The Formation and Allegiance of the Romanian Military Elite Originating from the Banat Military Border Ph.D. Thesis Ph.D. Candidate: Irina Marin Supervisors: Professor Dennis Deletant Dr Zoran Milutinović University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies 2009 1 I, Irina Marin, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Abstract The present thesis examines the formation and loyalties of the Romanian officers originating from the Banat Military Border who reached the rank of general in the Austro-Hungarian army between 1870 and 1918. As such, it covers an important blind spot in English-, German-, and Romanian-language historiography as, on the one hand, it contributes a multiple case study, based on extant personal testimonies, to the historical literature on the Habsburg officer corps and, on the other hand, it validates and brings together into a coherent narrative the snippets of historical evidence invoked in Romanian bibliography on the topic. The thesis goes beyond the above-indicated time span and follows the development of the Banat Military Border from its establishment in the eighteenth century to its dissolution at the end of the nineteenth century. Particular emphasis is placed on the formative environment of the military elites under discussion, whether this means historical or legal precedent, official stereotypes, or community identity and symbolism. The Border generals are presented in their relationships to the state (in its various instantiations), the army and civil authorities, as well as in their relations with the Romanian intelligentsia of the Empire. The main goal of the thesis is to account for their sense of identity and allegiance: who were these generals? to whom were they loyal? 3 Table of Contents Page Number 1. Introduction (cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133).(cid:133)(cid:133). 9 2. Imperial and National Literature on the Banat Military Border (cid:133)(cid:133).. 42 3. Conceptual Framework (cid:133)...(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)...76 4. Romanians in Imperial Discourse(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)...95 5. The Romanian Military Elite of the Banat Military Border(cid:133).(cid:133)...(cid:133). 129 6. Military Elite Status within a Social-Cultural Context (cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)..(cid:133)(cid:133)...163 7. Professions of Allegiance (I): GM Trajan Doda (cid:133)..(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)...189 8. Professions of Allegiance (II): GM Michael von Trapsia, FML Nikolaus Cena, GM Alexander Lupu(cid:133)(cid:133)..(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133).(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)...218 9. Romanian Border Generals Between the Imperial and the National Army (cid:133)..(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)....(cid:133)(cid:133)..258 10. Conclusions(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)..(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133).(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)..302 11. Appendices (cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)..(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133).312 4 Abbreviations of primary sources OeStA (cid:214)sterreichisches Staatsarchiv (Austrian State Archives, Vienna) KA Kriegsarchiv (War Archives, Vienna) KM Pr(cid:228)s Kriegsministerium Pr(cid:228)sidium MKSM Milit(cid:228)r Kanzlei Seiner Majest(cid:228)t des Kaisers K(cid:220)A (MK/KM) Kriegs(cid:252)berwachungsamt HHStA Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv MAE Arhiva Ministerului Afacerilor Externe (The Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bucharest) ANIC Arhivele Naţionale Istorice Centrale Bucureşti (The Central Historical National Archives, Bucharest) ANCS Arhivele Naţionale Caraş-Severin (Caraş-Severin National Archives, Caransebeş) ANCN Arhivele Naţionale Cluj-Napoca (Cluj-Napoca National Archives) ANS Arhivele Naţionale Sibiu (Sibiu National Archives) ANBN Arhivele Naţionale Bistriţa-Năsăud (Bistriţa-Năsăud National Archives) ANT Arhivele Naţionale Timiş (Timiş National Archives, Timişoara) PRO formerly the Public Record Office, now The National Archives, London 5 Military and historical abbreviations FM (cid:150) Feldmarschall FZM - Feldzeugmeister FML (cid:150) Feldmarschalleutnant GM (cid:150) Generalmajor k.k. (cid:150) kaiserlich-k(cid:246)niglich (after 1867 used in reference to institutions pertaining to Cisleithania) k.u.k. (cid:150) kaiserlich und k(cid:246)niglich (after 1867 used in reference to the common institutions of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, with the exception of the army, which became k.u.k. after 1888) k.u. (cid:150) k(cid:246)niglich ungarisch (used in reference to Hungarian institutions post Ausgleich) Note on the use of place names and proper nouns For the sake of clarity, consistency, and historical accuracy I have made the following choices: (1) Given that the timespan of the present thesis does not go beyond 1918, I have opted for the spelling of place names which was in official use at the time (i.e. TemesvÆr instead of Timişoara, Hermannstadt instead of Sibiu). Where necessary, I provide in between brackets the Romanian or German counterpart. In quotations I retained the author(cid:146)s choice of spelling. In the case of Caransebeş, there being so many spelling variations (KarÆnsebes, Karansebes, Caransebes, Caransebesiu), I have chosen the most frequent spelling used by the Border Generals, i.e. Caransebes. (2) As regards the names of the generals under consideration, throughout this thesis I use the German spelling or, where documentary evidence is available, the spelling which they themselves used. The appended list of generals specifies all metamorphoses of their names, including their current Romanian spelling. 6 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors, Professor Dennis Deletant and Dr Zoran Milutinovic, Mr Trevor Thomas (SSEES), Professor Martyn Rady (SSEES), Colonel Liviu Groza, Dr Michael Hochedlinger (Kriegsarchiv Wien), Dr Antonio Schmidt- Brentano, Professor Şerban Papacostea (Institutul de Istorie Nicolae Iorga), Ms Renate Domnanich (Kriegsarchiv Wien), Ms Marijana Iosipović (Kriegsarchiv Wien), Dr Elisabeth Sch(cid:246)ggl-Ernst (Steierm(cid:228)rkisches Landesarchiv, Graz), Mrs Voichiţa Biţu (Astra Library, Sibiu, Romania), Dr Adrian Onofreiu (Bistriţa-Năsăud National Archives, Romania), Professor George Cipăianu (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Dr Ioan Ciupea (The History Museum of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca), Dr Virgil Ţ(cid:226)rău (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca), Dr Susan Morrissey (SSEES), Dr Felix Ciută (SSEES), Ms Eszter Tarsoly (SSEES), WO Martin Pickle (Wiener Neustadt Military Academy), Ms Maria Meitz (Wiener Neustadt Military Academy Library), Ms Sigrid Kampichler (Wiener Neustadt Military Academy Library), Professor Lothar H(cid:246)belt (Institut f(cid:252)r Geschichte, Universit(cid:228)t Wien), Mr Daniel Brett (SSEES), Mr Andrew Gardner (SSEES), General Major Dr Mihail Ionescu (Institute for Political and Defense Studies and Military History, Bucharest), Dr Sergiu Iosipescu (Institute for Political and Defense Studies and Military History, Bucharest), Professor Nicolae Bocşan (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca), Dr Sorin Mitu (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca), Dr Tibor Balla (Kriegsarchiv Wien), Dr Tamara Scheer (Institut f(cid:252)r Zeitgeschichte, Universit(cid:228)t Wien), Dr Karl Fischer (Magistrat der Stadt Wien Archiv), Dr Susanne Pils (Magistrat der Stadt Wien Archiv), the Raţiu Family Foundation, SSEES and UCL Graduate School. 7 Motto: The Unknown Citizen And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way. (To JS/07 M 378 Policies taken out in his name prove that This Marble Monument he was fully insured, Is Erected by the State) And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured. He was found by the Bureau of Statistics Both Producers Research and High-Grade to be Living declare One against whom there was no official He was fully sensible to the advantages of complaint, the Instalment Plan And all the reports on his conduct agree And had everything necessary to the That, in the modern sense of an old- Modern Man, fashioned word, he was a A phonograph, a radio, a car and a saint, frigidaire. For in everything he did he served the Our researchers into Public Opinion are Greater Community. content Except for the War till the day he retired That he held the proper opinions for the He worked in a factory and never got time of year; fired, When there was peace, he was for peace: But satisfied his employers, Fudge when there was war, he went. Motors Inc. He was married and added five children Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views, to the population, For his Union reports that he paid his Which our Eugenist says was the right dues, number for a parent of his generation. (Our report on his Union shows it was And our teachers report that he never sound) interfered with their education. And our Social Psychology workers Was he free? Was he happy? The found question is absurd: That he was popular with his mates and Had anything been wrong, we should liked a drink. certainly have heard. The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day From Another Time by W. H. Auden 8 Chapter 1. Introduction The present Ph.D. thesis was initially meant to be an examination of inceptive Romanian national discourse. Such a topic had eventually to be qualified and narrowed down for two reasons: the sheer extent of the cultural and social space to be covered and, more importantly still, the heterogeneous nature of Romanian national discourse itself. With a few exceptions, present-day Romanian historiography presents a unitary, monolithic view of Romanians as a teleological national entity in an evolutionary movement of coalescence, converging slowly but surely towards a Romanian unitary state. Following the 1918 Union, whereby Transylvania, the Banat, Bukovina, and Bessarabia joined the existing Romanian state (formed in 1859 through the union of Wallachia and Moldavia), attempts were made to solidify the new political and state unity by stressing cultural commonalities (language, ancestry, etc.) and smoothing out administrative and institutional differences. Traditional Romanian history writing reflects this centripetal process of consolidation by sometimes anachronistically reading national awareness and purpose into events and characters(cid:146) actions that do not warrant this. What is not very often mentioned is that this apparently seamless unity has existed for less than one hundred years and that the present-day Romanian unitary state is the result of a conglomeration of provinces with widely divergent historical legacies and a complex pattern of loyalties. Of all the Romanian-inhabited territories that went into Greater Romania in 1918, I chose to stop at the Banat of TemesvÆr, the former Habsburg, and subsequently, Hungarian province, given its borderland location in relation to both its former as well as its current polity and, in particular, given the combination of 9 similarities and dissimilarities with Transylvania, the neighbouring province, which has received the lion(cid:146)s share of scholarly attention. While compiling the preliminary synopsis of historical literature on the Banat, I came across a number of contributions on the Banat Military Border. Its extraordinary social, administrative and even political peculiarities as well as its close connections with the imperial centre and the postulated staunch loyalty of the militarized population led me to further narrow down the scope of my thesis to focus on this part of the Banat. By virtue of this gradual process of bibliographical whittling down, I arrived at the final topic of my thesis: an examination of the process of identity and allegiance formation among the military elites of a community whose development has been relegated to the periphery of Romanian historiography as well as being underrepresented in other historiographies: the militarized population of the Banat Military Border. The present thesis will, therefore, provide an analysis of the genesis and loyalties of the Romanian military elite originating from this segment of the Austrian Military Border. For methodological purposes I have opted for a concept of military elite confined to the Romanian officers who reached the rank of General in the Austro-Hungarian army between 1870 and 1918. The notion of elite is defined here in a double sense: in reference to the military hierarchy, it designates the highly skilled, decorated and, in some cases, knighted Romanian officers promoted to important positions as part of the Austro-Hungarian military apparatus; in relation to the Romanian community out of which these officers emerged, the notion of elite refers to the educated and politically aware officers, who, on several occasions, became the mouthpiece of the community before the authorities and promoters of cultural and economic reform. 10