Lajos Ordass (1901–1978), born Lajos Wolf, was a Bishop of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Hungary. In 1944 he changed his name to Ordass, Hungarian for wolf, to protest the German occupation of Hungary.[1] Like Cardinal József Mindszenty, Bishop Ordass resisted communism in Hungary at great personal cost.[2] He was convicted in a show trial and sentenced to two years in prison in 1948.[3] After the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, he was able to resume exercise of his bishop's office, but was removed a second time in 1958, living in forced retirement after that until his death in 1978.[4] Ordass was elected twice to be vice president of the Lutheran World Federation, in 1947 and 1957.[5] He was rehabilitated posthumously by the Hungarian state after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.
Ordass was born to a German speaking family in the village of Savino Selo (Torschau - German / Torzsa - Hungarian).[6] Savino Selo / Torschau / Torzsa was settled in the late 18th century during the reign of Emperor Joseph II by German immigrants from Swabia. At that time Torschau was part of Austria-Hungary; today the village is located in Vojvodina, Serbia. Ordass' mother (Paula Steinmetz) was a native of Savino Selo / Torschau / Torzsa. Ordass' father (Arthur Wolf) moved to the village from Spišský / Szepesség, a region in modern Slovakia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Arthur Wolf was the cantor and music instructor for the Lutheran congregation in Savino Selo / Torschau / Torzsa. Lajos was the fifth of six children born to his parents.[7]