He served under several political regimes including that of Charles IV King of Hungary, Regent Miklós Horthy, Prime Minister Pál Teleki, and Arrow Cross Party leader Ferenc Szálasi.

[3] He was born in the Roman Catholic Hungarian noble family Farkas de Kisbarnak, which can trace back their origins to the first half of the 17th century.

[3] A Catholic, in 1938 Farkas was the chief organizer of a World Eucharistic Congress in Budapest on May 25–29, 1938, at which time he created a lifelong relationship with the Pope and the Vatican.

[6]: 260  Before the end of World War II, the national Hungarian Scouts were ordered to merge with the extremist right-leaning youth organization Hungarista Örszem, but the merger was never implemented.

During March 1944, Regent Miklós Horthy first set in motion plans for a new Hungarian government loyal to the Allies, but the effort was forestalled after German pressure by Edmund Veesenmayer, Hitler's personal emissary in Hungary.

Regent Miklós Horthy also wanted military units in Budapest commanded by officers he could trust, as he planned to announce an armistice with the Soviet Union as Romania had done, abandoning the lost Axis cause which he had never fully embraced.

Upon entering the building, he was attacked and beaten by German soldiers commanded by Waffen SS Major Otto Skorzeny, who had initiated the meeting as a ruse.

Skorzeny then brazenly led a convoy of Germany troops and four Tiger II tanks to the Vienna Gates of Castle Hill.

Faced with an overt threat to his son's life, and having already been effectively removed from power, under coercion and as a prisoner of war, he abrogated the armistice, deposed Premier Géza Lakatos' government, and named the leader of the fanatical Arrow Cross Party, Ferenc Szálasi, as Prime Minister.

[11] In the final months of the war, Farkas presided over the trial of fellow Lieutenant General Lajos Veres von Dalnoki (former commander of the Hungarian Second Army) and Captain Kálmán Hardy (aide-de-camp to Horthy), who were charged by the Arrow Cross government with treason for having attempted to arrange a cease-fire or switching allegiance during the last days of the war.

For much of the Cold War, it was held at the United States Bullion Depository (Fort Knox, Kentucky) alongside the bulk of America's gold reserves and other priceless historical items.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter ordered extensive historical research to verify the crown as genuine, and it was returned to the Hungarian people on January 6, 1978.

General officers of the Hungarian Army who returned to Hungary under Communist rule were likely to be arrested and become Prisoners of War again, and face charges and possible execution.

In October 1946, 26 other Hungarian Army generals in the Foucarville POW camp wrote a letter to the American military, requesting that Farkas be released.

During 1952, Farkas visited the United States and met with adult leaders at a training camp for Hungarian Scouts in Exile held in Buffalo, New York.

By 1950, Farkas was a leader of the reactionary, right-wing Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN) which openly advocated the destruction of the Soviet Union and its fifth columnists.

[19]: 319  During the 1950 convention of the ABN, Farkas made an early prediction that the USSR would dissolve due to the pressures of its internal non-Russian nationalities.

[21] Farkas was convicted in absentia by the Budapest High Court of the Hungarian Communist government on March 30, 1950, and was stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In late 1998, the Hungarian Republic Supreme Court found serious legal and procedural errors in his original 1950 trial and on December 7, 1998, rescinded the sentence, nullifying its results.

On September 15, 2006, the Hungarian Defence Ministry's Rehabilitation Committee fully reinstated his military rank and overturned his conviction posthumously.