Onisifor Ghibu

Onisifor Ghibu
Born	May 31, 1883(1883-05-31)
Died	October 3, 1972(1972-10-03) (aged 89)

Onisifor Ghibu (May 31, 1883 – October 3, 1972) was a Romanian teacher of pedagogy, member of the Romanian Academy, and politician.

Biography

Early life

Born into a peasant family in Sălişte, near Sibiu, Transylvania (then known as Hermannstadt, and part of Austria-Hungary), he attended the Hungarian language high school in Sibiu and then the Romanian language gymnasium in Braşov (Kronstadt). Afterwards, he continued his studies at the Romanian Orthodox Seminary in Sibiu, where he received stipends for study at the University of Bucharest and the University of Budapest. He also studied in Strasbourg and received his doctorate in Philosophy and Pedagogy from the University of Jena in 1909.

World War I and interwar

Sfatul Ţării Palace, December 10, 1918

In 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, Ghibu fled to the Old Kingdom and, after Romania joined the Entente side, the Hungarian Military Tribunal in Kolozsvár sentenced him to death in absentia for desertion.^[1]

In December 1916, after the occupation of Bucharest by the Central Powers, he and his family took refuge at Iaṣi. In March 1917, he moved to Bessarabia, which was part of the Russian Empire

Throughout the Romanian Campaign and the Russian Revolution, Ghibu was active in the national Romanian movement which eventually led to the creation of a Moldavian Democratic Republic, which joined Greater Romania.

Between 1919 and 1940, he was a professor at the University of Cluj (now Babeş-Bolyai University).

Life under communism

Upon the close of World War II, with the outbreak of Soviet occupation, Ghibu was arrested on March 22, 1945, and subsequently imprisoned in the internment camp at Caracal, where he spent 222 days.

After the establishment of the communist regime in Romania, he was again arrested (December 10, 1956), and initially sentenced to 5 years in prison for organizing a rally of students at the seminary, which was inspired by the Hungarian Revolution and deemed an "action against the democratic people's regime of the People's Republic of Romania". Incarcerated successively in the prisons of Văcăreşti, Sibiu and Făgăraş, he was released after 2 years, on January 13, 1958.

References

1. ^ (Romanian) Revista de istorie Agero-Stuttgart, http://www.agero-stuttgart.de%2FREVISTA-AGERO%2FISTORIE%2FORIGINI%2520I.pdfPDF, accessed on July 11, 2011

External links

• (Romanian) Ilarion Ţiu, "A cui este ţara aceasta?", in Jurnalul Naţional, August 29, 2005
• (Romanian) Onisifor Ghibu at the Sighet Memorial

Persondata
Name	Ghibu, Onosifor
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 31, 1883
Place of birth
Date of death	October 3, 1972
Place of death