Viktor Külföldi

Who was Viktor Külföldi?

Viktor Külföldi, real name Jakab Mayer-Rubcsics, born Jacob Mayer was a Hungarian Socialist, journalist, and lecturer.

Born in Thalheim, Germany. he was known in his adopted country by the alias "Külföldi". In 1871 he became a member of the International Working Men's Association. Together with Karóly Farkas and Antal Ihrlinger, he co-founded of the first Hungarian Socialist organization, the General Working Men's Union. For organizing a strike by the GWMU, he, among others, was arrested and accused of high treason; he was eventually acquitted because of lack of evidence.

In 1877 Külföldi founded the Social-democratic newspaper Népszava. He retired from the worker's movement in 1890 and died in Budapest in 1894.