Gyula Peidl (4 April 1873 – 22 January 1943) was a Hungarian trade union leader and social democrat politician who served as prime minister and acting head of state of Hungary for 6 days in August 1919. His tenure coincided with a period of political instability in Hungary immediately after World War I, during which several successive governments ruled the country. Biography Early life and career Gyula Peidl was born on 4 April 1873 in Ravazd, Győr County. His father, a butcher, died early, thus Peidl was raised by his mother. During his apprentice years from 1886 to 1890, he became a typesetter at the printing facility of the Franklin Company. Following this he participated in study tours to Austria, Switzerland and Germany, where came in contact with Social Democratic movements and also learnt German. Returning home, he headed the printer's union from 1900 to 1908, and from 1909 onwards. He was one of the founding members of the General Consumer Cooperative (ÁFOSZ) in 1904. He was elected secretary of the organisation in 1908. As a journalist, he edited the weekly newspapers Typographia and Szövetkezeti Értesítő. He also served as a Board Member of the National Workers' Insurance Fund (). In 1909 he joined the leadership of the Social Democratic Party of Hungary (MSZDP). During the Mihály Károlyi era following World War I and proclamation of the First Hungarian People's Republic, he was Minister of Labour and Welfare in the government of Dénes Berinkey. In opposition to the union of the party with the Party of Communists in Hungary (KMP) at the beginning of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, he resigned his position in the leadership but maintained his membership in the new unified party, called the Socialist Party of Hungary (MSZP). In July 1919, Romanian troops crossed the Tisza river and marched towards Budapest. On 1 August 1919, the Hungarian Soviet Republic ended and a government formed by Social Democrats and controlled by union leaders replaced it; the leader of the former government, Béla Kun, left the country the next day. The new government unanimously accepted the transfer of power after the Romanian invasion of the capital and, subsequently, the end of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Sándor Garbai, the Chairman of the Central Executive Council summoned Peidl and communicated his request to form a government, as well as a list of ministers, which Peidl reluctantly accepted because of his closeness