FARMING, INNOVATION, SCIENCE – NOTES ON THE DRÁGFFY FAMILY

Abstract

This study presents selected prominent members of the Drágffy family, founded in 1828 by József Drahokupil, an estate manager of the Primate’s domain who was granted predial noble status and land. The estate received from the Archbishop of Esztergom was managed by József’s son Miklós and his family, while Miklós’s brother Sándor was a member of parliament for the Vác constituency between 1865 and 1870. Miklós’s son, Sándor Drágffy, directed the family estate in Érsekvadkert until the mid-1930s, but his name is remembered for a completely different activity. He was the inventor of the pocket sundial, for which he filed a patent application on May 4, 1925, which was registered in 1930. The paper also examines the work of Miklós Drágffy, a distinguished member of the third generation of the family and a judge appointed to the Hungarian Royal Ministry of Justice. At the Hungarian Institute of Public Administration, founded by Professor Zoltán Magyary, he pursued significant academic research. As a stu- dent of Magyary, he received several scholarships established by Kuno Klebelsberg during the interwar period, which enabled him to study systems of public admin- istration in Western European countries. He published his research not only in Közigazgatástudomány, the journal of the Institute of Public Administration, but also in numerous monographs.