Search

The author starts from a study by Maria Fanache and Ilse Fels about Sibiu writers in the years of the „people's democracy,'' i.e. the period around 1960. The outlook and the stylistic structure were typical of socialist realism, while the criteria for the selection of the Romanian and German writers discussed were those of belles-letters adapted to propaganda purposes. The present paper rounds off the convenient aspects of the literature of the timewith a series of aspects that had been kept silent or ignored for the sake of avoiding confrontation with certain factual contradictionswhich the socio-political changes of the „people's democratic'' dictatorship had brought about. In the summer of 1956, the state authorities considered a private literary meeting of over twenty persons an action meant to subvert the official ideology, an attempt to commit a conspiracy, and, later, some of those present came under investigation and served severe prison sentences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu the surviving pieces of the late Gothic altar retable from Groβprobstdorf (Târnava) are preserved and partly exhibited. The two outer wing pieces of this retable show some remarkable features. The one depicting a scene of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian is part of one of the most prominent traditions of medieval and post-medieval hagiography; this saint and depictions of him also play an important role in sacral art that forms a reaction on the Plague. The second retable depicts the nowadays less known motif of the martyrdom of Saint Achatius. It will be shown, that both retables can be connected to a contemporary outbreak of the Plague in Transilvania, and that it seems very probable that this ensemble forms a direct reaction and response to this outbreak of the Plague. Evidence is brought here in the form of contemporary pamphlets which make use of exactly the same ensemble of Sebastian and Achatius. In the second part of this contribution, the case of the "crypto-portraits" of Vlad the Impaler and the depiction belonging to this group on the Sebastian-retable of Groβprobstdorf will be discussed and brought into context. An answer to the question whether we see a depiction of Vlad on this and the other crypto-portraits will be attempted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author Hansgeorg von Killyen's research on documents relating to the medical care system and doctors' associations in Sibiu, Transylvania, Romania, from 1910-1920. The German minority in that region were major contributors to the health care apparatus, and their records indicate that the city had high quality medical care that became a model for the rest of Romania in the first half of the 20th century. The reserach took into account hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, and charitable associations.

The article discusses European Enlightenment influences on the growth of scientific research and the natural sciences in Sibiu, Romania, during the closing decades of the 18th century. Partly influenced by the work of the Swedish botanist Carl Linné, as well as activities of the freemasons, and under the influence of Sibiu's integration into the Habsburg Monarchy, the region became an area of scientific research interest, particularly for studies in mineralogy and botany under the encouragement of the governor Samuel von Brukenthal.

The article discusses the influence of German Saxons on Transylvania, Romania. Saxon settlements in the Sibiu regional municipalities known in German as "Siebenbürgen" ("Seven Fortified Towns") are traced to the 15th century. Names of a number of cities and towns in the region are traced to Saxon dialects and hence German founders and original settlers. Descendants, names, and remnants of that German culture and community still existing in the capital city of Bucharest, Romania, are remarked upon.