ZERFFI, GUSTAV (real name, Hirsch):

Hungarian journalist and revolutionist; born in Hungary about 1820. He was the author of "Wiener Lichtbilder und Schattenspiele," with twelve caricatures (Vienna, 1848); and as editor of "Der Ungar" in 1848, he became conspicuous by his attacks upon the Germans and the imperial family.With Csernatoni, Stancsits, Zanetti, Steinitz, and others he set the tone for the revolutionists, and in 1848 he was Schweichel's captain and adjutant in the honved army. On the failure of the revolution he fled to Belgrade (1849), where he entered the service of the French consul. In 1850 he translated Kossuth's complete works into German for the "Europäische Bibliothek der Neuen Belletristischen Litteratur" (cccxxii., cccxlvii., cccxlix.), and two years later he visited Paris, going in 1853 to London, where he became a member of the Royal Medical College, and afterward secretary of the German National Association. He resigned this post under suspicion, however, although he was still in London in 1863.

Bibliography:
  • Wurzbach, Biographisches Lexikon, lix., s.v.;
  • Die Presse, No. 355, feuilleton (Vienna, 1863);
  • Die Geissel, No. 155 (Vienna, July 3, 1849).
S. N. D.
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