Groedel Mansion, the headquarters of Fidesz, 28 Lendvay street

The mansion before renovation
Source: 24.hu

Standing on the corner of Lendvay street and Dózsa György road, there is a mansion, renovated a few years ago, which was commissioned for by Henrik Géza Brüll. At first, it was conceptualized by Géza Aladár Kármán and Gyula Ullmann as a holiday home. Brüll could only enjoy this abode for a few years, though: due to his financial difficulties, he was forced to look for cheaper housing with his family. The building, four years after it was given over in 1901, was bought in October 1905 by the Groedel family, who already owned other houses on the street named after Márton Lendvay actor - and national guard in 1848. Baron Bernát Groedel and his wife moved in here with their 10 year old daughter.

 
Géza Aladár Kármán (left) and Gyula Ullmann (right), the architects of the mansion
Source: Wikipedia, pestbuda.hu

Despite the facades being built in art nouveau style - which was just becoming more widely known in Hungary, and also had some features of the still popular Historic style snuck in - the designers were generous with the ornaments inside. The question is, whether the neo-Renaissance and art nouveau-style dining room with the coffered ceiling was thought up at the same time as the building itself, or it was after the new owner took over.

   
The interior back then
Source: 24.hu

The family had the building for three decades. They had the green marble fireplace put in, reflecting the fashion of the time. Their peace was interrupted by a small incident, though: in August 1919, during the Romanian invasion after the fall of the early Hungarian Soviet Republic, this house became the residence of the high-ranked Romanian officers - just like the Gellért Hotel and the hotels by the Pest side of the Danube, destroyed during World War II. Once the invaders left in November, things went back to normal.

 
The daughter of Baron Bernát Groedel, Theodora (Dóra) and her doll collection
Source: hu-themator.museum-digital.org

The new baron and his family were already renowned as high-end art collectors at the turn of the century. Theodora (later known as Dóra) first married the rich Freiherr Emil Taxis von Bordogna und Valnigra, a member of one of the wealthiest German families, then Lajos Korbuly land owner, so the art collection continued growing year after year. Besides the dozens of paintings, sculptures and furniture, thanks to Theodora’s hobby, many games of the century and pieces of scale model baby furniture could also be found in the house.

     
Source: 24.hu, pestbuda.hu, Wikipedia

However, the 1930s and World War II wreaked havoc in everything: the family, due to their continuously worsening financial difficulties, was forced to sell two of their houses on Lendvay street in 1938. Those were bought by Palandszian Nisan, an Iranian-Armenian leather tradesman, who had lived in Hungary for ten years by then. The widowed mother had to move to Váci street with her daughter.

A few pieces of the collection, known all over Europe, were already missing, but during the Holocaust, which was a threat to the family because of their Jewish heritage, many more art pieces had disappeared. The remaining ones were handed over to others in exchange for the well-being of Theodora and her second husband, hidden deep in their private collections.

    
Source: 24.hu

The currently only locally protected mansion was taken over in 1946 by Russian military authorities, then it first became a dorm for people from across the border, and later the Academy of Education moved in, which provided vocational pre-training for the new worker-officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Miraculously, the mansion was not stripped of its beautiful interior, as it became the home of the Evangelical Theological Academy in 1952, so, after the baron family, the forces of invasion and the soldiers, future and graduated pastors passed through the gates.

   
Source: 24.hu

This period didn’t last long either, as in 1962 the history of the mansion did a full 180: it changed from a place of religion into a place of anti-religion, because, following the Soviet example, the government had the Office for Religious Affairs relocated here, which operated in this building up until its abolition in 1989. After the regime change, the house was owned by the political party Fidesz, until they moved out in 2003. Then in 2011 the party returned with a smaller number of members into the by-then pretty worn down building, and they used it for five years before it was renovated to its current state.

Source: 24.hu

Sources: 24.hu, mazsihisz.hu