Famous People From Romania

Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889) is probably the best-known Romanian poet. Although his works have been translated in numerous languages(over 60 languages), there is that unique "flavor" of the native language, here Romanian languageHis poems embrace a large range of themes, from love and nature to history and social commentary. Famous poems include "Luceafãrul" ("Morning star"), "Mai am un singur dor" ("The boon that I still crave"), and the 5 "Scrisori" ("Epistles"). It is Romania’s most famous

Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) was a philosopher, a writer and one of the most interesting personalities of the century. At the age 21, he went to spend some time in India. It was there where he had the chance to see and study the Indian philosophy and yoga. His Ph.D. was entitled: "Yoga: an essay on the origins of the Indian mysticism", the first exhaustive study on yoga written by a Westerner.

Emil Cioran is one of the most eminent Romanian writers and philosophers in the present. Born in 1911, he graduated from the University of Bucharest in 1932 and became part of a group of enthusiastic and bright people that profoundly influenced the Romanian culture between the two world wars. In 1937 he studied in Paris and since 1947 he has only written in French. Among his best known works, are "Pe culmile disperãrii"("In dire despair"1934), "Lacrimi si Sfinţi"("Tears and Saints"1937), "Precis de decomposition" ("A manual on decomposition"1949), "Exercices d'admiration" ("Exercises of admiration"1985).

George Enescu (1881-1955) – When you hear the name George Enescu, you hear his music too. He is a famous Romanian musician involved in essentially all what music is about: he was violinist and pianist, composer, conductor and pedagogue. He played music, he composed it and he taught it too. In Enescu’s music there are influences from Johannes Brahms and the specific Romanian themes are also played with deep love blended with professional touch. He wrote chamber music: three violin sonatas, three piano sonatas, and two string quartets, but also orchestral works: three symphonies, two "Romanian rhapsodies", and an overture on Romanian folk themes. (Oedipe, 1936), a classy and refined opera is also Enescu’s creation. The artist represented the ideal for his generation of violinists and had a natural teaching gift which made him loved and appreciated.

Sergiu Celibidache (1912-1996) – His name is also linked to music. Celibidache had a vast experience in conducting orchestras. For seven years he was the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic (1945-1952). After that, in 1962 he conducted the Stockholm Radio Orchestra for the next 10 years until 1972); then the Stuttgart Orchestra (1972-1977) followed and the Munich Philharmonic had him as conductor for 17 years (1979-1996).

Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950) – Whith his name, you can already hear a beautiful piano song being played; yes Lipatty was an exceptionally gifted pianist on an international scale. Alfred Cortot a famous French composer had such a deep appreciation for Dinu Lipatti’s playing skills that he even resigned from the jury when, in an international competition, the jury awarded Lipatty only the second place. This way he protested against their decision of not having awarded Lipatti the first place.

Eugen Ionesco (1912-1994) – His life is linked to theatre. He is an artist recognized for his merits of having invented the theatre of the absurd, and also for his innovations brought to the dramatic techniques used in this field. His works render his vision on the individual’s struggle to survive in a society that isolates and alienates people. Some of his famous works are: "The Lesson", "The Chairs" and "The Rhinoceros".

Here is a quote from the Brittanica: "In its most famous scene, two strangers who are exchanging banalities about how the weather is faring, where they live, and how many children they have stumble upon the astonishing discovery that they are indeed man and wife; it is a brilliant example of Ionesco's recurrent themes of self-estrangement and the difficulty of communication."

Henri Coandă (1886-1972) - The Bucharest-born inventor of the jet plane. On the December 14th, 1910 he performed the first jet propelled flight in the world, with a plane he himself built, powered by a jet propulsion motor. He discovered the so called "Coandă effect" back in 1934 and this breakthrough has numerous practical appliances in diverse fields.

Herman Oberth – although he is a Romanian from Sibiu –where he was born on 25 of June 1894 - Orbert spent most part of his life in another country, in Germany. Rocket design is where he left a significant mark, but, his ideas, like those of his peers Robert Goddard in the US and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in Russia, were way ahead of their time and when Oberth tried to get a Ph.D. at the University of Heidelberg on the subject of rocket design, he did not succeed. Later Oberths book "The Rocket into Interplanetary Space"(1923), which explained how rockets could escape Earth's gravitational pull, finally gained him widespread recognition. the Romanian Patent Office awarded Oberth a patent for inventing a liquid-propellant rocket in 1931 . His first rocket was launched on May 7, 1931, near Berlin.