Equity 6 August 2012, 11:16am

Hungary's Péter Zwack dies at the age of 85

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Péter Zwack, owner and honorary president of Hungarian distiller Zwack, the producer of the world-famous herbal digestif liqueur Unicum, has passed away at the age of 85. He was one of the most characteristic personae of the Hungarian economic and political scene. He had even given up his U.S. citizenship in order to become Hungarian ambassador to the United States.

The renowned businessman, who was a former member of the Hungarian parliament, and the country’s ambassador to the United States, has died on 5 August in Italy at the age of 85. He had borne one of the most widely known and most distinguished Hungarian family names.

Péter Zwack was born on 21 May 1927 into a Christian family with Jewish roots, as he always put it. Both of his parents, János Zwack and Vera Wahl, were born Jewish but converted to Christianity. Péter received a rigorously strict Christian upbringing. He graduated in 1945 and survived the Holocaust in Hungary. During World War II, the Zwack factory was completely destroyed, just like Budapest. The communist regime nationalised the plant in 1948.

János Zwack with his son Péter, great grandson of József Zwack, the founder of the factory, was able to escape with the original Zwack recipe in his pocket. Béla Zwack remained behind to give the communist government a “fake" Zwack recipe and went on to become a regular factory worker. In 1947 father and son first emigrated to Italy and then to the United States. Péter obtained his university degree there. He studied economist in Milan and in New York. After several months spent in Ellis Island’s refugee camp Péter and his father were granted U.S. entry purely because they possessed the Zwack recipe. They later settled in the Bronx in 1949 when Péter was 22 years old. It was in the U.S. that Péter learned all the ins and outs of the spirits industry.

At first he had odd jobs. He sold vacuum cleaners in Queens and became manager at an alcoholic drinks importer in New Haven, Connecticut in 1952. In 1954, he became a co-owner of a wine importing firm in Chicago.

In 1956, he brought to life a charity named ‘First Aid for Hungary’ together with Tibor Eckhardt, former U.S. President Herbert Hoover and an American statesman and activist Sargent Shriver Jr (part of the Kennedy family as the husband of Eunice Kennedy Shriver). The charity helped the refugees of the Hungarian revolution of 1956 with a USD 120,000 fund. He became an American and in 1964 he founded his own wine importing company. He moved back to Europe in 1970 to head the family company from Vienna. Then he ended up in Florence, Italy, where he rooted for and supported the city’s professional soccer team Fiorentina.

Péter Zwack returned to Hungary in 1988, just ne year before the fall of communism. In 1989, his company founded together with a German liqueur maker and The Budapesti Likőripari Vállalat established Zwack Unicum Budapest Kft. By the spring of 1990, the original Zwack product was reintroduced to the Hungarian market. In 1991, he repurchased his family business from the state, founding Zwack Unicum Plc., becoming his co-owner and member of the Board of Directors. In 2008, he has retired from active management, handing over the steering wheel to his youngest son.

In the early 2000s he was Chairman of the National Association of Entrepreneurs. He was elected businessman of the year in 2002 and was named honorary citizen of Budapest in 2008.

He had a political career too. In 1990, Péter Zwack was named Hungarian ambassador to the United States. In order to be able to accept this post he gave up his American citizenship. In April 1991, the Hungarian government announced that he would end his tour in July, but after he criticized foreign minister Géza Jeszenszky in accusations published in the Budapest press, he was given 48 hours to pack up and leave his post.

In 1992, he became Chairman of the Entrepreneurs’ Party. Two years later he forged an electoral alliance with the Free Democrats (SZDSZ), the Fidesz party and the Agrarian Alliance, according to which he was the joint candidate of the four parties in Kecskemét during the 1994 Hungarian parliamentary election. He won a seat to the National Assembly of Hungary as the only independent MP. He resigned from his party leader position in 1995. Between 1995 and 1997 he was a member of the Kossuth Prize and Széchenyi Prize Committee.

During the 1998 Hungarian parliamentary election he was supported by SZDSZ but he failed to receive a mandate in Parliament. After that he joined the liberal SZDSZ party. In 1999 he became a member of the party's leadership. He was one of the party's chargé d'affaires from 2000 to 2003. In 2002 he was elected to an MP again but six months later he resigned.

Péter Zwack was married twice. He has five children from his first marriage and two from the second to writer Anne Marshall Zwack. His two youngest children, Sándor and Izabella remain in the family business.