Rumänien und seine Regionen: zwischen Mitteleuropa und dem Osten

Abstract

The radical political change in Europe that began in 1989 has also changed the situation in Romania which formerly belonged to the Eastern bloc. As so often in her history Romania today has again become a country situated between Central Europe and the East. Central European influences as far as climate, land use, population and economy are concerned are perceptible chiefly in the part of the country situated west of the mountain arc of the Carpathians. Influences from the East (East Europe, Southeast Europe/Turkey) are especially intensive in the regions situated beyond the Carpathians. Central European influences are strongest on the western and central regions: West Romania with the towns of Timisoara and Oradea, the Romanian Western Mountains (Muntii Apuseni), and Transylvania situated in the Centre with the towns of Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu and Brasov. The effects of century-old links with Central Europe are reflected in the appearance of the Transylvanian towns and villages as well as in the existence of a large Hungarian and a strongly decreased German population minority. The Romanian Eastern and Southern Carpathians form a barrier between the regions under Central European and eastern influences. This zone is inhabited almost exclusively by Romanians. As far as climate, culture, and history are concerned, the Romanian heartlands of Walachia (Tara Romaneasca, subdivided into Oltenia and Muntenia) and Moldavia (Romanian, Moldavia, Moldova) adjoining to the south and east are more closely connected with East Europe. Until the 19th century they were ruled by the Ottoman Empire. The most important towns are Bucharest (Bucuresti) and Jassy (Iasi). Finally, until the 2nd half of the 19th century the Dobrudja (Dobrogea) with the port town of Constanta had followed an independent path of development the traces of which can still be found in the appearance of some coastal places and in the existence of several small non-Romanian ethnic groups. Since 1990 eastern Moldavia which (with interruptions) belonged to Russia or the Soviet Union respectively and is inhabited in the main by Romanian-speaking people has been a state of its own - the Republic of Moldova. (In Romania it is preferably called Bessarabia in order to distinguish it from the Romanian Moldavia.) The high proportion of Russian and Ukrainian population in the largest Moldavian towns of Kishinev and Tiraspol reflects the lasting influence of the "East" on the most eastern part of the Romanian language area. As a whole, the national territory of Romania as well as the Romanian language area represent an area inhabited and shaped by Romanians the understanding of which requires knowledge of the manifold historical and current influences from Central Europe, East Europe and the Regions adjoining to the southeast.