Famous Jewish athletes and sports leaders
in Hungary
Every week, Maccabi VAC presents a Hungarian Jewish athlete, sports leader, pruner, coach, who played a decisive role in Hungarian and universal sports.
Alfred Brüll
(Budapest, December 10, 1876 – Kecskemét or Auschwitz, 1944)
Brüll was an industrialist, patron of Hungarian sports, president or honorary president of several sports associations, and sadly, he fell victim to the Holocaust. It is not known for sure where he died: according to some sources, he was killed in Kecskemét, but more likely in Auschwitz. From 1906, he worked for the Sport-World, and from 1908 for the National Sport. His love of sports later took him to the Hungarian Physical Practitioners Circle (MTK), of which he became the leader. In 1904 he became the first vice-president of the Hungarian Athletics Association, and two years later he became the president of the Hungarian Swimming Association. In 1908 he was vice-president of the Gymnastics Association. In the meantime, he also took an active part in the founding of the Hungarian Football Association. He was elected an honorary member of the football association in 1906, and elected president of the Association of Hungarian Wrestlers, which was established later. With its operation, it extends beyond the borders of Hungarian sports. He was elected President of the International Amateur Wrestling Federation on the occasion of the Paris Olympics (1924). His language skills and oratory skills made him excellent at promoting Hungarian sports. During the war years, he was already known as the most important Hungarian sportsman. He is one of the creators of the modern system of rules and competition in swimming and wrestling. He was already a member of the Physical Education Council, the supreme state physical education authority, in 1912 and his contract was renewed until 1918. He is honorary president of a total of 26 sports associations. He paid great attention to new sports, being one of the first Hungarian leaders in the field of motoring and yacht racing. He supported many athletes so that they would not miss their foreign competition for financial reasons. He provided the greatest support to his association, MTK. MTK made 150,000 crowns available to the club during the construction of the course, for which it received shares. He would later donate the shares to MTK itself. From 1905 to his dissolution in 1940, he was president and patron of MTK. As a sports-loving president, he had often sacrificed his own private finances for the sporting success of the blue-and-white club. In 1912, he supported the renovation of the MTK track on Hungária körút with 155,000 crowns. He donated the shares he received in return to the club. During his 35-year presidency, the Blue and White won an unprecedented 15 championship titles. As a result of the second Jewish law, Alfred Brüll, Lajos Preiszman and Henrik Fodor decided at the club meeting on June 26, 1940, that they would retire in the interest of the team, as they could do nothing else. However, the players and other stakeholders took the position that they would not continue without their president and staff. Hungária FC (this was the name of MTK from 1926 to 1940) declared its complete dissolution. He emigrated to Switzerland and then returned to Hungary in 1943, following false information about the end of the persecution, where he was captured and murdered by the Arrow Cross.
