Category: RRI Encyclopaedia

26 years ago, on July 14, 1987, Mihail Farcasanu died in Washington. He was a leading figure in the Romanian Diaspora, the first director of the Romanian department of Radio Free Europe, and a former Liberal reformer before WWII. Born in 1907, he was of the same generation as the philosophers Mircea Eliade, Constantin Noica and Emil Cioran, all of whom were in favour of political authoritarian. Unlike the three thinkers, Farcasanu opted for democracy. He studied at the London School of Economics with Harold Laski, the future head of the British Labour Party, but he did not follow in the latter’s leftist footsteps. He then went to Germany for his PhD studies, supervised by Carl Schmitt, but did not agree with the professor’s totalitarian leanings. In 1939 he was appointed editor-in-chief of Romanian Quarterly, the quarterly of the Anglo-Romanian Society, and in September 1940 was named chairman of the National Liberal Party’s youth organisation. Ioan Stahomir, a professor at the Bucharest School of Political Science, drew for us a portrait of the Liberal leader Mihail Farcasanu:

“After 23rd August 1944, he was among those that restored in Romanian democracy the energy it had lacked during the authoritarian and totalitarian regimes of 1938 and 1944. He was one of the leaders of the Liberal Party youth organisation and one of the active publicists of the democratic opposition during this time. Since Mihail Farcasanu was involved in expressing the hostility that the population felt towards the Soviet occupation and the puppet regime installed by it in November 1945, his options were simple: leave the country or endure repression from the Petru Groza regime. He eventually managed to leave Romania and, after going to several European countries, he settled in the US. It is important to emphasise the fact that he retained his values and remained perfectly in tune with the intellectual ideas circulating in the western countries of his time.”

In fact, Mihail Farcasanu’s thinking was ahead of his time, anticipating the changes underwent by the Liberal doctrine in Western Europe after 1945 in the sense of being more open towards social liberalism and the Christian Democratic doctrine. Ioan Stanomir is back with details on Mihail Farcasanu’s political project:

“His project may be summarised by a few key words: equality before the law, freedom, human dignity, integration into Europe and restoring tradition. From all points of view, he was a huge personality and one that could have made Romania a different country. In fact, this is precisely his tragedy, and that of other political leaders, like Corneliu Coposu, Ion Diaconescu and Ion Ratiu, who could have been the leaders of free Romania, but who instead ended up in prison and or in exile, not being able to pursue their political careers.”

Mihail Farcasanu quickly became the enemy of the communist regime. His wife was Pia Pillat, the daughter of the poet Ion Pillat, a descendant of the founder of the Liberal Party, Ion Bratianu. In October 1946, he and his wife fled Romania in a spectacular and risky move. Had he failed, Farcasanu would have died in a communist prison like many other pre-war politicians. In 1950, after he finally settled in New York, he became the head of the newly created Romanian department of radio Free Europe. As a very active member of the Diaspora, the Romanian political police had him under intense surveillance, through various informers infiltrated in his entourage. Here is Ioan Stanomir again:

“Obviously the political police kept a close eye on him in exile, especially since Farcasanu had not been involved with the legionary or Antonescu regimes. The Romanian Diaspora was not entirely democratic. Many of its members were affiliated to the extreme right and actually worked well with the communist regime, especially during Ceausescu. Farcasanu was no admirer of tyrants and was one of their fiercest critics. He also understood that the time for Romania’s freedom had not come. Life was cruel to him and he did not live to see the changes of 1989, when Romania freed itself of communism.”

Mihail Farcasanu’s articles have been gathered in a single volume called “The Future of Freedom”.

Born in 1876, Romanian prose writer Hortensia Papadat Bengescu made her editorial debut in 1919. Despite her late start, the writer soon became one of the promoters of modernism in Romanian literature. Three of her novels that follow the destiny of several generations of the Halippa family — “Fecioarele despletite”- “The Disheveled Maidens”, “Concert din muzica de Bach”- “A Concert of Bach’s Music” and “Drum ascuns”- “The Hidden Road” are considered her most successful books. Hortensia Papadat Bengescu wanted to end the cycle about the Halippa family with a novel entitled “Straina” — “The Stranger”. “The Stranger” started with the troubled period when communists came to power in Romania.

According to Hortensia Papadat Bengescu she handed in the manuscript to a publishing house, but according to her subsequent statements the novel actually reached a different publishing house. At present, the archives of both publishers are impossible to recover in order to save the novel or parts of it. Fragments from the novel had actually appeared in various journals during Hortensia Papadat Bengescu’s life. After her death, her family managed to have several other pages published. Recently the novel “The Stranger” has been published in its entirety as part of the integral issue of Hortensia Papadat Bengescu’s novels by the National Foundation for Science and Art. For 7 years Gabriela Omat spent years editing the novel “The Stranger”. It should’ve taken 6 months to edit, but it actually took much longer. Gabriela Omat tells us why:

Gabriela Omat: “Mrs. Elena Docsanescu, a friend of the last descendent of Hortensia Papadat Bengescu stored manuscripts of the writer among which several pages from the novel “The Stranger” and also pages related to the novel. When I contacted her and went to see the manuscript myself I had a great surprise. I was presented with a big cube-shaped box, filled to the brim with all sorts of materials, copybooks, sheets of paper copied and recopied in several versions, various notes, copybook cuts, notebook pages. Pieces of text were written even on the back of copybook covers. I initially estimated 2 or 3 years’ work to get all the pieces together but it lasted 7 whole years. Besides several copybooks with covers in which you expected to find a coherent text, the other text pieces were dispersed, being written on any kind of paper the writer could find.”

However, this hard work to put the text together and recover the novel was not without emotional incidents.

Gabriela Omat: “The adventure continued with the emergence of an apocrypha. I was about to finish the editing of the novel when a second-hand bookshop announced me that someone had sold them a manuscript titled “The Stranger. A Novel”. At first sight it was obvious to me that thatwas not the writing style of Hortensia Papadat Bengescu, however the novel had been contaminated by the minute study of Hortensia’s writing style. I discovered that was the writing of editor Stamatiadi, the grandson of Hortensia Papadat Bengescu, who tried to reconstitute the novel. He put many years’ work into that endeavor meant to provide the integral edition of the Halippa family cycle, but it seems that he eventually abandoned the project. I used part of these texts and marked them as apocrypha where narrative links were missing.”

Editor Gabriela Omat came up with two versions for the re-construction of the novel in an approximate form. She called the first version “A hypothesis for re-constitution” and the second version “An alternative novel”. Consequently Gabriela Omat has come closest to Hortensia Papadat Bengescu’s intentions in finishing the Halippa cycle.

Gabriela Omat: “This is what she wanted, to end the cycle with a final novel focusing on the Halippas. She had started to prepare the novel with some draft copybooks in which she wrote all sorts of scenarios about the characters’ destinies. In her writings there appears, at a certain moment, a woman character who visits various villages with the intent of buying a house. It’s obviously a transfer of her own attitude of observer and writer.”

Hortensia Papadat Bengescu died in 1955, rejected by the Communist regime that had imposed a different type of aesthetics, which the author could not embrace. If the incomplete manuscripts which she seemingly handed in to the two publishing houses are recovered, it will be interesting to compare them with the version of the novel “The Stranger” edited by Gabriela Omat.

Radio has been used for politics, for culture, propaganda and entertainment. Radio has also meant science education, and the feature that opened the road was Radio University. As the name indicated, Radio University, which debuted in 1930, was meant as a tool to propagate science and culture, since the two often walk hand in hand. Radio University was a platform for intellectuals to disseminate science and culture in a way easily understood by regular people, especially those lacking education.

Throughout political changes, or better said in spite of them, Radio University was one of the few radio features to stand the test of time, due to its prestige and to the fact that even dictatorial regimes put up with it, understanding the value of science and culture in inculcating their ideology.

The most prestigious names in Romanian science and culture have been heard on air as part of that feature, as either guests or lecturers. The feature allowed millions of people to hear what previously only a select few could, in university auditoriums. Shortly after Radio Romania had started broadcasting for the first time ever, on March 1, 1930, more exactly, that prestigious feature had its opening edition, and became the longest lived and most popular science and culture show in the history of the Romanian media. Its structure was simple: three lectures of about 20 minutes between 7 and 8 p.m.

On July 31 1934, legal consultant Radu Patrulius opened a series of lectures with a talk called “The Role of Elites”. Patrulius said that being a member of an elite was similar to being part of a brotherhood, in which the individual constantly strives to better himself, and is never content with the things he knows. He has to break through the barriers of knowledge, of cognitive conformism, to find explanations for the things that cannot be unexplained or that are insufficiently explained.

The member of an elite has to be a scientist, but also needs noble traits to help him keep above the pettiness of life, and dedicate himself to the good of the community. This idyllic vision of the scientist was similar to that envisaged for artists in the 19th century, rising above the lust for material things, living for the eternal glory of his breakthroughs.

In its over 80 years of existence, Radio University was a voice for the best in Romanian science. Mondays were usually reserved for science, and each consecutive day of the week had another focus. The first great name in Romanian science to be invited as a guest was biologist Grigore Antipa, the founder of the museum of natural history in Bucharest.

On 16 February 1933, he raised an issue that had less to do with sciences: why are Romanians so poor in such a rich country? Antipa concluded that Romanians, in spite of their intelligence and capacity for hard work, were handicapped by the shortcomings of their ruling classes, that failed to channel the energies of the people in a good direction. As such, he was blending science, politics and the economy.

Grigore Antipa was thus the first great name to take up the microphone in the attempt to raise awareness of important issues across the nation. A whole array of the greatest names in Romanian sciences followed his lead, such as geographer Simion Mehedinti, archeologist Vasile Parvan, sociologist Dimitrie Gusti, historian Constatin C. Giurescu, aesthetician Eugen Lovinescu, and physician Gheorghe Marinescu, to name just a few.

In January 1929, several months after the first broadcast aired by Radio Bucharest dated November 1928, an entertainment show called “The Funny Hour” was inaugurated. Initially it lasted 10-15 minutes and was soon to become one of the longest-lived and most popular public radio shows. The success of the show was owing to the pair of comedians made up Stroe and Vasilache who started producing it on October 1st 1932. On that Sunday, at 14:00 hours local time, a tune was first heard – “Hello, hello, this is the radio….” which was composed and performed by the two comedians.

Long time personal friends, N. Stroe and Vasile Vasilache were comedians at the variety theater and before becoming famous on the radio they had already made a name for themselves in the shows produced by the “Carabus” company owned by the famous actor and comedian Constatin Tanase. Oana Georgescu, PR coordinator of the “Constatin Tanase” Variety Theater will next talk about the acting career of comedians Stroe and Vasilache.

Oana Georgescu: “They were actors of the Variety Theater. They made their theatre debut much earlier before the “Funny Hour” show was broadcast on Radio Bucharest and they were already famous. The radio show only added to their widespread celebrity. The “Funny Hour” made history in the Romanian Radio broadcasting and the success of this program has remained indisputable”.

N. Stroe was actually a nickname. His real name was Stroe Nacht, the actor belonging to the Jewish community of Racaciuni, Bacau County, where he was born on May 5th,1905. Oana Georgescu told us more about the early days of the friendship binding comedians Stroe and Vasilache:

Oana Georgescu: “Vasilache was 2 years younger than Stroe. He was born on October 26th,1907 in the town of Husi, in Vaslui county and was killed in the bombings of April 4th,1944. He died very young. They made a good team, which was the key to their huge success. They were both actors and directors. They wrote the scripts together, although N. Stroe seemed to be more talented, a gift he passed on to his son, Eugen Nacht Stroe, who wrote a book about his father called ‘Applauses’.”

In 1940, when the persecution of Jews started in Romania, actors Stroe and Vasilache were banned from appearing on stage together. However, they continued to write and compose music together for the radio show “The Funny Hour”. On stage, N. Stroe performed at the “Baraseum” Jewish theater and Vasile Vasilache continued to appear in shows staged at the “Carabus” and “Alhambra” Variety Theaters in Bucharest. Unfortunately, in April 1944, the comedy duo and friendship broke up with the untimely death of Vasile Vasilache in a bomb raid. N. Stroe continued to perform on stage and to direct variety theater shows. He also featured on his own in the radio show “The Funny Hour”, each time performing the signature tune that made the pair famous. In 1977 he settled with his family in Israel, where he died in Tel Aviv in 1990.

His son, Eugen Stroe, also an actor, has recently published the biography of his father as part of a tribute show staged at the “Constantin Tanase” Variety Theater in Bucharest. The show “The Funny Hour” underwent numerous changes along along the years, aired under different names and featuring different hosts. It was called at various times “Famous Comedians on the Microphone”, “Radio-Magazine”, “Satire and Humor on the Microphone” and “The Funny Wave”, and is as popular today as it was back when Stroe and Vasilache first launched it.

The Gambrinus beerhouse used to gather the entire bohemia of Bucharest and not only. It was the perfect place for a perceptive writer like Ion Luca Caragiale to observe the Bucharesters’ typical habits and ridicule them in his short stories. But that was not the only reason why Caragiale included the beerhouse in his writings. He was the owner of Gambrinus for a couple of years, when in urban Romania beer consumption was growing by the day. The historian Dan Falcan with the History Museum in Bucharest will now be introducing us into the atmosphere of that time.

Dan Falcan: ”Romanians have started drinking beer quite recently, as they usually drank wine and plum brandy. It was not until the second half of the 19th century, after the period between 1860 and 1870, that the beer drinking habit gained ground in Romania. The most famous place for drinking beer in Bucharest was Carul cu Bere- in English the Beer Wagon Pub, which at the time was owned by two brothers from Transylvania. In late 19th century the Gambrinus beerhouse was located right near the National Theater, which was built in 1852. Today in its place there stands the main building of a private TV station. The Gambrinus beerhouse was the favorite place of the actors of the National Theater. Across the beerhouse there was the “Timpul” newspaper’s editorial office, where great classical Romanian writers, such as the poet Mihai Eminescu and the playwright Ion Luca Caragiale worked. “

It was not Caragiale’s first attempt to turn a pub into a moneymaking business. Yet he never succeeded. However, he never gave up his passion for being owner of beerhouses or restaurants. He even liked to tend bar. Here is the historian Dan Falcan again with details about when and how Caragiale bought the “Gambrinus” beerhouse:

Dan Falcan: ”Caragiale took it over from the former owner whose identity we don’t know. That was Caragiale’s second attempt to make it in the field. He opened the “Gambrinus” beerhouse in October 1901. Gambrinus had a competitor at the time, the Beer Wagon Pub, which was a hot spot for Bucharesters and which eventually became Bucharest’s top beerhouse and Romania’s most famous one. A bad management will only result in failure, so Gambrinus got in the hands of other people who were better managers and it remained a beerhouse until after WWII, when the Gambrinus brand was transferred to a different location on Elisabeta boulevard in Bucharest. “

The former Gambrinus beerhouse was brought down between the world wars and a block of flats was erected in its stead named Adriatica after the construction company that built it, which still stands today.

The Romanian Peasant Museum, which in the inter-war period was known as the Main Road Museum, is located in the northern side of the capital city Bucharest, close to the Romanian Government headquarters in the Victory Square. The Museum was set up owing to the efforts of one man, art historian Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcas. The month of April is twice connected to his name, because he was born in April 1872 and he died the same month 80 years later. He was born into an old boyar family and he attended university in Germany, benefiting from a scholarship granted by writer Alexandru Odobescu. In Germany he studied the history of art and returned to Romania obsessed with the idea of setting up a folk art museum. Ethnologist Aurelia Duma tells us more about him.

Aurelia Duma: “In 1906 he took his first step towards fulfilling his dream, as he was appointed Head of the Museum of Ethnography, National Art, Decorative Art and Industrial Art. It was the start of a period of great efforts — that covered the entire inter-war period, until his retirement — devoted to finding a location worthy of a museum. The museum was initially housed in the old Mint’s headquarters, in a small 3-room space. Finding the money for the construction of an entirely new building for the museum was quite difficult. But Tzigara-Samurcas never gave up his dream and in 1912 the construction of what would be the future Main Road Museum kicked off. The museum included a series of important collections. Tzigara-Samurcas gathered the items to be exhibited observing the model of European museums, which he had visited. He started from the idea of gathering together each and every important collection from throughout Romania and buying new items as well. So he went to all regions in Romania and collected objects he considered worth being exhibited in his museum. Another important achievement was the relocation of the Mogos House from the Ceauru village, in the Gorj County, to his museum in Bucharest. Later, the Mogos House became part of the Village Museum but the Romanian Peasant Museum eventually brought it back to the place where Tzigara-Samurcas thought it fitted best.“

In the meantime, Tzigara-Samurcas had become head of the Carol I Foundation and professor of art history and aesthetics with the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest. In 1938 he was appointed a correspondent-member of the Romanian Academy, but the Main Road Museum remained his greatest passion.

Aurelia Duma: “The difficulties he faced in finding the money to build the museum affected his health. He got seriously ill before the war started, but he managed to postpone retirement. In spite of his opposition, he had to retire in 1938, but a royal decree kept him in charge of the museum until the construction was completed. His professional activity was hindered after the war, when he did no longer enjoy the support he was used to. As of 1946, although still an honorary director of the museum, most decisions were taken without him being consulted. Therefore, at the age of 76, Tzigara-Samurcas was removed from his position as head of the museum. He was also forced to leave his house located in the museum’s proximity, and which is today known as the Samurcas House. Under these circumstances, his health problems aggravated. Seriously ill and humiliated by those around him, Tzigara-Samurcas died on April 1st, 1952 and was buried at the Bellu Cemetery.”

Seized by the Communists, the Main Road Museum became a Folk Art Museum in 1990 and was later renamed as the Peasant Museum. Today it is one of the most popular cultural venues in Bucharest.

Last summer, construction works on the Deva-Lugoj segment of the A1 highway in western Romania produced unexpected results: the biggest necropolis belonging to a cultural group dating back to the Bronze Age was unearthed. More specifically, it is the so–called Balta Sarata group in Timis County, in the northeastern part of the Banat region.

Florin Drasovean, an archaeologist with the Banat Museum in Timisoara has further details on those important archaeological finds: “Research was carried out in Paru, near the town of Lugoj last summer. Actually, the works were not carried out on the segment of the highway, but on the belt road linking it to the town of Lugoj. We needed some time to process, from an archaeological and scientific point of view, all the materials we had discovered in more than 500 complexes in that area. I want to make it clear from the very beginning that these rescue research works have been financially supported by the Transport Ministry, which has made available funds for this research. Actually, all discoveries have been made due to the large-scale works on the highway segment in Timis County. “

The Balta Sarata group was discovered and documented as early as 2004, and this recent discovery brings, as was expected, new information on the lifestyle of those who belonged to that culture.

Archaeologist Florin Drasovean has further details: “50 incineration tombs have been discovered as well as over 20 large-sized dwellings which belong to the group that bears the name of Balta Sarata, and which can be traced back to 1600- 1200 BC. This site in Paru, is illustrative of the last stage in the evolution of that culture, more specifically between 1300 and 1200 BC. Why is this discovery so important? First of all, this is the biggest necropolis of that culture. Thanks to the recent finds, experts could prove what funeral rites of the time looked like. So far, we could only presume how they unfolded, based on other discoveries made in that geographical area. We have come to the conclusion that those belonging to this culture, used to practice incineration. The deceased was laid on a funeral table surrounded by firewood used to burn the corpse. In the meantime a funeral party was held, attended by all the friends and family of the deceased. Proof thereof are a series of pots discovered in graves where the leftovers of those parties were thrown together with bone parts and bits and pieces of the altar-table. All this was thrown into the grave. In turn, the graves were clustered according to certain criteria. We believe they were placed next to one another if the departed belonged to the same family or clan. Moreover, pottery was also found here, both in the settlement as well as inside the necropolis, proving the ties the Balta Sarata group had with the neighbouring geographical regions. There have also been documented ties with other cultures co-existing in the same period in the Middle Danube basin, in Serbia, Croatia and Hungary. Moreover, historians have also established the existence of ties with the Darla Mare culture in southern Romania”.

The pottery found together with other objects found in the necropolis in Paru, have been for the most part restored. They are now stored at the Banat Museum of Timisoara. Soon they will be put on view, and visitors will be able to find out more about the Balta Sarata culture in the monograph that is currently being written.

Historian Dan Falcan tells us more about its owners, the Chrissoveloni family: “Chrissoveloni Bank had a century-old tradition in Romania. The founder of this banking and industrial empire was a Greek, Zannis Chrissoveloni. He started his business in 1830 in Constantinople. Later, in 1848, he moved to the Romanian Principalities, where he set up a bank and an export company in Galati. His operations gradually developed, and he opened several branches in Braila and Bucharest. In 1881 his bank merged with another bank, and in 1889 we already had the Chrissoveloni Bank in Bucharest. The business had been taken over by the founder’s son, Nicolas Chrissoveloni.”

Over the years, the bank thrived, growing into one of Romania’s chief banks. Meanwhile, the family also invested in real estate, industry and agriculture.

According to historian Dan Falcan, this boom occurred especially after World War One: “After World War One, the business was run by Jean and Dumitru, particularly Jean, although he died at only 46 years of age. He is the one who built the now famous office building in Lipscani. The architect was the great G.M. Cantacuzino, and the style is late Renaissance. The building is splendid, indeed. Unfortunately, the economic crisis of 1929 came. Since the family was involved in a lot of real estate and industrial deals, they experienced cash shortages, and as the Romanian and world economy collapsed, the bank started having problems. During the management of Jean Chrissoveloni, the family business had spread around Europe. They had offices in Paris, London, in Athens, and in New York. They had bought land in Romania, Greece, Macedonia.”

In designing the Chrissoveloni building, architect G. M. Cantacuzino worked with August Schmiedigen. Inaugurated in 1928, the building resembles an impressive Florentine palazzo. The economic crisis, which started only one year later, severely hit the bank. But thanks to the administrative skills of its managers, it made it through, and did so quite honorably.

Here is historian Dan Falcan again: “Unfortunately, Jean Chrissoveloni had died in 1926. His son, Nicky, went into business at an early age. He was born in 1909, and when the crisis began, he was a student at Oxford. He returned to Romania only in 1931, and that very year, at the age of 22, he joined the board of directors, and in 1936 became chairman of the board. During the crisis the bank was headed by Dimitrie Ghica, and his approach was faultless. The family made desperate efforts to avoid going bankrupt. Nicky Chrissoveloni put his personal wealth at stake. He paid withdrawal claims from his own money, he reduced the share capital by 250 million lei, he covered 95% of the customers’ claims. So in 1934, although substantially weakened, Chrissoveloni bank was declared sound and viable by the National Bank of Romania. It took a lot of sacrifice, but they managed to save the bank.”

Under Nicky Chrissoveloni’s management, the bank regained its reputation and leading position in the Romanian banking system. This Romanian financial institution was actually so strong, that on June 3rd, 1948, the bank’s annual report for 1947 indicated profits of 2 billion lei. This did not prevent the communists from nationalizing it 8 days later. Nicky Chrissoveloni was arrested shortly after, and after 1960 he and his family left the country for Greece. The building on Lipscani street was renovated several years ago, and today it is a landmark of the capital city’s financial center.

Together with Aurel Vlaicu and Henry Coanda, Traian Vuia is one of the pioneers who shaped the aeronautic history of Romania in early 20thCentury. The three men are all known to have invented, tested and flown aircraft. Vuia became the first Romanian who tried to fly a machine he had built himself on March the 18th1906 in Montesson, near Paris. For a long time he was known as the first pilot of a heavier-than-air flying machine. Although some still continue to believe in this story, we know today that it was a myth put up by the communist propaganda structure, as Vuia was a well-known communist sympathizer. And in order to learn the truth we have to pay attention to the reaction triggered back then by his attempt to take off in a heavier-than-air flying machine.

A lawyer by profession, Vuia lacked any technical training, but his great passion for engines and mechanics eventually paid off, allowing him to come up with several inventions in aeronautics and other fields. In 1905 he completed his first plane, Vuia One, also known as “The Bat”, which he tested himself on the field of Montesson. After running for 50 meters, the plane went up one meter hovering only 12 meters because the engine wasn’t strong enough to take it higher. As aviation historian Bernard Orna wrote back in 1956, Vuia One was hit by a gust of wind and got damaged at the impact with a tree.

In spite of the apparent failure, the local press and all eyewitnesses continued to show their support for the Romanian pioneer. The French Airclub’s magazine L’Aerophile, underlined the fact that the plane was able to take off and get airborne by itself, and needing neither a catapult nor a vehicle to pull it along the airfield. Vuia had to add more power to the engine and improve the plane’s controls. He bounced back from the first failures and came up with new projects, Vuia One Plus and Vuia Two, in 1907. He struggled to get airborne again in August and October that year but failed. However, his modest accomplishments won him acclaim from the eyewitnesses as well as from those who carried out similar projects after him. Another aviation pioneer, Brazilian Alberto Santos Dumont admitted that Vuia was a groundbreaker for the coming generations of airmen.

Traian Vuia gave up his experiments after the failures he had in 1906-1907, but returned to the airstrip a decade later, to test two helicopter prototypes, which also proved unsuccessful. The Romanian inventor had more success with a steam generator, which he patented in 1925 and is still in use in some power plants nowadays.

Traian Vuia wasn’t only an inventor and builder of flying machines; he also got involved in politics, actively supporting the interests of the Romanians from Banat and Transylvania, which belonged to Austria-Hungary at that time. Although a staunch supported of the union of the territories inhabited by the Romanians with the Kingdom of Romania, Vuia believed that unification without guarantees for the autonomy of Banat and Transylvania was not a feasible project. Discontented with the political developments in Romania, Vuia withdrew from the Romanian lobbying organizations in France, but he didn’t completely give up on politics. In the occupied France of 1943, Vuia founded the Romanian National Front, an antifascist organization linked to the French Resistance. Nearly 170 Romanians out of 14 thousand living in France under the Nazi occupation joined the Resistance, and the communist campaigner Olga Bancioc was executed in 1944. Vuia was one of those spoiled by the communist regime after the war, and he was known for being one of Prime Minister Petru Groza’s closest friends. He was accepted as a member of the Romanian Academy in 1946, at a time when the communist authorities exerted maximum pressure upon the state institutions. After the consolidation of the communist regime and after 44 years spent in the West, Vuia came back to Bucharest where he died in 1950 at the age of 78.