Ottó Benedikt

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Ottó Benedikt (May 18, 1897 – November 25, 1975) was a Hungarian electrical engineer, professor, and member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He was born in Budapest. After finishing school, he fought in World War I at the age of 18. In December 1918 he joined the Communist Party of Hungary. After the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, he worked with Bela Kun. When the republic fell and Romanian troops occupied Hungary, he was imprisoned and interned.

In 1920, while in Austria, he helped organize the labor movement and kept relations between the Austrian and Hungarian Communist parties. He studied at the Technical University of Vienna, where he also worked. He earned a doctorate in electrical engineering in 1930.

In 1932 he moved to the Soviet Union. After Austria joined Germany in 1938, he lost Austrian citizenship and became a Soviet citizen. From 1939 he was a professor at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, a position he held until 1955.

He then returned to Hungary and joined the Budapest Polytechnic University, where he helped establish a department of electric machines. In 1956 he was elected to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Ottó Benedikt passed away in Budapest in 1975.