Desk officer at the administration

The building of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on the Pest side of the River Danube (Photo: Endre Domaniczky)

In May 1956, Ferenc Mádl was reassigned from the Budapest No. 4. (Újpest) Magistrate’s Court to the Bureau of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Thanks to his broad language skills – by then he was already fluent in four languages (Hungarian, German, English and French) – he quickly became involved in scientific diplomacy in addition to his administrative duties.

While his most important task as a desk officer was the “organisation” of legal sciences’ matters, his former teachers, such as Professors Endre Nizsalovszky and Gyula Eörsi, also gave him the opportunity to participate in the life of jurisprudence by publishing and attending conferences. He was soon involved in the editing of several scientific journals, and in 1958 he was able to start his post-graduate (PhD) studies.