(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Transilvania is a myth. Especially when one has not been there before, this area in the northwest of Romania is primarily associated with vampires and Count Dracula. Arriving at the airport in Transilvania's largest city of Cluj, the myth is kept alive through the sale of lots of Dracula nips: small Dracula busts, Dracula chocolates, Dracula soft drinks and Dracula jerseys.
It is not until the taxi into town that the imaginations are shaken off. On both sides of the road are miles of prosaic apartment blocks built under the Ceaus¸escu regime, as urbanization began in earnest. There is little doubt that it is cheap in Cluj. The taxi ride from the airport into the city, a trip of just over 11 kilometers, costs in the local currency 30 tired – about 60 Norwegian kroner.
The university city. Despite the fact that Cluj is a small town with around 300 inhabitants, the university has around 000 students in total. This gives the city a youthful feel. By comparison, two million people live in the capital, Bucharest. I visit Sanda Tomescu Baciu, professor of Norwegian literature at the University of Cluj. The department she heads has Romania's largest contingent of Norwegian students. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that Baciu has done a great job of building up the Nordic study in Cluj over the past 90 years. The department now has about 000 Norwegian students, a number that outperforms several universities and colleges in Norway.
The university was founded in 1872. Cluj was then in the Hungarian area of the double-monarchy Austria-Hungary, which collapsed in 1918. A new university was founded with a different name after World War II, when Cluj was incorporated in Romania. From 1959 it was called Babes¸-Bolyai University, which is a merger of the Romanian and Hungarian University. The Hungarians dominated the city economically and culturally in the interwar period, and the majority of the population was Hungarian until the 1960s. After industrial building and population growth during Ceaus¸escu, Cluj became mainly Romanian, and the Hungarians now make up less than 20 percent of the population. There are clear ethnic tensions between Romanians and Hungarians. These were reinforced by the Romanian mayor Gheorge Funar, who in the period 1992-2004 was notorious for his ethnic provocations against the Hungarians. This situation has now improved.
Here, Norwegian is incredibly a very popular subject. Why? It depends on who you ask. Students may have spotted Norway through Norwegian music, others study Norwegian because it is exotic – it is very different from Romanian, a Romance language that has great similarities with Spanish and Portuguese.
Some of the popularity is probably also due to the fact that Norway actively promotes Norwegian research fellows from abroad. Through so-called EEA scholarships and Norway Grants, significant support has been given to the new members of the EU. These EEA scholarships are around 1000 euros a month. This amount can be lived on in Norway with a cry of distress, says Professor Baciu, in contrast to the Erasmus scholarships, which are only about 400 euros. Another important exchange opportunity is the summer schools. The Romanians complain that the summer school in Bergen is now threatened with closure.
It is a bit unbelievable that a fire can cause a regime change.
Norwegian romance abounds among the students, but they actually also get good jobs with a niche language such as Norwegian. Some work for various companies at so-called call centers in Romania where Norwegian-language customer service is needed. But Norwegian is probably also popular due to the extensive labor emigration. Unemployment in Romania is not higher than in many other EU countries, but the wage level is much lower. Romania has been a member of the EU since 2007. A Romanian engineer sitting next to me on the plane back claims that a craftsman can earn four times as much in Spain for the same job. Why then work in Romania? he asks. He himself is on his way to a job in Saudi Arabia.
Change of government. We are talking about the tragic fire at the nightclub in Bucharest on October 30, which ended with the overthrow of the Prime Minister. It is a bit unbelievable that a fire can cause a regime change. The nightclub Colectiv had broken the fire regulations. A nightclub owner posted an open letter on Facebook about how easy it was to get a nightclub license, and how superficial the inspections were. Soon, people in the streets demonstrated and accused the corruption in the political system of lax enforcement of security requirements. This ended in the overthrow of Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who is accused of fraud, tax evasion and money laundering. The tragedy at Colectiv would not have led to a change of government if there had not been a persistent dissatisfaction with Ponta and his government. This is a good example of the water drop that causes the cup to overflow. A newly hired Norwegian lecturer at the University of Cluj, Marthe Reffhaug, has been in Transylvania for a few months, and tells me that she has talked a lot with her students about what has happened in the wake of the nightclub fire. One of the students said: "It is as if the Romanian population has been asleep since 1989, and now we are waking up."
Saxon head of state. My talkative sidekick on the plane explains that Bucharest is not in Transylvania, and that there are two different cultures. While Transylvania was subject to Austria-Hungary, Bucharest has a completely different tradition, and was under the Ottoman Empire. This has led to a different culture in the two regions of present-day Romania. In Transilvania, people behave properly – "we follow the rules", says my fellow passenger. In Romania facing the Black Sea, on the other hand, there is a culture of corruption that goes back to the Turks and the Ottoman Empire. What he does not mention is that Transylvania was also subject to the Ottoman Empire until the beginning of the 18th century. I get suspicious, but let him hold on. Right now he recommends Romanian wines, and I ask him to write down the name: Feteasca Neagra 2007, one of the many wines of the brand Beciul Domnesc. The wine is admittedly not produced in Transylvania, but in Romania's largest wine district Vancrea in the southeast. But he is willing to make an exception in this case.
Could he think of Transylvania as an independent state, I ask innocently when he takes a break to catch his breath. He nods eloquently and secretively, and confides in me that he comes from Sibiu, in German Hermannstadt, a town south of Cluj with about 150 inhabitants. Like Cluj, it was founded by the Saxons. I get the impression that he professes a kind of Saxon identity. And of course: The new president that the people now trust after the nightclub fire is from the same city as my fellow passenger. Klaus Johannis, born in 000, was elected mayor of Sibiu in 1959, despite the fact that the German population in the city was less than two percent. The so-called Siebenbürger Saxons are the oldest German population group in Eastern Europe, and are located in the area around Sibiu / Hermannstadt, which is called Siebenbürgen. Most have now emigrated – there are only around 2004 left. The people retained their power until Romania became communist towards the end of World War II. Since then, it has rapidly declined with an ethnic group that managed to retain its identity for 15 years. From the mid-000s one can speak of a mass emigration of Germans. West Germany bought Romanian Germans for DM 850 each. After the borders were opened in 70, most of the remaining Germans left the country. It is therefore a bit of a paradox that an ethnic group that has lost in size and influence is now represented by the head of state in Romania. While the Germans in 10 were the largest ethnic group in Hermannstadt, there are now over 000 Romanians and less than 1989 Germans in the city. My informant is Romanian, but still enthusiastic about Johannis: "We follow the rules!"
The prince's mythology. The Germans have emigrated, while the English royal family, on the other hand, has consolidated its position: Prince Charles' great-grandmother was from Transylvania. "Transylvania is in my blood," the prince said in an interview. The Mihai Eminescu Trust Foundation – named after the famous Romanian poet of the same name – was created as early as Ceaus¸escu, helping academics smuggle in books and magazines. After 1989, the foundation's purpose was to take care of the Saxon villages. Prince Charles bought a house the foundation had restored in Viscri province as early as 2006, and is actively working to raise money for several projects. He believes Transilvania has integrated the natural ecosystem into a man-made, cultural system. Charles also fights to preserve the forest areas of Transylvania, which are some of the last pristine wilderness areas in Europe.
Prince Charles often boasts that he is descended from Vlad Tepes (1431–76), who was the model for Bram Stokers Dracula. Mythology lives on in more peaceful forms.
Tjønneland is Dr. philos. and regular writer in Ny Tid.
e-tjoenn@online.no
