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The picture was taken in 1932 on Archduke Frigyes's farm, where my father held a show with the Caterpillar tractor. The man in the hat is Archduke Frigyes. [Archduke Frigyes Habsburg (1856-936): serviceman, marshal, member of the upper house from 1927 until 1936.]
My father had his connections. There is this picture of him talking with Archduke Frigyes, for example. But he was in such a relationship with Istvan Bethlen, too. [Count Istvan Bethlen de Bethlen (1874-1946?) was a Hungarian aristocrat and statesman and served as Prime Minister from 1921 to 1931. Bethlen stood out as one of the few voices in Hungary actively opposed to an alliance with Nazi Germany. As it became apparent that Germany was going to lose World War II, Bethlen attempted, unsuccessfully, to negotiate a separate peace with the Allied powers. When Budapest fell to the advancing Soviet troops in April 1945, Bethlen was captured and taken to Moscow, where he was murdered with other Hungarian patriots on or around 5th October 1946.] This was a business contact, because only the bigger farms could buy this expensive machine, but these grand seigneurs valued Miksa Domonkos, even if they knew at all that he was a man of Jewish origin, because his bearing and his behavior was just like any Hungarian army officer's.
My father started to deal with Caterpillar from 1930 on behalf of the Steyr Works. He held tractor presentations on large estates and agricultural fares. He always had a big public and he was always brilliant in front of them: he made a small hill, went up on it, turned around.
