Erich Winterhalder

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Erich Winterhalder ( Romanian also " Eric " and incorrectly " Enric ", * 1808 in Vienna ; † 1889 in Kritzendorf ) was an Austrian liberal economist , journalist and publisher who settled in Bucharest , where he actively participated in the Romanian Revolution of 1848 and held important offices in the reign of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza . From 1865 to 1866 he was the first President of the Romanian CEC Bank .

Life

Erich Winterhalder grew up in Vienna during the Biedermeier period and in 1829, at the age of 20, went to the Principality of Wallachia, where a new modern army was built up under Alexandru II Ghica after the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 . He became an officer and made a military career in the Wallachian service until 1833. He then stayed in Bucharest and became a professor of art history at the Conservatory, which existed there until 1837 . He made the acquaintance of Constantin Alexandru Rosetti , a liberal-minded writer from a Phanariotic family. The two became friends and opened a bookshop in Bucharest in 1840 and a printing company in 1845 under the name " Rosetti & Winterhalder ". When the revolution of 1848 also spread to Bucharest, the printing works of the two, who belonged to the radical wing of the revolutionaries, played an important role. There the proclamations of the revolutionary committee were printed. In addition, Winterhalder put his military experience at the service of the revolution and took an active part in the fighting. His colleague Rosetti was one of the first to be arrested. Prince Gheorghe Bibescu was asked by the insurgents to take their side, but the latter refused, but he did not fight them either. On June 9, 1848, the Islaz proclamation was issued. It was then submitted to the prince, who accepted the resolution on June 11th. As a result, large parts of the nobility and clergy revolted and the prince was forced to leave on June 13th . / June 25, 1848 greg. to abdicate, to leave the country and go to Transylvania , later to Paris. A provisional government came to power. Rosetti was released and appointed chief of police. The new government granted Winterhalder Wallachian citizenship in gratitude for his support, but the situation turned around in the autumn. On September 13, bloody fighting broke out between the revolutionary militia and Ottoman troops rushed over at the request of Russia. Winterhalder was arrested shortly afterwards in October 1848 and remained under arrest until 1849. The new moderate government under Prince Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei finally sent him into exile in 1852.  

After the end of the Crimean War , in which Wallachia was first occupied by Russian troops and from 1854 by Austrian and Turkish troops, Winterhalder returned to Bucharest in 1857. His friend Rosetti returned from exile in Paris that same year and the two founded the radical liberal newspaper Românul . He also worked for the newspaper Contemporanul . He wrote columns in which he called for a liberal capitalist development of the Romanian economy, which should be shaped by the modernization of agriculture and with the help of foreign capital on the French model. He also advocated the introduction of its own national currency.

In 1859 the two Danube principalities were finally united to form the Principality of Romania, long-awaited by the Liberals and Nationalists . The new Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza brought Winterhalder into his cabinet in 1860 and appointed him director and general secretary of the Ministry of Finance, an office he held until 1862. During this time he modernized the accounting and internal organization of the ministry. In 1865 a new state savings bank was founded under his leadership, the " Casa de Depuneri si Consemnatiuni " (CPC), of which he became the first president. However, when Prince Cuza was overthrown in 1866 and Romania was proclaimed a kingdom under the Hohenzoller King Charles I , he withdrew from all political offices.

In 1869, Winterhalder finally left Romania and returned to Austria. This was also possible because in 1867, as part of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, all participants in the 1848 revolution, in which Winterhalder had indirectly sided with the opponents of his home country, had been amnestied. In 1889 he died near Vienna in Kritzendorf, now part of Klosterneuburg . The savings bank he founded still exists today and is now the oldest bank in Romania that still exists.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Google Books: Romanian review, Issues 7-12 , "Romania", 1983, p. 84
  2. ↑ George Făgărăşan: România o sută de ani de dezvoltare (1848-1948) , Editura Democrația, 2002, p. 85
  3. ↑ Preferatele.com: Curente economice în România (Romanian)
  4. ↑ Keith Hitchins: "Românii, 1774-1866", Humanitas Publishing House, Bucharest, 2004, p. 212f
  5. ↑ Enciclopedia României: Eric Winterhalder (Romanian)
personal data
SURNAME Winterhalder, Erich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Winterhalder, Eric (Romanian); Winterhalder, Enric (wrongly)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-Romanian liberal economist, journalist and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 1889
Place of death Kritzendorf