Ernő Balkányi

Bookseller, printer and publisher, Ernő Balkányi was born in 1870, in the town of Berki in Slovakia. With the financial support of Nándor Frigyes Fúss, who was at that time the pharmacist in Dolnja Lendava, he managed to acquire the printing office of József Bogdán in 1898. Only a year later, the first issue of the weekly, Alsó-Lendvai Hiradó, was published, and Balkányi remained both publisher and owner throughout the entire period it was published. Ernő Balkányi was an exceptional entrepreneur and was the only printer in Dolnja Lendava and Murska Sobota until the First World War. His printing office was highly acclaimed because it printed publications both in Hungarian and Slovenian and even in the Prekmurje dialect. The downfall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy had a huge impact on Balkányi´s printing offices as well, for this was the time when he lost his office in Murska Sobota. Nonetheless, he kept his trade and even broadened its scope. Apart from various publications, je he also printed announcements, official documents, invitations and posters.

After Ernő Balkányi´s death (1939, Dolnja Lendava), the printing office in Dolnja Lendava was taken over by his son, Elek. During the German occupation, it worked under the name of Károly Wirth. The story, however, did not end well. Due to his Jewish ancestry, Elek Balkányi was taken to prison in Murska Sobota on the 28th of March, 1945. A couple of days later, under the pretence that he had tried to escape prison, he was murdered in the nearby woods.

After Elek´s death, the management of the printing office was taken over by his widow, Erzsébet Balkányi, whose maiden family name was Mencs. She ran the printing office until 1947, when it was nationalised by the Yugoslavian authorities. The new communist authority moved the equipment to the printing office Tiskarna ljudske pravice in Ljubljana. The printing press was later exhibited in the Technical Museum of Slovenia.

Source: