Eszter Pécsi

Eszter Pécsi (March 8, 1898 – May 4, 1975) was the first female Hungarian architect and a structural engineer. She designed a number of iconic buildings in Hungary, Austria and America.

Early life and education Eszter Pécsi was born Eszter Pollák on March 8, 1898, in Kecskemét to Mór Pollák, a flour merchant, and Sarolta Szántó (née Schäfer). She was one of seven children and money was tight. The family changed its name to Pécsi in 1900. Two of Pécsi's sisters, Vilma and Margit, became doctors, a third, Berta, became a teacher. A brother, Illés, graduated in engineering in 1913.

Pécsi attended the Royal College of Technology in Charlottenburg, Berlin, between 1915 and 1919. In 1918, the Hungarian government passed laws enabling women to study at universities, so in 1919 Pécsi returned to Hungary to complete her education at Királyi József Műegyetem (Budapest University of Technology and Economics). She graduated on 8 March 1920, her twenty-second birthday, the first Hungarian woman to qualify as an architect. Pécsi was one of the first four women to study at the university, alongside Marianne Sternberg-Várnay, mechanical engineer Villma Máhrer and Irma Simonyi-Hajós.

Early career After graduation, Pécsi worked for a decade in the Guth and Gergely architectural engineering offices in Budapest, being promoted to senior designer after a few years at the company. and had two sons, György and János, who both grew up to become architects. The couple were both members of the Congres Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM), which played a key role in the expansion of modernist architecture.

From 1931 to 1948 the couple ran an architectural firm together.

Politics and the Hungarian Revolution Pécsi and her husband were both members of the Magyarországi Szociáldemokrata Párt the Social Democratic Party of Hungary. Fischer was chosen as a candidate for the party in the 1939 general election, and was chairman of the architects’ group within the party. The party was suppressed under Soviet rule.

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a nationwide revolution against the Hungarian People's Republic and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956. Pécsi became a commissioner, involved in the uprising. During the revolution, her home became a meeting place for Social Democratic politicians. Her husband József Fischer was elected to the leadership of the Social Democratic Party of Hungary when it revived during the revolution. On 3 November, Fischer was appointed as state minister in the coalition government as the party's nominee. The next day, the Soviets invaded Hungary and the revolution was crushed within a week. Fischer went into hiding for a time. In 1957, as part of the reprisals and clamp down by the Soviet authorities, Pécsi was dismissed from her job because of her involvement in the revolution.

Commemoration A plaque was placed on her birthplace in Kecskemét in 2000 and on the wall of the couple's house in Szent István Park in Budapest in 2001.

A room was named after Pécsi at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, on the 100th anniversary of her graduation with an engineering degree.