Sextil Pușcariu

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Sextil Iosif Pușcariu (4 January 1877 – 5 May 1948) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian linguist and philologist, also known for his involvement in administrative and party politics. A native of Brașov educated in France and Germany, he was active in Transylvania's cultural life and worked as a Romanian-language professor at Czernowitz in the Duchy of Bukovina. He began his scholarly career in 1906, when he was tasked with compiling a general dictionary of the Romanian language. Interested in a variety of disciplines, Pușcariu published widely and brought new ideas into Romania, as well as overseeing two monumental projects related to the language: advancing his dictionary to the letter "L", and creating an atlas of the language. As a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, Pușcariu embraced the creation of Greater Romania at its conclusion, heading the department of foreign affairs in the provisional government representing Bukovina Romanians. He was also the founder of , a newspaper which helped channel Romanian nationalism in that region, and, with Ion Nistor, oversaw Bukovina's union with Romania in November 1918. Under Romanian rule, he led efforts to create a new university in Cluj, where he also set up a research institute in the same city dedicated to the study of his native language. He promoted interdisciplinary approaches, primarily by attaching a sociological focus to his studies on linguistics. Though committed to ethnic nationalism and cultural conservatism, Pușcariu embraced Europeanism during his stint at the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation. He radicalized himself during the 1920s and '30s, first by seeking to impose a Jewish quota at his university, and then by more openly supporting fascist politics. Throughout much of the interval, he chaired the Romanian Orthodox Fraternity, which identified with the mainstream church and sometimes clashed with Transylvanian Greek Catholics. With the onset of World War II, he moved to Berlin, where he led a propaganda institute meant to promote Romanian culture in the German Reich, as well as counter Hungary's justifications for absorbing Northern Transylvania in the wake of the Second Vienna Award in 1940. Pușcariu raised suspicion from his government employers, who disliked his lavish spending and his continued involvement with the rebellious Iron Guard. He was ultimately pushed to resign in 1943. After his return home, his health deteriorated while the authorities of the new Communist regime initiated legal proceedings. He refused to escape Romania and died at Bran, before he could be sentenced. Pușcariu's work was largely shunned for two decades, and his scholarly legacy was fully revived following the collapse of the regime in 1989. (Source: DBPedia)