harci mosolyok ("Martial Smiles", 1956; short stories)
• Iparkodj kisfiam! ("Struggle, My Little Son!", 1964)
• Szellemi belháború ("The Intellectual Interwar", 1968)
• Komor korunk derűje ("The Brightness in Our Somber Times", 1971; anecdotes)
• Örökmozgó ("Perpetual Motion", 1974; plays)
• Buborékharc ("Bubble War", 1980; essays)