Timișoara; also known as Temeschburg since around 1920; also known as Temeschwar in Austria

around Timişoara

Hungarian: Temesvár; Serbian: Temišvar; Latin: castrum Tymes, castrum Tymesiensis

"Temesch" is the name of the main river in the Banat, whilst "-war" is the Germanised form of the Hungarian word vár (= castle).

Timișoara lies at 45° 45' north latitude, 21° 13' east longitude, in the south-east of the Pannonian Basin and the middle Danube region, at the junction of ancient trade routes from the Baltic Sea to the Aegean Sea and from the Adriatic Sea and Central Europe to the Black Sea.

Timișoara is situated at the transition from the ‘upper plain’ of the Banat – a loess-covered, Pleistocene alluvial fan of the Maros – to the once-amphibious ‘lower plain’, the very wide floodplain of the Timiș river system. The city developed at one of the few crossings over this river system, which it secured as a ‘castle’, that is, as a fortified town.

Timișoara was the capital of the historic region of Banat; today it is the centre of the Romanian part of that region.

Timişoara is the largest and most economically significant city in western Romania. It has been the capital of Timiş County (Judeţ Timiş) since 1968. In the run-up to Romania’s accession to the EU in 2007, it became the seat of the newly created ‘Development Region V West’, which belongs to the NUTS II level of the EU’s territorial administrative division. Timișoara is also the seat of a Romanian Orthodox metropolitan, a Roman Catholic bishop and a Serbian Orthodox bishop.

The town’s flag features a white or silver cross on a red background.
The coat of arms has existed since the town was granted the status of a royal free town, a status symbolised to this day by the seven-pointed mural crown on the shield. The shield is divided into three parts. The lower half shows the fortress on a green background with the River Bega flowing past; to the left above the fortress is the sun, and to the right the waning moon, symbolising the Habsburg victories over the Ottoman Empire. The upper half is divided vertically: until the end of the First World War, the left-hand side featured four horizontal silver bars on a red background, symbolising the four main rivers of the Banat. Since the interwar period – with the exception of the socialist era – a golden lion has stood guard over the silver Trajan’s Bridge on a red background. In the top right-hand corner is a water tower adorned with two city flags on a blue background. After 1989, the flag on the right was replaced by the symbol of the Romanian Revolution that had broken out in Timișoara at the time: the Romanian tricolour with a hole (the cut-out socialist coat of arms).
The Habsburg double-headed eagle with the insignia of Joseph II adorned the shield; after the First World War, it was replaced by the black-and-white quartered Hohenzollern coat of arms of the Romanian royal family.

The nickname‘Little Vienna’, which is still in use today, highlights the close ties between this Banat suburb – which was rebuilt from 1718 onwards – and the capital of the Habsburg Empire, as well as the parallels in the function, architecture and way of life of the two cities.

The city centre lies in a subsidence area and was frequently subjected to the ravages of war, with the result that archaeological remains were either buried or destroyed. It is only in the northern part of the city that limes-like structures can be found, which are attributed to the brief period of Roman rule in the Banat.

The town is first mentioned in an Arabic source in 1154. In 1177, a ‘comitatus Tymesiensis’ is referred to, suggesting the existence of an administrative centre in what would later become the region’s largest settlement. In 1212, a charter issued by Andrew II mentions a ‘castrum Tymes’, the location of which, however, is unknown. In 1266, the town is mentioned in a deed of donation by Stephen II; at that time, it had evidently existed for some time as a ‘castle’, that is, as a central, fortified settlement.

Between 1307 and 1315, Charles I Robert of Anjou had Timișoara converted into a fortress by Italian master builders; it served as his royal seat from 1315 to 1323. Several monasteries were founded; the Franciscan Pelbart of Timișoara (c. 1435–1504) became famous as a biblical commentator and preacher.

In 1394, Ottoman troops appeared before the city for the first time. Until its conquest in 1552, it frequently served as a staging post for campaigns against the Ottomans and was a cornerstone of the defence against the Turks. Timișoara gained great importance under John Hunyadi, who was appointed Count of Timiș in 1441 and served as Palatine of Hungary from 1446 to 1456. He rebuilt the city following an earthquake in 1443 and made it his headquarters. After his death during the Battle of Belgrade (1456), the city’s importance declined.

In 1514, the peasant uprising led by Georg Doscha (György Dózsa, Gheorghe Doja) was bloodily suppressed outside the walls of Timișoara. A chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary was later erected on the site where the leader was executed. During the reconquest campaigns against Vienna, which resumed in 1520 under Suleiman the Magnificent, Timișoara long served as a stable bulwark against the Turks. Whilst Belgrade (Beograd) fell in 1521, Mohács in 1526 and Buda in 1541, this marsh fortress could not be captured until 1552, following repeated sieges. Timișoara subsequently came under Ottoman rule for 164 years. On a par with Buda and Belgrade, the town was the capital of a pashalik, retained its central functions and was regarded by the Ottomans as a springboard for the conquest of Europe: ‘…‘Those who conquer Buda have gained a city, but those who conquer Timișoara have won a country’, went a Turkish proverb. In the wars of reconquest following 1683, the Habsburgs were unable to occupy the Ottoman fortress of Timișoara, unlike fortresses such as Belgrade (1688), Niš (1691) or Sarajevo (1697). Consequently, it remained part of the Ottoman Empire, along with its surrounding region – later known as the Banat – even under the Treaty of Karlovci (1699). It was not until the Third Turkish War that Prince Eugene succeeded in capturing the fortress on 12 October 1716, following a siege of almost two months. Under the Treaty of Passarowitz/Požarevac (1718), Timișoara, as the capital and central fortress of the new crown land of Banat, was placed directly under the Emperor’s authority. The Viennese court decided to rebuild the destroyed city according to Baroque design principles and to surround it with a Vauban-style fortress. The city acquired the structure it retains to this day: the city centre (known as the ‘fortress’) with its grid-like layout, and four suburbs situated at intervals corresponding to the range of fire, including the ‘Fabrik’ suburb, which was vital for the economic development of the city and the entire Banat region. In 1778, Empress Maria Theresa was forced to yield to pressure from the Hungarian magnates and reintegrate the Banat into the “Territory of the Crown of St Stephen”. Timișoara was downgraded to a county town and never regained its former administrative significance. In return, in 1781 it was elevated to the status of a royal free town by Emperor Joseph II and was thus granted privileges, which gave a strong boost to its economic development right up until the end of the First World War.

A typical residential and commercial building in the ‘
’ Secession style on the south side of the ‘
’ Cathedral Square (photo: 2008) [© H. Rieser].

During the Hungarian uprising against the Habsburgs in 1848–49, Timișoara was besieged one last time (25 April–9 August 1849), before being relieved by Habsburg troops under General Haynau. Following the suppression of the struggle for freedom, the “Serbian Voivodeship and the Timiș Banat”, with Timișoara as its capital, were separated from the Kingdom of St Stephen and placed directly under Vienna as a crown land. Just eleven years later, in 1860, the Emperor was forced to restore the previous status quo, and Timișoara reverted to the status of a Hungarian county town. Although less significant politically and administratively, Timișoara played a prominent, and often pioneering, role in the economic, technical and urban development of Austria-Hungary and South-Eastern Europe during the founding years (1868–1918). The policy of Magyarisation during this period left a lesser mark on Timișoara than on other major Hungarian cities.

After the First World War, the Banat was a subject of dispute between Serbia and Romania. Timișoara was first occupied by Serbian troops on 19 November 1918, then by Romanian troops on 3 August 1919. Under the Treaty of Trianon (1920), the city, together with the north-eastern two-thirds of the Banat, was awarded to Romania. The transfer of sovereignty to the less developed Romania, the resulting severing of economic ties with the West, and the depression of the early 1930s severely hampered the city’s development during the interwar period. It was not until the pre-war and wartime economic boom that economic life briefly flourished once more.

Having been scarcely affected directly by hostilities in either of the two world wars, the city experienced prolonged periods of stagnation – and, for a short time, even regression – in the aftermath of each conflict.

In socialist Romania, Timișoara was the capital of a region and, from 1968, of a county (județ), as well as a major industrial city; however, its development was significantly hampered by the absence of key socialist industries, the presence of numerous minorities and its location on the ‘insecure’ western border.

The city’s peripheral location, its perceived insignificance in the eyes of the central authorities, and the multi-ethnic nature of its population are the reasons why the ‘revolution’ in Romania on 15 December 1989 began amongst Timișoara’s Hungarian minority. It was carried through the critical first few days by a multi-ethnic, multilingual student body – albeit one that was utterly hopeless – and ultimately brought to a successful conclusion by the working class.

Following a period of decline lasting until the mid-1990s, the city went on to develop more successfully than any other in Romania, after Bucharest (Bucureşti) and Sibiu (Hermannstadt). Its linguistic diversity and location facilitated intensive exchanges with the ‘West’, particularly with Italy, Hungary and the German-speaking world.

The municipality of Timișoara is governed by an elected city council and is represented and administered by a directly elected mayor.

Following the Ottoman conquest (1552) and again after the Habsburgs recaptured the town (1716/18), virtually the entire population was replaced on each occasion. After 1716, the town was repopulated through the posting of military personnel and civil servants, as well as by recruiting craftsmen and merchants. Since then, it has grown almost continuously. There were particular surges in population due to the influx of labour during the ‘Gründerzeit’ between 1880 and 1910 (with the population rising from 33,000 to 72,000) and by socialist industrialisation between 1948 and 1992 (from 112,000 to 330,000 inhabitants). This growth experienced brief periods of stagnation during the crisis of 1873, during both World Wars and in the 1990s.

In 2011, Timișoara had a population of 301,761. This makes it the third-largest city in Romania after Bucharest (București) and Cluj-Napoca.

Following its recapture in 1716–18, Timișoara was quickly repopulated for military and mercantilist reasons. On the one hand, the city and its surrounding area took in the influx of refugees – mostly Orthodox Christians from the Ottoman Empire, predominantly Serbs, but also Romanians and Bulgarians. On the other hand, the influx or secondment of people from across the Habsburg Empire was significant, mainly Germans, but also Hungarians and, to a lesser extent, Czechs, Slovaks and French. Specialists were recruited from across Europe, for example Italians (silkworm rearing, rice cultivation) or Dutch (hydraulic engineering). Since that time, Timișoara has been a city characterised by many ethnic groups, none of which, however, exercised absolute dominance until the 1960s. Initially, only German Catholics were to be settled within the fortress, but this rule was never adhered to. The names of the suburbs reveal which group predominated: ‘German Maierhöfe’, later Josephstadt, and ‘Romanian Maierhöfe’, later Elisabethstadt. The factory town, with its workshops and, later, numerous industrial enterprises, attracted workers from all groups and was therefore always the most ethnically mixed.

Alongside more than fifteen smaller groups, four major minorities have characterised the city’s population since 1718. In the 18th century, the Serbs played a more significant role, but in the 19th century their proportion fell from just over 10 per cent to around 3 per cent. Since the interwar period, they have accounted for just over 2 per cent of the population. From the mid-19th century until the First World War, the proportion of Hungarians rose from 11 per cent to 40 per cent and has been declining steadily ever since. The proportion of Romanians, who had formed the second-largest group until the 1850s, fell from 18 per cent to below 10 per cent between 1867 and the First World War; during the interwar period they accounted for around a quarter of Timișoara’s population, and after the Second World War for just over half.

From 1716 until the First World War, the German inhabitants of Timișoara constituted the most influential group economically, socially and, in most cases, politically. In numerical terms, their proportion stood at just over 50 per cent in the 18th century and between 1880 and 1900, falling to 30 per cent during the interwar period. Although the Germans were not expelled from Romania, their numbers fell by almost half after the Second World War due to the events of the war, flight and deportation to the Soviet Union. In particular, after 1977, many of them emigrated to the Federal Republic of Germany. Following the opening of the border in 1990, there was an exodus, with the result that by 1992 only 3.9 per cent of Timișoara’s population were German. Since then, their proportion has been falling steadily.

Table 1

Proportion of the four major ethnic groups in Timișoara’s total population^[1]

* Serbs, Croats, Slovenes (in 1992, Slovenes were listed under ‘other nationalities’)

Table 2

Changes in the ethnic composition of Timișoara^[2]

* Serbs, Croats, Slovenes (in 1992, Slovenes were listed under ‘other nationalities’)

To this day, the city’s economy benefits from an exceptionally fertile agricultural hinterland and from its proximity to the Banat Mountains, with their mineral resources, raw materials and semi-finished products. In parallel with the construction of the fortress, the ‘factory town’ was built to the east, housing state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. Over the course of the 19th century, these, together with larger craft workshops, developed into industrial enterprises, some of which still exist today. Food, textiles (including silk) and leather production were the most important sectors until the Second World War. These were followed by metalworking and the chemical sector, which remains significant to this day. Mechanical engineering has gained in importance over the last 150 years, with the city specialising in the electrical industry from a very early stage. Trade played a pivotal role from the very beginning, particularly the transhipment of agricultural goods from the surrounding countryside. Long-distance trade stagnated during the repeated wars, stabilised in the course of the 18th century and received a major boost with the construction of the Bega Canal (1776). Following the development of the Banat region by railways (1857), trade in foodstuffs shifted to the large villages in the surrounding countryside. Today, Timișoara is a commercial centre with international connections. In 1846, the first savings bank was established in Timișoara, followed in 1850 by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, which, apart from a break (1949–1990), has continued to exist to this day.

On 8 July 1869, a horse-drawn tramway began operating in Timișoara – the fifth of its kind in the world – which was electrified in 1899. From 1903 onwards, the electricity for this was generated at a hydroelectric power station on the Bega Canal. On 12 November 1884, Europe’s first electric street lighting was switched on here. During the communist era, Timișoara, alongside Bucharest, was home to Romania’s only international airport. After 1990, this rapidly developed into a hub for air traffic in Eastern and Central Europe.

The religious composition of the population reflects its ethnic diversity. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the largest communities were: the Roman Catholic community (1840: 51 per cent; 1880: 65 per cent; 1920: 67 per cent of the population), the Orthodox (1840: 40 per cent; 1880: 14.5 per cent; 1910: 15 per cent) and the Jewish (1840: 6 per cent; 1880: 12 per cent; 1910: 9 per cent).^[3] In 1655 – whilst the city was still under Ottoman rule – the seat of an Orthodox metropolitan is mentioned. The cathedral of today’s Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese is situated on Lloydzeile. The cathedral of the Serbian Orthodox Bishop has also stood in the city centre since the early 18th century.

In 1730, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tschanad/Cenad, which had existed since 1030 and was based in Timișoara, was re-established. In the 18th century, the cathedral and a bishop’s palace were built. The city’s Roman Catholic community is today the most ethnically diverse; its members include, amongst others, Hungarians, Germans, Bulgarians, Slovaks and Italians. Reformed believers are predominantly Hungarian, whilst Evangelicals (A. B.) are predominantly German. A Jewish community had been present in the city since 1718 and built two large synagogues. After 1989, a number of evangelical churches and movements (Baptists, Pentecostals, etc.) began to operate in Timișoara, engaging in effective outreach.

There is evidence of the first performances at the city theatre dating from 1753. From 1767 onwards, there was a permanent theatre auditorium in the ‘Raizisches Rathaus’, now known as the Lenaulyzeum. Following a fire at this theatre, the current theatre building was erected between 1873 and 1875 on the site of the former Peterwardeiner Gate – one of the first works by the later-famous Viennese architectural firm Fellner & Helmer. Following a fire in the 1920s, it was given a Neo-Brâncoveanu façade; today it is used by the Romanian Opera, the Romanian National Theatre, a Hungarian state theatre and a German state theatre.

The Banat Museum was founded in 1871; its headquarters are the medieval Hunyadi Castle, which was converted for this purpose in the 19th century.

In the Middle Ages, there were monastic schools such as that of the Franciscans, which was rebuilt in 1717; in 1725, the Jesuits established a Latin school, and state schools followed from 1770 onwards. By 1775, every district of Timișoara had schools where lessons were taught in German. From 1756, there were also schools where the language of instruction was Serbian, and later Romanian. In 1776, the ‘Timișoara Normal School’ was founded as a teacher-training college. In the 19th century, further secondary schools were opened: the Lenau Realgymnasium in 1870 and the city’s first comprehensive grammar school in 1897. School education at all levels has been provided consistently to this day in the languages of the city’s major ethnic groups. At the German Lenaulyzeum, only around 5 per cent of pupils are currently of German origin; 95 per cent are Romanian, Hungarian or of other ethnic backgrounds.

The eastern side of Loydzeile, with the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (
) at its southern end. In the foreground is the Loyd Palace (
), formerly the stock exchange, now the headquarters of Politehnica
(Photo: 2009) [© H. Rieser].

In 1920, a technical university (Polytechnikum) was founded. After the Second World War, a medical university and an agricultural university emerged from predecessor institutions. In 1962, an Institute of Educational Sciences developed into the West University (Universitatea de Vest), which has a strong focus on the humanities. All four universities still exist today, and a number of private universities have also been established since 1990.

To this day, the daily lives of the people of Timișoara are shaped by the city’s extraordinary linguistic, ethnic and religious diversity, with a wide range of cultural influences. Long-established residents of Timișoara usually speak three (Romanian, German, Hungarian), and often four (Serbian) languages, and use them in their daily lives. The German spoken in Timișoara shows clear Viennese influences.

The Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension of Christ
, with the adjoining bishop’s palace on the western side
of Cathedral Square in Timișoara (photo: 2008)
[© H. Rieser].

The city centre features a classic Baroque grid layout and, like the older districts, is characterised by Baroque and, in some cases, Neo-Baroque buildings. The Roman Catholic and Serbian Orthodox cathedrals on Cathedral Square are outstanding examples of religious architecture, whilst the Governor’s Palace, the Old Town Hall and the Mercy House are significant secular buildings from this architectural period. During the Gründerzeit period, several buildings in the Secession style were erected, for example along Lloydzeile. Two water towers and the Art Nouveau-style hydroelectric power station are notable examples of functional buildings typical of this era. During the interwar period, individual buildings in the Bauhaus style were erected on the Glacis, which was gradually being developed. Furthermore, the two endpoints of the city’s present-day main street, Piaţa Victoriei (formerly Lloydzeile or Korso), date from this period: the theatre façade (1920s) and the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral (1936–1948) in the so-called Brâncoveanu style.

As in all major cities of the Habsburg Empire, the theatre and musical life of Timișoara was strongly influenced by the Viennese arts scene and supported by civil servants and military personnel posted there, as well as by the German-speaking citizenry. The Timișoara Music Society was founded in 1858, followed by the Banat Philharmonic in 1871. Choirs were soon established among all ethnic groups and in the city’s various districts.

The first printing works in Timișoara was founded in 1771 by Matthias Heimerl, who also published the Banat’s first newspaper, the *Timișoara News*, in the same year. Thereafter, there was a vibrant and rapidly changing press landscape in the four main languages, as well as in the languages of smaller minority groups (e.g. the Bulgarians). In some cases, there were bilingual and trilingual publications, and even during the socialist era, newspapers and magazines were printed in at least the four languages.

Timișoara is bidding to be named European Capital of Culture for 2020.

The Romanian-Hungarian conflict flares up from time to time, but the town is not a suitable arena for it, given the consistently small Hungarian population and the historically small Romanian population as well – in contrast to the often ‘bipolar’ towns of Transylvania.
After the Second World War, a dispute arose within the Banat Swabian community over the German name. The elites, who were more strongly influenced by nationalism and, in some cases, National Socialism, and who had lived in the ‘Reich’ during the war and in the post-war period^[4] wanted to impose the ‘German’ name Temeschburg, which had long been used in the Federal Republic of Germany as the official name, for example when stating place of birth on identity documents. Those who used the name Temeswar were not infrequently reviled by this group as ‘Madjarone’, i.e. as pro-Hungarian, whilst other circles accused them of nationalism for not using the official Romanian name ‘Timişoara’. Today, the name Temeswar, used by the Banat people living in Romania, has become established; it is also used on Habsburg maps and in Schiller’s *Wallenstein* trilogy.

• Ernő Deák: Royal Free Cities – Municipal Cities. Urban Administration in the Lands of the Hungarian Crown (1780–1918). Part 2/1: Selected Materials on Urban Administration A. Vienna 1989 (Austrian Academy of Sciences. Publications of the Commission for Economic, Social and Urban History 4), pp. 311–317.
• Ioan Munteanu, Rodica Munteanu: Timişoara [Temeswar]. Timişoara 2002.
• Mihai Opriş: Timişoara. A Brief Urban Monograph [Temeswar. A Brief Urban Monograph]. Bucharest 1987.
• Hans-Heinrich Rieser: Temeswar. A geographical description of the capital of the Banat. Sigmaringen 1992 (Series of the Institute of History and Regional Studies 1).
• Hans-Heinrich Rieser: Timişoara – the multi-ethnic capital of the Banat. In: Frauke Kraas, Jörg Stadelbauer (eds.): Nationalities and Minorities in Central and Eastern Europe. Vienna 2002 (Ethnos 60), pp. 100–117.
• Consiliul Popular al Municipiului Timişoara (ed.), Ştefan Pascu (ed.): Timişoara 700. Pagini din trecut şi de azi [700 Years of Timişoara. Pages from the Past and Present]. Timişoara 1969.
• Martin Eichler, Dan Leopold Ciobotaru, Martin Rill: Temeswar/Timişoara. A Pearl of the Banat. Munich 2010.

• www.primariatm.ro/index.php (Timișoara City Council)

[1] Source: up to 1910 from Rieser: Timișoara. Geographical Description, p. 86; from 1930 onwards calculated using data from the 1992 census; 2002: information provided by Timișoara City Council.

[2] Source: Calculated based on data from the 1992 census.

[3] Deák: Royal Free Cities, p. 314.

[4] In the Banat and Transylvania, people continued to refer to the ‘Reich’ long after the Second World War when they meant the German heartland, specifically the Federal Republic of Germany.

Hans-Heinrich Rieser: Temeswar/Timişoara. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2013. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/54429.html (accessed 4 March 2013).