Constantin Sănătescu

Constantin Sanatescu

Constantin Sănătescu (born January 14, 1885 in Craiova , † November 8, 1947 in Bucharest ) was a Romanian general and after the royal coup of 1944 temporary prime minister of Romania.

Life

Sănătescu was born as the son of the Romanian general Gheorghe Sănătescu (1858-1942). He graduated from the military academy in Bucharest in 1907. From 1910 he was employed as an instructor at the cavalry school in Târgovişte . In the Second Balkan War in 1913 he fought against Bulgaria . In the First World War he took part in the rank of captain .

After the war he attended the Higher War School in Bucharest, which he graduated in 1920. In the interwar period he served as a military attaché in Paris and London and in the operations department of the General Staff. In 1930 he took over the cavalry regiment as a colonel and in 1935, after being promoted to brigadier general , a cavalry brigade in Chernivtsi . In 1937 he was appointed deputy chief of staff. During the Iron Guard revolt in January 1941, he was the military commander of the capital.

When Romania entered the war against the Soviet Union in 1941, he commanded the IV Army Corps, with which he was used in the Battle of Odessa and in 1942 in the Battle of Stalingrad . As the successor to Constantin Constantinescu-Claps , he took over the remains of the 4th Army in February 1943 , which he led back home.

In March 1943 he became chief of the royal military staff, in spring 1944 he was palace marshal. In this role he was a driving force behind the royal coup d'état of August 23, 1944, which eventually led to Romania's change of sides. In the coalition government formed by the National Democratic Bloc on the same day, he took over the post of Prime Minister, at times he also headed the economic and finance department. During the cabinet reshuffle in November 1944, he also became Minister of War. At the beginning of December 1944 he resigned in favor of Nicolae Rădescu and then took over the post of Chief of Staff and, after the end of the war, that of the inspector of the armed forces .

After the end of the war, his health and career went downhill. He finally died on November 8, 1947, of lung cancer.

Sănătescu's diary, which covers the period from 1937 until his death, was published in 1993.

Works

• Jurnalul generalului Sănătescu , Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 1993. ISBN 973-28-0381-9

literature

• Rolf-Dieter Müller: At the side of the Wehrmacht: Hitler's foreign helpers in the »Crusade against Bolshevism« 1941–1945 . Ch. Links Verlag 2007, ISBN 978-3-86153-448-8 .

Web links

• Short biography on humanitas.ro