Romania and its Cultural Propaganda in Germany. 1930–1944

Abstract

There has as yet been no systematic study of Romanian cultural propaganda in Germany. This paper offers some first insights into the cultural policy of Romania both before and after the Munich Agreement and up to the end of the military alliance with the Third Reich in 1944. It is based on different books of applied geography and civilization about Romania that were published in Germany between 1930 and 1944, and it comes to the conclusion that in Germany hardly anything was known about Romania.
The cliché that was most widely spread was the one of "farmer". The Romanians themselves contributed to it.
After the Munich Agreement, the Romanian government tried to spread cultural propaganda. Between 1940 and 1944 the focus was on Transylvania. There was, however, no uniform concept. The books about Transylvania were often translated badly; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Propaganda had staff which was either not interested or badly prepared. The lectures about Romania which were held in Germany set the wrong priorities or delivered a picture of Romania which did not have much to offer in a cultural respect. The only institution which even with limited means actually succeeded in spreading Romanian culture in the Third Reich and presenting Romania as a brave and invaluable confederate in war was the Romanian Institute in Berlin, which was led by Sextil Puşcariu. As Puşcariu was a convinced legionnaire and probably keen on money and high positions as well as involved in dangerous political games, the institute got less and less money from Bucharest after 1941 and so its influence became restricted in cultural political questions. So an important instrument of Romanian cultural propaganda was taken out of service. On the whole, not only the propaganda of the thirties but also of the forties turned out to be a failure despite having some individual instances of success.