Count Sándor Károlyi of Nagykároly (1831–1906) was a prominent figure of the Hungarian agrarian movement and one of the founding fathers of the Hungarian cooperative movement. Throughout his active life, one of his main goals was to improve the economic position of farmers.
Károlyi saw one of the most important tools for supporting farmers in the establishment of cooperatives, and therefore played a significant role in the spread of both credit cooperatives offering favourable loans and consumer cooperatives providing affordable products to their members.
He played an important role in the foundation of the Association of Hungarian Farmers (Magyar Gazdaszövetség) in 1896, becoming its first president. Two years later, in 1898, he established Hangya as a consumer cooperative.
Hangya – officially the Hangya Production, Marketing and Consumption Cooperative – grew steadily: while it had 676 cooperatives in 1906, the year of Károlyi’s death, this number had risen to 1,969 by 1922.
In recognition of his achievements, grateful posterity erected a statue in his honour, which still stands today in City Park (Városliget), in front of the Hungarian Agricultural Museum.
The project Memoria Națiunilor (Memory of Nations) is being implemented under the INTERREG VI-A Romania–Hungary Programme, with the support of the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund, and co-financed by Romania and Hungary.
