Lajos Dávid was born a hundred years ago

The former director of our museum, Lajos Dávid 1926. He was born on April 10 in Majsamiklósvár, Tolna county. He was originally a teacher: he graduated from the Győr Teacher Training Institute, and then obtained his history teacher's certificate at the ELTE Faculty of Arts. From 1955 to 1957, he headed the Folklore Department of the Győr-Sopron County Council.

In 1962, he joined the Xántus János Museum in Győr as a local historian. From April 1967 until his retirement, December 1987, he held the position of director of the museum and the county museum organization, so he was one of the longest-serving heads of our institution. The Madách collection created by the Lutheran bishop József Szabó and the collection of Imre Patkó were added to the János Xántus Museum during his leadership. The permanent exhibition of Margit Kovács and Miklós Borsos was also opened during this period. In particular, he did a lot for the latter: he played a major role in the creation of the Borsos House, which was realized with broad cooperation and the effective support of the city. He had a good relationship with the master personally, as evidenced by the documents left in the Borsos legacy. As the head of the county organization, he did a lot for the establishment of the István Széchenyi Memorial Museum in Nagycenk and for cooperation with the Burgenland museums.

As a local historian, he dealt with the history of the city and the county in the 20th century, several volumes and studies were published, which bear the official view of history of the era. His editorial activity was much more important. He was the editor-in-chief of the museum's yearbook, Arrabo, from volume 10, from 1968 to volumes 26-30, published in 1991. Here, he provided the opportunity to publish several authors who at that time belonged to the „tolerated” category, such as the ethnographer László Timaffy. He was also one of the editors of the substantial volume Győr - Várostörténeti Tanulmányok published in 1971. He defended his doctoral dissertation on the county history of the coalition period (1945–1948) in 1972. He died in Győr in 1993, his grave is located in the Nádorváros cemetery.

Vilmos Tóth
historian, assistant museologist