He had just isolated experiences about those events; his parents listened to Radio Free Europe, 1848 flags were erected in the main square of the village, and the local party secretary was arrested and revolutionaires forced him to recite Lord's Prayer.

[9] Under this reformist leadership, a new economist intelligentsia emerged, instead of Orthodox Marxist experts, which were already acquainted with the Western mainstream curriculum and they had the opportunity to study abroad.

Németh later was accused by hard-line communist leaders who said that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had recruited him during his Harvard year, however he called these charges "nonsensical".

The Communist regime and the Hungarian National Bank led a double bookkeeping, even the majority of the party's Political Committee had no information on the real data.

He and Ferenc Bartha negotiated with Alan Whittome and Jacques de Larosière, representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1982, but Németh also took part in a conference to resort to loans from China, bypassing the Soviets.

[14] During that time, long-serving Secretary-General János Kádár was replaced by Prime Minister Károly Grósz, who tried to establish a "technocratic" government and commissioned Németh to negotiate with Deutsche Bank aimed at getting a one billion Mark loan.

Unlike the previous practice, he nominated four candidates, Rezső Nyers, Imre Pozsgay, Ilona Tatai and Pál Iványi to the post to discuss with local party committees, trade unions and the Patriotic People’s Front.

Conflicts between hard-line and reformist wings widened when Grósz gave a speech in the Budapest Sportcsarnok in which he made mention of the sharpening of the class struggle and hinted at the possibility of the looming threat of the White terror's return to Hungary.

[18] Over the coming months the hard-line wing got permanently weakened; the Political Committee and the Patriotic People's Front renounced their right to nominate candidates for ministerial positions; and by 10 May 1989, Németh managed to completely revamp the composition of his cabinet.

[21] After being promoted to Prime Minister in November 1988, Németh made a controversial decision to allow East Germans, who had long been restricted from traveling, to pass through Hungary on their way to West Germany.

[23] Németh subsequently served as Vice President of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the financial institution established by the international community to assist the countries of eastern and central Europe and the former Soviet Union in their transition to democratic market economies.

Prior to this, the Central Intelligence Agency had informed Administrator Kemal Derviş that the North Korean regime counterfeited and reprinted sent banknotes, which was part of their food aid.

In an interview, Németh said that the demolition of the Berlin Wall happened all of a sudden, but momentum had been building for months that led up to the event, as in March 1989 Gorbachev had promised that the Soviets would not act violently after the opening of the Hungarian border with Austria.