Lipót (Leopold) Weisz/Weiß

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THE ROOTS OF LÁSZLÓ MOHOLY-NAGY IN KÖRÖSLADÁNY László Moholy-Nagy (Borsód [today Bácsborsód], 1895 - Chicago, 1946) in the XX. perhaps the most individual artist of the twentieth century, who sought new ways of painting, brought fundamentally new things in photography, experimental filming. He was a pioneer of new industrial design, one of the leading teachers of the Bauhaus, who in emigration also became the most significant educator of visuality in the American New Bauhaus and later as the director of the School of Design. His teaching was also disseminated in his books. He became one of the most effective masters of the new arts, not only designing scenery by the way, but also inventing more than one new genre: the light fresco and the art of light, which is inseparable from sculpture. Although he wrote his oeuvre far from his homeland, he is the star of the Hungarian avant-garde, who maintained his relationship with Hungary until the end of his life.

Moholy's mother is Weiss Lipótné Stern Karolina Moholy-Nagy Self-Portrait (1920) László Moholy-Nagy from the Jewish family was originally registered as László Weiss. As for the parents, however, the biographers are groping in the dark. The only thing that can be seen from the registers is that his father was Lipót Weis / Weiss (c. 1860-1917), born in Villány, Baranya County. His mother, on the other hand, appears in several biographical writings, referring to the registers of the Jewish community in Baja, under the name Stein Karolin / Karolina (1872-1945), who was born in Körösladány. According to the copy of the Jewish mother-book name index kept in the archives of the Baja Museum, they had five children: Jenő Jónás (1891-1986) Elza (before 1892-1897), Sándor before 1893-1897), László (1895-1946) and Ákos (1897-1938 k.). (The two children who died young are buried in the Israelite cemetery in Baja.) The father may have been a property manager or “tenant in the land of the wealthy Latinovics”. Krisztina Passuth's monograph on Moholy-Nagy, the head of the “wealth carding” family, reads: “A father who mismanaged family wealth tried his luck in America, but with his departure [around 1917] he lost track”. Presumably he emigrated in 1897. The family left without support then moved to Ada (now Aдa in Serbia), the maternal grandparent, Stein - as it turns out, in fact - to Ms. Stern Mór Engelmann Rosalia. At that time, their youngest child, Ákos, was already alive. A year or two later they moved to Mohol (now Moл in Serbia), dr. To Gusztáv Nagy's lawyer. He was probably the cousin of the mother, Karolina, who patronized the family left without a father. László entered the Szeged State High School in 1905, according to the inscription, under the surname Weisz. At the initiative of his beloved “uncle” in 1910, Jenő, László and Ákos Hungarianized his name. In memory of "Uncle Guszti" and his years in Mohol, László, who became a painter, first signed his name in 1917, first as Moholi and then as Moholy-Nagy, after which he gained world fame.

However, there are doubts about the maternal Stein surname according to the publications. Although the earliest Israeli birth, death and marriage registers kept in Gyula, in the Békés County Archives, are incomplete, they date only from 1879-1882 and 1884-1885, but no data refer to the presence of the Stein family in Körösladány at that time. In contrast, there are relatively many Stern names in them. Moholy-Nagy's mother, born in 1872, cannot be mentioned in the mentioned documents, who also settled with her husband in Bácsborsód, close to Baja.

From 1897, the name of Lipót Weis was recorded by the teachers in the section reserved for parents in the children's school classbook. From 1901 onwards, the mother: Lipótné Weis and Karolina Weis are listed. The class books of the Royal Hungarian State High School in Szeged are kept in the Csongrád County Archives in Szeged. 1905/06. "László Weisz izr." can be read under the 55th serial number of the school year. student's name. The parental section, on the other hand, reads “Stern Karolin Private”. Szeged has already been listed as a place of residence. In Kecskemét, in the Bács-Kiskun County Archives, the birth register of the youngest son, Ákos, can be found in duplicate at the Bácsbodrog self-government. In these, his mother is named “Stern Karolin”, who was born in Körösladány. Taking all this into account, it can be stated that the name Stein mentioned by the biographers may be due to a pen error and a misreading. In reality, however, the mother of the world-famous talent was Stern Karolin, born in Körösladány. However, the above-mentioned documents of the local Jewish community even reveal that the mother-accountant was “Stern Móritz”, who - in the absence of other data - presumably was the maternal grandfather of László Moholy-Nagy living in Körösladány.

István Kazinczy